Gabriel in Mythology does the kindness of God, but in the Prophecy, Christopher Walken's Gabriel is more of a celestial Terminator- nigh unstoppable, except apparently by modern technology. He is forced to seek out humans at the point of death and "stop" them -delaying their death for as long as he wants- to use as servants to do mundane tasks such as driving him or using a computer. At times Gabriel is Chilling, at times Tragic, at times Darkly Funny("it's not personal- it's business") but whenever he is on the screen, he dominates it. He compels us to watch him, and his fall, and finally his rise in the third movie.
Michael is a comedy, more than that, it's a Nora Ephron comedy. The Tagline is "he's an angel, not a saint". We first See Michael as an obese, chain-smoking dirty man in boxers, living in a roadside motel with an older lady. Oh, let me add - With Wings - the prosthetics on this were pretty decent for the genre and time the movie was made. Michael seems like a hedonist- a "Grass Roller"- hiding out on earth because he likes the atmosphere, but he has a subtle purpose in being there, which he carries out by forcing the reporters who have come to see him to go on a lengthy road trip. Travolta's Michael has a sly wisdom about him, and is not above a head trip along with the road trip
There are a lot of movies about Angels-T.V. too- From It's a Wonderful Life and the Bishops Wife to the contemporary, such as Legion and Supernatural, our take on angels runs the Gamut from Saccharine Sweet to Sinister. We don't really know what to do with Angels, I guess, but they spur our imagination and our dreams. Whether we have them showing us our life's work and putting it in perpective, or winning a baseball game, or stalking us mercilessly, blood in their eyes, they do catch our attention
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