The Allegoric Hegemony

This 2010 adaptation of Philip Jose Farmer’s Riverworld stars Tohmoh Penikett as reporter Matt Ellman who is killed in a suicide bombing only to wake up and find himself on the bank of a seemingly endless river along with not only other blast survivors but resurrected people from throughout Earth’s history.  To find his lost girlfriend, Matt teams up with Mark Twain (Mark Deklin) who’s operating a fusion powered riverboat.  The two run afoul of Richard Burton (Peter Wingfield), the explorer, not the actor, who wants the riverboat to take him to the source of the resurrection power.  A much better adaptation than the 2003 version, and not just because Penikett spends much of it half naked and strapped to a table.  Thea Gill (Dante’s Cove) and Alan Cumming (X-Men 2, Ghost Writer) appear as “Caretakers”, mysterious blue aliens who run the Riverworld but belonging to different factions fighting over the world they created.  Also of interest is the gay couple played by Matthew MacCaull and Matty Finochio who are on again off again members of the quest.