My wife and I are big fans of Christian films. It is so hard to find entertainment that is not over-ripe with offensive and vulgar material. We support almost every film that comes out in the "Christian" category in hopes to further the industry. So, we bought the DVD. That being said...
I want my $25 back. I saw an interview with the director who touted the fact that they filmed in multiple countries/locations and spend so much money making this film. That money was wasted. I cannot understand how so many are praising this film other than the desire to further this genre or present our Lord's message... this film does neither!
1st of all... it should be categorized as a foreign film because more than half of it isn't in English. What WAS is English was empty... you could remove the entire English speaking part an not loose any of what little substantive message there was.
2nd... we accept that when it comes to our Christian films, the plot and dialog is often somewhat less in refinement than the mainstream multimillion dollar productions. This is understandable - less money to play with, fewer seasoned and skilled contributors. It would have served this film immeasurably well to have spent just a little money the script, plot, dialog... something! The story meanders, is incongruent, doesn't make sense at times, is sophomoric in it's structure... I don't know where to stop. This film is DEFINITELY not something I would recommend to someone if I want them to WANT to watch more Christian films!
Lastly... as with the previous subject, acting is often lacking in Christian films as well. No exception here although there were some notable exceptions. The Spanish speaking crew, I think, did a pretty good job as did... well, the Spanish speaking crew did well.
In conclusion... beautiful scenery, decent cinematography, and lots of hype do not make up for lack of substance, poor dialog, anemic spiritual message, and a dizzying amount of disjointed storyline crammed together. If EVER there is a film to NOT support for the benefit of the genre... this is it.
In my opinion. :)
I want my $25 back. I saw an interview with the director who touted the fact that they filmed in multiple countries/locations and spend so much money making this film. That money was wasted. I cannot understand how so many are praising this film other than the desire to further this genre or present our Lord's message... this film does neither!
1st of all... it should be categorized as a foreign film because more than half of it isn't in English. What WAS is English was empty... you could remove the entire English speaking part an not loose any of what little substantive message there was.
2nd... we accept that when it comes to our Christian films, the plot and dialog is often somewhat less in refinement than the mainstream multimillion dollar productions. This is understandable - less money to play with, fewer seasoned and skilled contributors. It would have served this film immeasurably well to have spent just a little money the script, plot, dialog... something! The story meanders, is incongruent, doesn't make sense at times, is sophomoric in it's structure... I don't know where to stop. This film is DEFINITELY not something I would recommend to someone if I want them to WANT to watch more Christian films!
Lastly... as with the previous subject, acting is often lacking in Christian films as well. No exception here although there were some notable exceptions. The Spanish speaking crew, I think, did a pretty good job as did... well, the Spanish speaking crew did well.
In conclusion... beautiful scenery, decent cinematography, and lots of hype do not make up for lack of substance, poor dialog, anemic spiritual message, and a dizzying amount of disjointed storyline crammed together. If EVER there is a film to NOT support for the benefit of the genre... this is it.
In my opinion. :)