Scion [2018] (Movie Review)

Plot Summary

Kendra Williams is tired of the way things are. She never gets to have any fun because her parents won’t let her go to dangerous all-night parties with her “friends.” One of these said nights, Kendra meets a mysterious man who promises to grant her secret wish of living however she wants. Kendra accepts his offer but suddenly wakes up in a world where she was never born. Will she be able to escape the nightmare before it’s too late???

Production Quality (1 point)

For the most part, Scion offers a very cheap production experience, including shaky camera work, tight shots, and bizarre camera angles designed to be “cool.” Audio quality is also uneven as backgrounds sounds are too prevalent and invasive sound effects annoy the viewer even though the soundtrack is somewhat interesting. The video is also sometimes blurry, and lighting is inconsistent throughout. Sets, locations, and props are mostly average if not slightly limited, and cheesy special effects plague the audience with dizzying sequences. Further, though there is some slight improvement throughout, continuity errors and various editing concerns keep this section on the low end of the spectrum, but it’s not even the worst of it.

Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)

Scion starts off with the completely wrong premise by portraying a tone-deaf view of young people being wayward and throwing in with strawman villains. Also, the psychological fantasy world created for this plot is very difficult for viewers to understanding since its rules seem very subjective. For instance, things in the alternate universe randomly happen for no particular reason, and obstacles are arbitrarily applied to the characters just for the sake of expanding the narrative and illogically getting them where the writers wanted them to go. Similarly, the story’s progression makes little sense as unnecessary time jumps disorient the audience and endless meandering sequences waste time just so that the characters can run all over the place and fill the runtime. Very convenient dialogue also forces the plot to go where screenwriters wanted it to go, and forced suspense scenes crowd out any shred of potential there was for character development. In the end, this screenplay is just a bad version of the typical It’s a Wonderful Life style of psychological narrative.

Acting Quality (1.5 points)

Though it’s a bit average and sometimes even awkward, the acting is the best aspect of Scion. However, emotions still aren’t very believable throughout, and line delivery is pedestrian. Nonetheless, it’s unclear how the cast members could have done much better with how poorly written this movie was. Thus, this rounds out a severely underwhelming effort that should have never gotten past the initial planning stages.

Conclusion

Kingdom Sight Studios has demonstrated some slight potential in the past, such as in 2nd Greatest, but more recent projects, like Scion and A High School Story, have not instilled any confidence in their commitment to quality. Often, being a lone ranger studio rarely pays off, but the least they could do is overcome their low production quality with deeper storylines that would make bigger companies take notice. However, this isn’t the case as they further contribute to the already low image of Christian entertainment.

Final Rating: 2.5 out of 10 points

April 20, 2020April 20, 2020 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Drama, Fantasy, Movie Reviews, Psychological, Sci-Fi, SuspenseTags: 2.5 points, 2018, Candace Dixon, Daphnie Fine, David Ash, Don Fine, Drama, Fantasy, Glory Fine, Grace Fine, Jamaal Curry, Jason Rohana, Jennifer Prus, Jordan Lane, Julie Piper, Kaylee Rutter, Kingdom Sight Studios, Kristen Lester, Kyle Gaylord, Laura Kelly, Nathan Blair, Olivia Curtis, Psychological, Robert Parks, Sci-Fi, Scott Piper, Suspense, Suzanne Henson, Zach Miller Leave a comment

A High School Story (Movie Review)

 

Plot Summary

Faith High is a seemingly ordinary private Christian high school with all the typical high school issues, but one student is intent on forcing the daily events she sees unfold around her into some kind of Biblical parallel so that she can have an interesting end-of-the-semester school project to talk about.  A new kid comes to town as the backup quarterback and falls in love with a mostly silent ballet dancer, so this is naturally the stories of David and Esther mashed together.  The vain and self-impressed starting quarterback is obviously Saul, and you can see how this keeps going.  With this movie in the works for so long, you would think some better content was created.

 

Production Quality (1.5 points)

Ever since 2nd Greatest, Kingdom Sight Studios has been committed to crafting more professional productions than A Perfect Chord.  Thus, A High School Story has a mostly average production that’s fueled mainly by good video quality, find audio quality, and professional sets, locations, and props.  However, the soundtrack is sometimes too loud, and there are some odd camera angles and wild camera work, especially in the poorly filmed sports action scenes that feel like nothing is really happening even though you’re supposed to think there’s an actual game going on.  Scenes like these show the true genius of Facing the Giants in the independent film world (A High School Story even has a discount version of Bobby Lee Duke).  Elsewhere in A High School Story, there are too many stupid slow-motion scenes, as well as self-serving product placements and unwarranted self-love for A Perfect Chord.  In the end, this is a mostly average production that could have done better.

Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)

From start to finish, annoying narration decides to explain things to us that we should be about to figure out on our own if the dialogue was any good at all.  We apparently have to be told who the characters are instead of letting them develop on their own through actual conversations.  There are also plenty of weird attempts at cringe-worthy bad comedy as ‘bad’ characters are over the top bad while ‘good’ characters are too perfect.  As is commonplace in cheap sports films, training montages displace opportunities for plot and character growth, as do ridiculous high school nonsense and predictable love triangle stupidity.  There are too many cheesy attempts at ‘young people’ dialogue, and we mention the beyond-cheesy attempts to force Bible stories into this modern-day plot?  This seriously needs to stop.  In the end, this plot contributes nothing to the film’s score.

Acting Quality (1.5 points)

With mainstay Kingdom Sight cast members, this acting job is another average one as there are some fine moments that are cancelled out by other moments of awkward and forced acting.  When some cast members attempt their own brand of comedy, it’s quite bad.  It goes without saying that some cast members seem desperate to advertise their horrid local comedy act throughout the film.  Essentially, while these often-used Kingdom Sight cast members are definitely gaining experience with each film, there’s just not enough coaching present here to sustain a higher score.

Conclusion

There’s one thing Kingdom Sight is getting right: releasing films directly to PureFlix On Demand and Amazon Prime in order to get them out there rather than to waste time and money on limited screenings no one will go see and DVD’s that will end up in the $5 Walmart bin.  However, 3 points is basically the ‘best of the worst’ score according to our review scale.  After 2nd Greatest, Kingdom Sight likely hit their ceiling of potential with their current model, so it’s time for them to take the next step in movie making.  They seem committed to trying different things, and their production model is mostly fine.  Thus, with their next film, they need to take a bigger step towards greatness by employing a better screen writer and a better acting coach (plus maybe some new cast members).

 

Final Rating: 3 out of 10 points

 

November 16, 2018December 30, 2018 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Comedy, Inspirational, Movie ReviewsTags: 2018, 3 points, Amanda Aguero, Ashley Wright, Bible, Biblical, Billy Joe Patton, Caleb Flack, Caleb Jones, Comedy, Danielle Strobel, Eli Miller, Hannah Thomas, Heath Arthur, Inspirational, Jacob Swain, Jamaal Curry, Jessica Anguiano, John Alderman, Jude Moran, Kaylee Rutter, Kingdom Sight Studios, Kristina Wright, Makenzie Conter, Mandy Campbell, Mariah Wood, Mike Flack, Nate Flack, Nathan Blair, Scott Piper, Sports, Zach Miller 1 Comment

2nd Greatest (Movie Review)

Plot Summary

In Golden, Colorado, local business owners are tired of homeless people and low-income housing, so they convene a meeting at their local business gathering to discuss how they are going to run all the people they don’t like out of town.  A homeless drunk drifter has become the central focus of the town’s conflict, but the new pastor in town takes an interest in the drunk’s well-being.  He convinces a local police officer who knows most things that are going on to take him around one night so that the pastor can see what is going on in the town he moved to.  From that experience, he is inspired of how to help the hurting all around him by following Jesus’ commandments.

 

Production Quality (2 points)

After a very low-quality production like A Perfect Chord, Kingdom Sight Studios has shown concerted production improvement in 2nd Greatest.  This improvement is evident in good video quality and camera work, as well as good sets, locations, and props.  However, there are a few moments of odd camera angles, shaky recording, and poor lighting, but this is not enough to completely detract from the overall quality.  The soundtrack is mostly intriguing, but the editing could use some upgrading as there is a lot of somewhat loosely-associated content throughout the film.  Moreover, on the whole, this production is above average and meets the basic standards necessary for modern films.

Plot and Storyline Quality (1 point)

As this movie’s plot line is based on a true story, there are a lot of good ideas contained within it, but the many storylines that are included are a bit too disorganized to drive the message home properly.  A lot of the characters need further deepening, and even though some of them have some adequate flashbacks, their dialogue and personalities are not quite there.  The stunted growth of the characters is likely a product of the many random and seemingly unrelated subplots that are included in the film.  Not enough focus is placed on the main homeless character, even though he has a potentially great back story, and this seems to be a product of not being able to go deep enough with the characters.  This problem also produces a cheesy villain (if we even need a ‘villain’ in this type of film) and an overly fake ‘perfect’ pastor character.  Basically, there was plenty of good ideas to work with here that needed a bit more refining before being released.

