Left Behind

Once again I was deceived by the trailers as they made this movie look absolutely amazing; however, the trailers were the only good things that came out of this movie, and that says a lot.

First of all, we have the common Christian movie stereotype where some of a family is for God, and some of it is against God. Than we are provided with the frequent misunderstandings non-Christians face regarding the meaning of scripture due to Christians who have almost 0 theological education. So because the Christians fail to provide an adequate answer, the non-Christian lashes out. At least provide the audience with some level of complexity if you're going to have some kind of a theological debate. Your audience understands more than you think. Now if we could simply ignore the horrendous script not to mention the awful acting, we still have a movie full of stereotypes regarding non-Christians, Christians, Muslisms and even smaller people (just trying to be politically correct) which got old very fast.

But believe it or not, this is not even the worst part of the movie! The worst part is the terrible background music! To put it bluntly, it was GARBAGE!! It was so floaty and totally ruined the atmosphere. Now don't get me wrong, some movies require floaty music, but it would have made more sense to have music that was thematically apocalyptic. For example, Armageddon, Independence Day, or World War Z each had excellent pieces which blend perfectly into the atmosphere of the movie. The fact is even if the script to a movie is mediocre, having an excellent soundtrack can drastically improve the atmosphere. With a corny 80's saxaphone piece playing in the background, or cheesy orchestral music, which sounded digital, my wife and I walked out of the movie going "what did we just see?"

Though I am a pastor, I was hoping to be raptured during the movie. Do what I should have done and save your money by not seeing this film.

**Spoilers**

Now obviously everyone has reviewed this saying how terrible it is. So I thought I would start picking holes in the aviation side of things. In no particular order (and ones i can remember)

1. Captain leaving the flight deck without really talking to the F/O, no handover of control.

2. Captain returns to the flight deck using emergency flight deck access code. This does not unlock the door immediately.

3. Why is the aircraft in an unusual attitude? At that altitude the aircraft would be on autopilot, not manual flight. So without either pilot on the flightdeck it would continue straight and level and the current speed until the fuel ran out.

4. Non-Standard unusual attitude recovery (disregarding the fact it wouldn't get into one)

5. TCAS with the other aircraft. Capt failed to follow the TCAS resolution advisory which would have guaranteed minimum separation between the 2 aircraft.

6. With that substitutional damage on the aircraft wing there would be an incredible amount of airframe vibration.

7. wing was damaged, why does he lose elevator control?

8. At point of divert JFK would not be the best airport to divert too. The great circle route between JFK and London would take you up the coast of Canada then passing just south of greenland. Most likely airport which could take an aircraft at that size would likely be Gander or similar.

9. Changing aircraft type throughout the film.

10. A lot of none-standard Radio Transmissions 10.1 using names on RT 10.2 Maydays are initiated by saying mayday 3 times 10.3 after declaring a mayday your normal callsign is preceded by mayday 10.4 all radio communication involves your callsign to identify who is talking and who you are talking too. 10.5 all attempts to contact were on VHF radio, no attempt made on HF? 10.6 while trying to make mayday he was selected on 121.9 (not a standard oceanic frequency) and while changing the dial he never actually made it active frequency so was always transmitting on 121.9 10.7 if you failed to contact anyone on a atc frequency a pilot would likely try 121.5 (guard) or 123.45 (aircraft to aircraft)

11. Failure of flight controls would make the autopilot unusable. However he seems to continue using it (though seemingly from other parts of the film there is no continuity regarding the autopilot)

12. Fuel situation, at the start of the flight the Capt says it will be a 6.5 hour flight, taking into account reserves and alternate fuel it is likely to be a conservative fuel for about 8.5-9 hours. However, he has a major fuel leak at the 3 hour mark which would probably cost him more than any reserves he had yet they somehow manage to fly 3 hours return back to JFK.

13. Sat phone problem (not strictly aviation but bear with me). Continually failing to contact on sat phone is a problem, but there is another service provided by Stockholm radio (HF, so would work in the middle of the Atlantic) which allows you to call a any phone in the world.

14. Ups the cabin altitude to force people to put on masks, this is possible but wouldn't happen as quickly as shown.

15.claims to be flying a 400 tonne aircraft. seems very heavy for aircraft shown in the film. (for reference, Max Takeof weights for A330: 242 tonnes: B757 255 tonnes: B777: 380 tonnes)

16. landing a "400 tonne" aircraft without flaps, spoilers, etc. is not possible, would be looking at at least 2-3miles minimum

17. Wing magically repairs itself

18. with no engines you would have no hydraulic pressure, would have to be a manual gear extension which he didn't do

19. wouldn't be able to lift the wing again once on the ground. it wouldn't provide enough lifting moment

20. evacuating the pane. as soon the door opened the slide would inflate. wouldn't have to push it out afterwards.

21. aircraft evacuation slides are very hard and don't give you any bounce as demonstrated when the guy was kicked off the plane.

22. very low quota of cabin crew for the size of the aircraft. rule is 1 per 50 passengers minimum.

23. when evacuation is undertaken, general rule is get away from the aircraft. not mill about near the burning wreckage.

Overall this film was terrible. I am sure i missed a few holes in the aviation side too but this made it slightly more amusing for me while watching.

Source of knowledge about the holes in the aviation parts, I am a commercial Pilot.

This was the worst movie I have ever seen. It is clearly destined to go straight to day time television. From the start the movies direction, plot, acting and music all give the impression of a day time drama but much much worse.

I don't hate the premise of the movie, it's just like any other sci-fi fiction. However, this movie with it's bad acting and direction make it a complete and utter flop. Too much emphasis is placed on the religious aspects of this story making it feel like a veritable propaganda flick, ruining all chances of immersing in the story-line.

Do not waste your money on such a poorly produced movie. Religious or not, you will walk out of the theatre with nothing but regrets.

Was it the money? Did he owe someone a favour? Cage why are you in this terrible movie ? Left Behind is even worse than the Kirk Cameron version ,which also sucked. The book I am sure is better, since many have read it. This movie is a career killer ...it is sad to see Cage left behind by Hollywood. The acting is bad , Cage tries hard to make work out of a script that was seemingly penned by 8 year old's . I mean the dialogue is terrible. Why waste your money making a film that is just bad. Cage needs to really rethink his career . Honestly I felt ashamed for Nick . Wild at Heart , Leaving Las Vegas, and Oscar winner... My God man have you no self respect? Nick you are better than this.

This film is so banal it takes the banality out of The Banal. The premise is absurd. The unravelling of the plot is absurd. The performances are, at best, distracted as is the direction. Even the actors seem unconvinced. I'm still kicking myself for watching this film. Sin and purity are depicted with juvenile simplicity. Religious bias is arrogantly displayed (but I'll leave that to the unfortunate viewer to spot). Complex ideas like forgiveness, atonement and judgement are reduced to idiocy at an atomic level. I apologise if this sounds too much like a rant but for someone who watches well over 15 films a week, I have never subjected myself to anything this offensive (to the senses) in over 25 years.