Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy - Not the Kind of Adaptation that Fans of the Web Novel Expected but Still Entertaining Enough for Casual Audience

This movie had been promoted in various Indonesian cinema social media for the past few weeks. While I was intrigued with the premise, my wife was more interested with the famous cast in the film. Although it was released since mid of the week, we only got the chance to see it yesterday. All right then, let's get on with the film.

Brief Story Line

Kim Dok-ja (Ahn Hyo-seop - Business Proposal, Dr. Romantic 2 TV series etc) was a normal working man and major fan of apocalyptic fantasy novel titled "Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World". While going home with his co-worker Sang-ah (Chae Soo-bin - Hijack 1971, When the Phone Rings etc), somehow they were transported to the world just like in the novel. Using his complete knowledge of the story, Dok-ja was able to survive the imminent danger by fighting against the monsters and coordinate with other people like the soldier Hyun-sung (Shin Seung-ho - Pilot, Weak Hero Class 1 TV series etc) & the young boy named Eun-son (Lee Gil-young - Citizen of a Kind etc). However his effort to convince the original hero of the novel Joong-hyuk (Lee Min-ho - The Bounty Hunter, Pachinko TV series etc) to cooperate was not that easy.

As they progressed further and the challenge become more deadly, Dok-ja and friends met with other survivors who had to compete against the rest to survive, such as the strong fighter Hee-won (Nana - Confession, My Man is Cupid TV series etc) and the sniper Lee Ji-hye (Jisoo - Dr. Cheon and The Lost Talisman, Snowdrop TV series etc). 

So what would happen to them? You could find out in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

I read that this movie was adapted from the highly popular web novel titled Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint by SingNSong with a huge fanbase. Since my wife and I never read it, we saw this with open mind cause we did not have any prior knowledge of the story at all. Turned out we were able to enjoy the film due to its interesting fantasy background and most of it all, we felt the intensity of seeing the protagonists fighting various monsters. Despite several times the CGI seemed rather obvious, but in general they were still within the acceptable level.

Watching this movie in the studio with good sound effect certainly added entertainment value as the sound of swords slashed/pierced through the monsters' body, gunshot & loud explosions felt quite realistic. Being fan of Role Playing Game in various platform also made me enjoyed this film better cause it felt like being in a game myself, particularly the upgrading system of strength, weapons, armors etc and the use of coins. The intensity was also plus point for us especially when the lead characters had to fight multiple danger from inside and outside.

Half way through the movie, both of us already foresaw that it would not be possible to complete the whole story even though it already had long duration of 117 minutes. Which was why we were not surprised to see such ending. There was a mid end credit scene that teased future plot but no post end credit scene. Unfortunately this film was not well received by fans of the web novel. In fact due to strong negative word of mouth, it failed to perform well in term of Box Office and I think it would be challenging if not impossible to have subsequent movies in future. So there is strong chance we would not be able to have proper conclusion. My wife's niece did tell me that there would be animated adaptation of this web novel which probably would be better accepted by fans who trashed this film (including her). Maybe making into a series would be more satisfying for them as the story & characters could be explored in depth and honoring the web novel.

For a movie such as this, the characters also played important part. In addition to the names above, there were also appearances of Choi Young-joon (Gyeongseong Creature TV series, The Trunk mini series etc) as legislator Han, Park Ho-san (Project Wolf Hunting, Han River Police TV series etc) as Pil-du and few others. I have no problems at all with the cast who tried their best in performing their roles. Sadly from what I read, they were complained due to different characterization from the web novel. The movie itself was directed by Kim Byung-woo (Take Point, Written etc) and written by him together with Lee Jeong-min. 

From the point of view of neutral audience, my wife and I did enjoy this movie due to its action and intensity. We liked seeing the protagonists fighting against monsters. Even though the CGI might not be too spectacular, but there were a lot more out there worse than this. So if you are fans of the original novel, I do not think recommending this to you would be a good idea. However if you are casual audience like us and looking for some fun seeing fantasy movie with some cool action sequence (best was that climax fight and the scenario of green light floor which somehow felt like something from Squid Game), then you might be able to enjoy this like we did. The choice is yours.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars