To Survive

I enjoyed the film. Good acting, there was plenty of suspense and action. I love a post-apocalyptic movie!

Right from the opening scene, attention to detail, or just a "couldn't care less attitude" prevails, where we are told that hundreds of millions of people have been killed, perhaps billions, yet the skies in the opening scene reveal an average days chem trails spread out over the skies. Poor acting and a poor script make this painful to watch.

Written and directed by Stephen Folker, an apocalyptic movie with Jonathan (Burt Culver) who used to be a cop but is now fighting for his survival. Much of it is from raving marauders he is armed with nothing more than his pistol. He eventually stumbles onto what he assumes was an abandoned church trying to escape and hide from marauders. And it is during then he meets a black man, Devin (Ramon Bailey) and his 8 or 9 year old daughter, Shelly (Berkeley Clayborne) where his old dad, Jones (Glenn Harston) happens to be the pastor for the church where they shared some of their food with. He meets more people along the way.

If the running time is 1 hour and 15 minutes then it may meant that the forced drama situations was the result was so that the movie running time must be filled to be labelled as a film, which if one were to continue watching it further locations were reused over and over.

The cause of the disaster is never explained and only mentioned as "the way things were before..." which isn't bad or really even necessary in that all you need to know is that something massively went wrong and humanity has been reduced to this. Where things go wrong are that some of the scenes were just too contrived . I mean someone just doesn't bust into your house and 5 minutes later ask them to stay for dinner. It's just not believable. Or asking to tag along with them the next morning. The execution of the scene felt awkward and forced and plainly just didn't work. Indeed most of the scenes where there's personal dialog feels awkward and made up on the spot. Especially the getting to know you scenes where loose ends and backstories are rounded out didn't achieve that. You still ended up with a bunch of individuals rather than a cohesive group. Since I've come this far, maybe filming in HD wasn't the best choice of camera. I mean it's great for sporting events and evening news, but not for this. It's too much stark reality.

Well, it's fairly apparent this movie didn't click for me. There wasn't a single character I could root for and the story felt like it was half thought out.

Good premise and similar to other dystopian stories. Sadly this film has more holes in the plot than Swiss cheese. This is my favorite genre so despite the poor reviews gave it a shot.

There is zero continuity of camera lens and/or editing software. It changes from color, to very grey to black and white. Those changes aren't tied to a story arc or flashback, just happen.

When I'm the house, the camera couldn't be any closer to the actors unless they were carrying the cameras. Quick cuts, poor editing, bad angles with a side of Blair Witch project filming.

If this was a senior film project it would deserve a B+ as a commercial film it's a solid D.