Acting Quality (1.5 points)

There are several inconsistent performances throughout as some cast members are skilled while some are not.  Sometimes the emotions feel forced, but other times, they are fine.  Similarly, line delivery is natural while other times it is too unnatural.  There doesn’t seem to be any consistency with acting coaching, unfortunately.  As a whole, while the acting of this movie is a bit uneven at times, there are enough good performances to keep this section average.

 

Conclusion

Basing movies off of true stories is almost always better than your average inspirational fodder, but when the story is mishandled, its full impact is stunted.  Kingdom Sight Studios made some great strides in 2nd Greatest, especially with production quality, and the real stories of the characters were good ideas to use, but we needed to see more of what the real people were like besides being pawns in a plot.  Thus, like many films, retaining a better screenwriter would have done wonders.  Also, it wouldn’t have hurt to upgrade the acting coaching.  As a whole, it is always good to see improvement from a studio, so it will be interesting to see what they do next.

 

Final Rating: 4.5 out of 10 points

 

June 27, 2018December 31, 2018 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Inspirational, Movie ReviewsTags: 2016, 4.5 points, Anna Piper, Art Hatfield, Billy Joe Patton, Bob Jung, Caleb Flack, Chris Black, Craig Vander Laan, Dan Thoemke, Dave Bolis, Dave Eicher, Drew Hall, Elisa Vasquez, Geralyn Rash, Glenn Moore, Heath Arthur, Inspirational, Inspired Family Entertainment, Jamaal Curry, Jayson Flack, Jeff Connell, Jeff Fox, Jonathan Rash, Jude Moran, Kayla Bergholz, Ken Erwin, Ken Magee, Kevin Shive, Kingdom Sight Studios, Lena Vander Laan, Lisa Hatfield, Mariah Wood, Mike Flack, Nathan Blair, Noah Pouliot, Peter Victoria, Psychological, Regina Chambers, Roy Chambers, Scott Piper, Seth Piper, Stephen Fuller Austin, Steve Pouliot, Tami Nichols Reilly, Tami Reilly, Trevor Wood, Zachary Blair 2 Comments

A Perfect Chord (Movie Review)

Plot Summary

Cadence’s parents have always believed that she has musical talent, especially since they own a record label, but she has never been sure of herself.  However, when she and two of her friends discover that they have an ability to play music together, they decide to pursue this ability secretly.  However, the time comes when they have to reveal their secret if they want to make a difference, so they’ll have to decide what they’re going to do.

 

Production Quality (1.5 points)

As a first-time production, A Perfect Chord is mostly average, which is fine for beginners.  Video quality is fine, and camera work is pretty good.  Audio quality is what is should be, but the soundtrack is quite silly.  There is some odd lighting throughout, and sets, locations, and props are slightly limited.  Finally, editing isn’t perfect, but it isn’t horrible either.  Thus, the bottom line is that this is a fine starter production with some definite areas to build off of in the future.

Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)

Unfortunately, this plot is as silly as the description suggests.  It lacks any real focus and is really just a collection silly scenes of activities of daily living and forced comedy.  The conflict therein is also very forced and fake.  There are too many montages that stunt character development.  They need further deepening since they are based on awkward dialogue and a bunch of silly high school conversations.  Basically, this story feels like it belongs in a short film rather than in a feature length one.  This idea is much too thin and really has no purpose behind it.  It’s hard to see how the creation of this film was justified.

Acting Quality (0 points)

This cast is amateurish, but they don’t really have much support.  They are too awkward and lackadaisical in their performances.  Line delivery is underwhelming and emotions are not believable.  Also, makeup is all wrong.  In the end, this film has a lot of areas for improvement that should have been worked out before it went to distribution.

Conclusion

It’s likely that Kingdom Sight Studios means well, but their work has a lot of refining to do.  Production is off to a good start, but it needs to be developed further.  They need to determine the purpose behind their plot ideas and clearly communicate this purpose.  Finally, they need to employ some acting coaching to draw out the potential in their cast members.  In the end, time will tell how much improvement this studio undergoes.

 

Final Rating: 1.5 out of 10 points

 

August 28, 2017January 6, 2019 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Inspirational, Movie ReviewsTags: 1.5 points, 2015, Alli Coffey, Amanda Pouliot, Avery Noel, Chris Black, Dean Rogers, Elina Odnoralov, Ellyana Batt, Inspirational, Katie Flack, Kingdom Sight Studios, Malia Flack, Mary Flack, Mike Flack, Nathan Blair, Nathaniel Medina, Spencer Tomsick, Taylor Maxwell 2 Comments