The Legend of the Five

I just spent a good 20 minutes setting up an account and verifying emails in order to get on here and leave my review. This movie has scored -1/10 from me. Don't waste your time. Adults, save yourself... from the first scene where the main character is on a phone call to friends, the acting was extremely poor. I mean, my interest in the movie was gone. Then her father enters the scene and another cringe worthy moment between father and daughter when they express their love for each other make me want to puke! My 5 year can act better than them and she's very convincing. I was very sleepy in this movie during the movie, even my 8 and 10 year olds were getting restless. Save yourself the disappointment and money and skip it. $55 I will never get back and 2 hours of my life I will regret.

Coming to Busselton, West Australia for the Cinefest Oz weekend has been exciting except for one 93 minute time heist; The Legend of the Five viewing. Excruciatingly confusing, boring, ill conceived, badly acted, unoriginal ..... a film lacking any redeeming features. The age group this film is aiming to attract, adolescents, were walking out. I leave this review with a couple of questions ....... why is a reputable film festival including such tosh in their program? And finally, how on earth did this tosh get made?

I guess it depends on who you are.

Five high school students on a class trip get transported to a fantasy world. On their quest to return home they discover they are elementals.

I'll watch anything. But appreciate where it's coming from .And, although it's low budget, it could be WAY worse (Riddle Room -a 2016 movie that was REALLY not worth it! Or The Girl- w/Michael Biehn and Tia Carrere- really OH SO BAD!).

This seemed like a high school play production done outside. The story has potential but the writing could be a little more elaborate.

As it opens, the main character is struggling with her mother's death, but holding it together for her father, who enters the scene. It's hard to tell what the actor's motivation is in the scene. Is he angry? Is he abusive? No? Oh, he's supposed to be sad? Good thing that's his only scene. Bad thing he's in the opening.

The acting was amateurish. Gabi Sproule, in my opinion did best- and this was her only credit on IMDB. The main actor is listed as a producer, her mother as executive producer. Also Joanne Samuel, the director, has her son (Jesse Ahern- also a producer) to do film editing, music editing and supervise visual effects. Although it could have been better, it could have been worse. The ending leads us to believe there could be a part 2. If it happens a better writer, director and editor could greatly improve the ratings.

I think Samuels had a decent concept here, and with the luxury of the backdrop of the beautiful Australian Blue Mountains, it should have been a winner. Overall the production let it down for me. The talent misfired all over the place but I will keep a watch on Gabi Sproule, something intriguing there. The rest, not so much, the 'lead' was very disappointing despite the LA hype. Obviously family favours through this production, sad given how many unemployed true professionals are available. But hey, it's a kid's movie so I was hoping my nine year old would enjoy it regardless. Unfortunately he found it confusing (I agreed) and too much with the CGI that could have been toned down, it jolts you out of whatever carriage the movie manages to generate. We didn't stay to the end so I didn't get to see how this was funded. I hope Samuels gets another opportunity with some better production support to get it to hang together in a coherent fashion. A misfire all round given some of the ingredients and the opportunity.

The movie certainly shows the love for fading in and out, and the stupidity of the characters/kids is unreal and resembles Japanese anime in extreme ignorance.

The director should go back to school as there is nothing intelligent about this movie. However, the actors are actually halfway decent for their roles despite being made to look like they have an IQ of 60.