Renny Harlin (aka. ex-Mr. Geena Davis, The Long Kiss Goodnight) may not be an artist like Paul Schrader, but his version of the prequel (Hollywood execs gave him the job after they lost faith in Schrader’s version, Dominion) is a solid movie that ultimately wins despite admittedly not having the philosophical underpinnings of the original. The pacing of Exorcist: The Beginning is superior–people aren’t suddenly nuts, but there is a slow buildup showing people as they normally are & then as they become more influenced by evil. Thankfully very little CGI is used until the end so its not as much of an embarrassing distraction as the original. And Ben Cross appears in the film & his mere appearance generally lends a bit of credibility to even the most ridiculous plot (NBC’s Dark Shadows). Even though it was better than the original as a story, it is definitely not a must see. With that said, I have to applaud all actors who appeared in both versions, especially Stellan Skarsgard! It is impressive that they were able to play the same character in completely different situations without allowing one version of the character to bleed into the other! With that said, I had some issues with the movie (SPOILER ALERT) While I appreciated that it was more scripture heavy than the original & there was an explicit reliance on the Triune God to fight the demon, I thought that it highlighted many of the negative aspects of Catholicism: the sign that the priest is really in trouble is that **gasp**, he is sexually attracted to a woman, the woman (& in past according to the film, nuns) ends up being truly possessed & unable to be saved whereas men are merely touched by evil (eye roll), the idea that the devil is really such an impressive enemy & requires so many useless rituals (the book, the church, the burial of the church, holy water, the purple sash) to be contained instead of JUST Jesus’ power, which has already been done since Jesus was on earth if you believe what the Bible says, the idea that they needed a priest instead of just a bunch of Holy Spirit filled Christians & the priest was there as a more experienced expert, which I know isn’t THE POINT (called the Exorcist, not The Exorcist & Bunch of Christians from around the block), but I think that I’m getting tired of this type of genre for these reasons.