There's nothing immediately spectacular about Dominion that has me raving about it, but its entertaining, and has some very nice cinematography. There's a well developed world, and its unique to the premise, and the visuals are no doubt inspired in part by baroque and renaissance art. Its actually quite different from Legion, though it takes place around 2 decades after the events in the movie, it explores a lot more and humanizes the villains and their motivations. I actually like dominion more than the movie because it paints the "8 balls" as they've come to be called, as more than monsters.
Basically the premise is, the archangel Gabriel led the host of lower angels in a war against humanity, basically blaming them for god leaving, just like Lucifer did millennia before, and Michael was the only angel to stand against them and defend humanity, helping to found the city of Vega and protect them from the possessed humans, who basically destroy most of the world, minus a few well protected cities. His solution isn't perfect, and what was meant to be a temporary caste system ends up in a full blown economic segregation leaving the ultra rich living in luxury, with the poor and abandoned living in squalor beneath. Over the years word has spread about a "chosen one" who will save mankind and end the war, with some believers, and some believing it is nothing more than a fantasy. Enter the main character, who grows up a penniless orphan, enlisting in the military just to have something to eat, who finds out he is the child they had spoken of. And then there's the higher ranks of angels who don't have black eyes, and sometimes bear wings, who up until that point hadn't been forced to pick a side.
There's definitely some movie clichés in there, but they play out in a way thats somewhat new and interesting, and touch on some topics that haven't been covered. One of the things that i like about this series is the main antagonist is a part of the ruling bureaucracy, and despite being your cliché diabolical politician, everyone basically sees through his bullshit already and tells him to cut the crap whenever he starts spouting off some lies or blackmail. Its a nice change of pace to see characters who aren't stupid and overly trusting. On the other hand, i wish there was a bit more skewed logic behind gabriel's assertion "its humanities fault god left". You'd expect a bit more from a once near omniscient being thats thousands of years old. Maybe some overly complex overthought justification, nothing near that simple and small minded. At any rate i think the directors can take some hints from the show supernatural, which at some points bears a similar premise, because they've got the angel mindset down to a science already. But its nice to see they're taking it in a different direction, and i'd be curious to see if Gabriel has any plans to release Lucifer from the pit to fight along side him. It'd certainly be in his favor.
All in all, its pretty good. The cinematography is probably the best part about this show, its very deep, saturated, elegant and classical. The opening titles especially reflect the theme, that this show might be something you'd see through the frame of a renaissance painting, rather than something of the modern age.
