"A criminal threatens to destroy Washington, D.C. with a nuclear bomb unless seven people with 200+ IQs can solve all the world's problems in one night." How's that for the premise of a Christian film? It sure beats "A pop star struggles with her faith," or "A man must convince his brother-in-law of the importance of Christ in the Christmas season." A lot of people, including many Christians, dislike Christian films because:
1. They tend to be lower-budget and lower-quality, cinematically speaking, then most other films.
2. In an attempt to be "family friendly" and "wholesome," they often avoid or trivialize serious issues.
While "The Genius Club" can't overcome the first criticism, it seems as if the filmmakers recognized the second criticism, and decided to make a film that does nothing but address serious issues. Welcome to a Christian film that is not family-friendly. I can't think of a single other Christian film where characters make statements like, "Cancer hasn't been cured because that would mean the loss of millions of jobs in a booming health care industry."
"Solving the world's problems" takes the form of a debate between the seven genius characters and the villain. As time goes on, the stakes get higher, and they go from talking about things like politics and war to things like good and evil. As long as the debate is going on, which is most of the film, the dialogue is pretty well-thought-out and covers deep ground (it slacks off during the breaks, though). You might expect a character to make a statement implying that all the world's problems would be solved if everyone became Christians, but that does not happen. Instead, the film's thesis seems to be that we need to let of greed, let go of hate, and love one another. One of the seven is a seminary student and another is an atheist, and there is some debate about God, Jesus, and religion, but it is not antagonistic like in, say, "God's Not Dead," since the seven characters are seen as working together against a common adversary. Actually, the villain here is a more reasonable and rational character than the professor in "God's Not Dead."
Overall, I enjoyed "The Genius Club" as much as I enjoy movies that I would normally give an "8," but I have to give it a "7" instead, since some of the dialogue and acting was very unconvincing, especially towards the very beginning and the very end. Even so, I consider it one of the better Christian films I have seen, as it has meatier and more mature content than most others. I recommend it to people who are open- minded about Christianity and, for that matter, budgets.
