The Shift: El Gran Cambio

This film is a parallel to Job from the Bible. Truth is, watching this film made me feel like I was being punished. It was that bad. I felt like I was Job. I leaned over to my wife and asked if she wanted to leave the theater. In our fifteen years of marriage I have never done that. The film was too long. Too boring. Too scattered. Didn't make sense. And lacked cohesion and rhythm. It's hard to describe how bad it was. I do like some of the messages portrayed here. But it was essentially a mix of Dr Strange, hallmark, marvel multiverse, and a Christian background. It didn't feel like a sci-fi or a romance or a drama. It didn't know what it was. So it ended up being very poor.

A weird dystopian sci-fi story with a heavy focus on its religiously inspired plot. The story has substance and with strong acting performances and a somewhat realistic 'police state' setting it makes for compelling viewing, but it also overcomplicates itself by trying to fit in too much. The heavy emphasis on religious allegory, romance, drama and action scenes are all good, but I found it to be a bit boring. Some of the subtle special effects were good whereas others looked cheap, the overly loud music drowned out the atmosphere and the ending, whilst expected, felt a bit of a cop out.

6/10.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I heard about this movie. I almost didn't go to the screening; I don't see many movies in theaters anyway. I am so glad I went to see this movie in the theater. It's deep, impactful, and has stuck with me for days. I'm not necessarily a sci-fi or faith movie fan, and you don't need to be to enjoy this movie. Its faith element is very subtle. I plan to see the movie again on opening weekend in theaters with a couple of friends. The woman who plays the lead in the movie was absolutely breathtaking. If you want to see a real, heartfelt, well-made film this year, don't miss this one.

I enjoyed it, but it was a little far out, but it is a sci-fi. It was clean. No nudity or bad language that I remember. There was some screaming, extreme anger, and violence. My emotions were all over the place. It was full of ups and downs. Loved the acting from every character. Great love story in many ways. The movie was a bit slow and depressing in some parts. Maybe by design but I think the slowness went on a little too long causing my crew to start loosing interest. There were also to many unanswered questions. But all in all it was a great night out with the family. Provoked a good conversation. Go support the film and these great film makers.

6.6 stars.

I waited a bit over a year to watch this, because I really wanted to see it, but not until after the hype wore off. So I finally bit the bullet, and these are my unbiased opinions.

First of all, there was too much hype surrounding this film and I have no idea why. The story is splintered into three or four different themes and unfortunately none of them are impactful. Let me explain. The first aspect is multiverse. Ok, well, if you want to combine a multiverse with Christianity, you really need to sell it much better. Instead, they offer us a gimmick in the form of a borderline low-budget atmosphere. Now, don't get me wrong, you can tell this is not low-budget, but the script and pace make it seem that way, which is unfortunate. What we have are a crew of filmmakers who know sci-fi, but they don't have a grasp on high quality scriptwriting and flow (probably the director's fault). It's obvious that amateurs who specialize in decent sci-fi, decided to add a Christian twist, or maybe it's the other way around. The special effects were good, but for some reason the religious parts were lost in the mix. You can't have a man running around in an alternate universe accomplishing nothing for a full hour and expect us to come away satisfied, or fulfilled. His good works were not very convincing and seemed lost in the setting. We weren't getting the message.

The devil aspect is acted well and seems ominous enough, however it's cliche, cheesy at times, and doesn't make sense. Benefactor gets angry at a stubborn man, and supposedly this stubborn man isn't supposed to be so disagreeable, he's supposed to be one of the "good guys". It's a fragment that we never see the solution to.

And what's the point of the blinking back and forth between universes? You will see there is absolutely no point to it. What's gained, what's lost? What agenda does Satan have with it? It is for display only with no endgame. And the part where the main character can view different things in a movie theater (don't want to spoil it, so I'll be vague with this). There is no point to that part of the plot.

The best part is when he makes a couple of good decisions, and that's when you see a bit of good vs evil that makes sense.

The music sold the experience, but it's the only redeeming aspect of the whole film.

And to touch on the good vs evil stuff a bit more, it would be nice if life really was like that. And the sprinkling of little miracles here and there was a good addition, but it also gets lost in the utter nonsense of their attempt to allegorize the book of Job from the Bible. Honestly, I don't think it's anything like the book of Job and I'm pretty certain the writers didn't intend it to be. And also, Job from the Bible did not lose his wife.

If I had never of this film previously, I'd not hesitate to say it's a fragmented failure, B-rated at best. But I had some expectations (because Polaha is a beloved Hallmark male lead regular), so I'll say it's not a B-rated failure, but more of a religious/sci-fi fusion failure.