I think the producers must have got their friends to write five star reviews - or I was watching a totally different movie!
Anyway, this isn't too bad for a low-budget amateur production, but the same old 101 mistakes are rife throughout. It is not as though guidance for up-and-coming film makers is hard to find - it is everywhere.
First - SOUND! Again and again and again so many films like this fall down when it comes to reasonable quality sound. At times it is near impossible to hear dialogue, and at other times the sound jumps incomprehensibly between cuts or the levels are not taken care of properly in post. If the boom doesn't do the job then use radio mics for goodness sake. In some scenes the boom operator does a good job, then in the next it is totally awful.
Second - acting. Most of the acting was OK for an amateur production, but it was clear to see the difference between more seasoned actors - especially in the delivery of dialogue. Sometimes it seemed as though direction was seriously lacking and less experience actors were left to their own devices - which they tried to do as best a job of as they could.
Third - lighting and colour grading. Another very mixed bag. Sometimes the scenes were really well lit and graded and at other times it was damn awful. There didn't seem to be any consistency in approach or quality. There just isn't any excuse for this with the tools available now.
Lastly, editing and story. It wasn't a bad story, but was perhaps a little too ambitious for a low-budget/amateur production. I can see what was trying to be achieved, but the lack of attention to detail just didn't pull it off. Perhaps it would have been much better if the more demanding scenes (that required effects and fights) were simplified and placed in a more real-world context.
Not a bad film, but could have been better in very basic ways through attention to detail, even with the constraints of time and budget.
