Plot Summary
John Luther is a highly successful ministry leader sometime in the near future, and he is being pressured by politicians to support a bill that would allow the government to regulate religion to ‘keep it fair’. However, John refuses to comply, and thus finds himself under intense attack from faceless enemies who seem bent on destroying him and his reputation. Injured and on the run, John will have to decide what he really believes and how he is going to defend himself.
Production Quality (2.5 points)
The main redeeming elements of this film pertain to the professional production job. It’s difficult to successfully execute a suspense production, but this team does very well. Camera work is great, especially in the action scenes, and video quality is what it should be. Audio quality is also good and the suspense soundtrack is a nice touch. Sets, locations, and props are appropriate and adequate. The only nitpick to raise here is some editing issues pertaining to the choppy presentation of this story. But in the end, this is a respectable production that should be the norm.
Plot and Storyline Quality (.5 point)
Though this suspense story has a lot of interesting ideas in it, it is too all over the place to make any sense. It’s great to have a different genre for once, but this isn’t really the way. Though the persecution premise is somewhat well-explained, it needs to be explained better so it comes off as more realistic. The protagonist is seemingly too perfect and one-dimensional, although other characters are interesting. However, several of the villains are fairly cheesy. We would have like to get to know some of these characters better; as it is, the dialogue is all over the place and does not help develop the protagonist. There are also a lot of convenient suspense turns as things happens because they need to. Too much is fixed at the end, even as the ending will leave you scratching your head. In the end, this plot needs a serious rework.
Acting Quality (1.5 points)
Though this cast is at least somewhat professional, a lot of the performances are overly dramatic. The lead actor does not do a very good job carrying his role, and a lot of the villain cast members are over the top. Emotions are slightly believable, but line delivery is sometimes unsure. In short, this is an average performance.
Conclusion
Persecuted fills a genre gap in Christian film, but that’s about the only reason why it stands out, besides professional production. Persecution premises set in modern America are always going to need a lot of explanation and justification, and this film does not necessarily succeed on that front. No matter the suspense film, this genre tends to suffer from lack of character development, which Persecuted also demonstrates. In the end, while there is potential here, it needed a lot more development in order to be better.
Final Rating: 4.5 out of 10 points
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