One of the best elements of The Awakening is the incredible atmosphere. You can feel the mystic power of ancient Egypt and the spirit of whatever is left in the tomb that is desecrated.
Charlton Heston's character says it himself. You have to be there to understand the beauty of the light and scenery. And luckily, the viewer does get to see a little of the magic that exists there. As beautiful as the scenery and the atmosphere is as ugly is the execution and build-up of tension. For most of the time, the pace is far too slow, with events consisting of brutal killings that barely have an effect on the main characters. I mean, the supposedly accidental deaths almost seemed like they were pretty common. Charlton Heston is in bad form here. Although one could argue that even Heston on a bad day is still decent. Or could it be that he doesn't feel at home in this genre? The latter seems the most likely. Now the story does touch on certain taboos. And in that aspect, Charlton carries himself quite well. Graceful even. Even Stephanie Zimbalist manages not to overact too much, especially since her role does demand it in parts. But it all works in her favour. Only it's not enough. And to top it off, we get an ending that is so boring and cliché that it takes away from the one thing that was excellent in the movie, which was the atmosphere. I don't know, I at least expected the sky to become red or something. Sadly, it wasn't meant to be.
Overall, not a completely bad movie, but it will require a lot of patience to fully enjoy it.
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