3 out of 5

Director: Paul Etheredge

In its original webisode format, Angel of Death was pretty spectacular in its use of budget and stylized look, as well as doing a good job of getting down to the nitty grit of each character pretty quickly. Due to these pluses, though, when strung together the movie wears a little thin. Angel of Death was created and written by comic scribe Ed Brubaker (admittedly the reason I watched it), who has made a name for himself by stringing classic noir themes into normally straight-laced books. So a brand-spankin new concept wasnt exactly the goal here, so much as it was to try Brubakers knack for noir in a new format. And thus the plot of Angel of Death: a hitwoman turns to the good side after being haunted by the victims of her last hit-gone-wrong. There are enough splashes of life to keep things fun – the intro sequence of that last hit is a great rush, and the main bad guy is a GREAT job of casting and acting the creepy part just right. And, as mentioned the use of budget is awesome: Zoe Bell makes her action sequences ring out very true and there are some pretty spectacular stunts and shot-ideas (lighting, angles) for a web-series. Alas, the cracks are in the fact that you just cant care too much. The episodes string together well, but the original format meant that time for plotting was nil, so you have a lot of surface and some cliched moments. So all in all: perfectly average, but better as separate episodes. Itd be interesting to see Brubaker and director Etheredge try something meant to be a full-length film.