Prodigy

Okay, so first off I had no idea this was a Christian film before I watched it, I thought I was watching a low budget indie psychological thriller, instead I got this terrible piece of crap. I don't follow a religion, I can handle religious movies so long as they don't preach too much. This one did, but this is not why I'm giving it such a low rating. It earns it's low rating by failing on almost every technical, logical and entertainment level. Honestly there is so much to hassle about this movie I don't really know where to start. Despite tonnes of forced exposition the plot makes little to no sense. Characters do and say things for no reason, apart from faith, or an evil lack thereof. Essentially a father and son run and hide from an evil faithless government official who is about as threatening as a box of tissues. They encounter people with faith who help them, or people without faith who hinder them. There is no subtlety, christians are good, everyone else is bad. Every single character is a cliche you have seen somewhere else in a better film. There are no stakes, no tension, because god will intervene whenever anything bad happens. The film is poorly shot, long tracking shots are juddery and jumpy because they don't have the equipment to properly film them. The old hiding behind a log when the soldier would clearly be able to see you pops up all to often. A sniper who can hit someone in the head in a moving vehicle, through the windshield front on, can't hit the passengers in the car because he's to the left of the vehicle. Yet somehow I guess the devil curved his bullet to go round to the front of the car to hit the driver? Sure, makes as much sense as the rest of the film. Dialogue is forced and cheesy, badly delivered by people who really want to do a good job, but just don't have the skills to pull it off. One of the most annoying aspects of the film, is Embry Johnson as Caleb. The dude is going through puberty, and his voice sounds like the acne covered nervous teen from The Simpsons who's voice is permanently breaking. He is so distracting and awful sounding, and can't act to boot. Just wait a few months for his voice to settle, or cast someone else. Every line he utters is fingernails down a blackboard. This film is an utter waste of time, totally garbage, and I watched the whole goddamn thing because I'm stubborn. I'm now angry having thought about this film this much!