The Legend of the Five

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?

The problem with the reviews written on this page is that 3 of four seem to be written by family members of Nicholas Andrianakos. "A Masterpiece" writes Jordan Andrianakos "the most outstanding part of this brilliant movie is Javier Torres played by the dashing Nicholas Andrianakos" Seriously the two best performances were by Gabi Sproule and Leigh Joel Scott. Unfortunately this movie is a very poor mashup of Jumanji and Lord of the Rings.

Aussies should steer clear of making anything fantasy or sci-fi, or horror, we cant do them well. Bad script, terrible and uninteresting characters, bad CGI / VFX. It was shot very well, Ill give it that. Actors were poor choices except for Lauren Esposito, she just passes but at least great to look at. Dont waste your time.

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.