Tanya Batson-Savage, Freelance Writer

Steven Strait stars as Caleb in a scene from the movie 'The Covenant'. - Contributed

It is within the realm of possibility that The Covenant could have been a good movie. That is, it could have been a good movie, if someone had remembered to write it. The Covenant, however, manages to never amount to more than a mediocre teenflick with some magic in it, but with no magic to it.

The Covenant is directed by Renny Harlin and scripted by J.S. Cardone. It is the story of a group of teenagers from four families with special powers. They are rich and idle, but their hold on power is about to be threatened by a member of an ousted family. At least, that is the plot that one can piece together by the end of the flick, because it seems the writers may not have been very sure as to what they were writing about.

Attempt at eerie setting

There is some attempt to create a rather eerie setting with numerous dark corridors (as this very fancy school clearly cannot afford to foot its electricity bill); silly girls to wander down these corridors calling 'hello!'; and old ruins where desperate battles for power can take place. So, somewhere buried beneath its ruins is the possibility of an interesting flick.

Unfortunately, The Covenant is one of those flicks where pretty teens are substituted for substance. So lithesome young women who spend far too much time in their underwear, and strapping young Adonises wander about the flick helping neither plot nor characterisation, but showing lots of skin and winsome smiles.

Indeed, this flick manages to break the covenant between the audience and the movie-maker, that the audience should be entertained. Halfway through the flick it becomes quite evident that the movie is headed nowhere fast. Indeed, it soon becomes clear that you may have already passed nowhere, having only made a pit stop, and continued to drive.

The flick stars Steven Strait (as Caleb Danvers) the supposed hero. Unfortunately, his greatest offering is a pretty smile. Sebastian Stan takes on the role of Chase Collins, the flick's villain, while Laura Ramsey plays the begging-to-be-killed blonde, Sarah Wenham.

Some kudos can be given for the CGI creation of power - which was clearly influenced by The Matrix (but what contemporary action flick isn't), and though the battle scene never gets exciting, it is a lot better than the rest of the flick.

Sadly, The Covenant does not have the decency to just be all-out laughably bad. Instead it just manages to be uninteresting.