The Lost Mantle of Elijah

Elijah’s mantle is an ancient biblical legend similar to the likes of the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail featured in the Indiana Jones franchise. It is a miracle working cloak that Elijah passed on to his servant Elisha when he is told that his time on earth is over and that he shall be taken by chariot to heaven. It is believed that this cloak had powers to grant miracles yet was lost following Elisha, and ‘The Lost Mantle of Elijah’ depicts the fictional struggle to rediscover its mystery.

The film opens with a loud dramatic overture, that sounds more like that of a typical sci-fi adventure like Star Trek than it does a swashbuckling faith based epic. We are then given e prologue that attempts to set the scene of the film for us, however, this prologue is so cheesy and overdramatic that combined with far too much of an overland of exposition, the audience has already lost interest and belief in the quality of the film before the adventure it depicts has even begun.

It is laughably overdramatic throughout, not helped by its loud overbearing score, which hits all the beats of a classic adventurous biblical epic but feels like cheap imitation, especially when were you to remove the score, the film would lack any of that same sense of grandeur. It’s special and visual effects can only be described as amateur at best, removing any possibility of immersion with how blatantly false they are. Furthermore, the practical sets, when used, feel constructed and lack authenticity, giving the impression of a hollow world not lived in at all.

The central character is a young teenage boy called Kai (Louis Levi) who receives the mantle from the spirit of a murdered king that wants him to raise him from the dead. It becomes far too potty and convoluted too quickly, with a whole host of supporting characters played by the likes of Andrew McHale, Paul Sugars, Andreia Aguiar, Eaoifa Forward and Tayo Oyekoya appearing on his quest to restore the mantle’s powers. None of these characters have a remotely endearing personality. This isn’t helped by either the poor writing, which lacks subtext and sounds as though it were generated by artificial intelligence, or the acting, which is stiff and robotic, with hefty pauses sometimes between lines of dialogue in conversation as actors struggle to form any chemistry with one another.


The film is written and directed by Lewis Critchley, and though the directing is perhaps of a slightly higher quality than the screenplay, it is nonetheless bland and uninteresting. ‘The Lost Mantle of Elijah’ makes for a turgid watch, it is too bogged down in its plot that it forgets that swashbuckling adventures are supposed to be fun. This is anything but that.