Plot Summary
Based on complicated relationship webs from the book of Genesis, a collection of high school students is forced decide what they truly believe about love. As they navigate the complex landscape before them, the choices they make will impact them for the rest of their lives.
Production Quality (.5 point)
This production has a lot of terrible aspects to it, such as the loud soundtrack that often overpowers audio and the weird aspect ratios. Camera work is often shaky, and video quality is sometimes blurry. The sets, locations, and props are mostly cheap, and some unnecessarily tight shots cut things off. Outside scenes are too bright at times, and flashbacks have weird sepia tone quality to them. Very slight improvement as the film progresses is the only thing keeping this section from zero, but it’s not enough to bring the movie out of its nosedive.
Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)
Love 101: Freshman Class continues the worn-out trope of modernly repurposed Bible stories and makes things especially awkward by throwing them into a high school setting and mixing them all up. Besides the weak premise, however, the plot relies on unlikely and random things occurring just to suit its means, which creates unclear direction and purpose. Otherwise, characters stand around in scenes to stiffly recite lines and participate in empty conversations. Mindless dialogue leads to aimless characters, including perfect characters who constantly spout Scripture and talk down to all the “bad” people, trying to force them to act right in their own strength. Some characters are magically fixed after well-timed sermons that contain a lot of in-your-face, things-are-much-worse-these-days messaging. Events in the narrative move very quickly to rush toward a desired conclusion and even present a laughable portrayal of criminal procedure that only exists in play acting. In the end, the bizarre ending has the audacity to suggest that more of these awful movies could be made, which we hope never happens.
Acting Quality (0 points)
It’s evident that this cast was poorly coached as most performances are robotic. Line delivery is quite unsure, and emotions are awkwardly forced. There’s also a lot of squinting in outside scenes, and the makeup work is low quality. Thus, this rounds out another terrible effort in the Christian entertainment world.
Conclusion
It seems like one has to try really hard to make a film this bad. Aside from the obvious budget problems, the central message of this screenplay is that a Christian teenager just needs to try harder to act right and that those who “act bad” just don’t listen to enough sermons. This is legalism at is core and isn’t something we need to see in Christian movies. Therefore, we hope that the advent of these types of offerings has come and gone.
Final Rating: .5 out of 10 points
Box Office Revolution 