david6995

So this has to be by far the most disappointing film I've seen in 2023. Why? I was so looking forward to this film for over a year before its release, expecting some semblance of a Padre Pio biopic. What I got instead? A completely different film whose plot involved the struggle of communists vs fascists in a small provincial Italian town, with Padre Pio being an incidental character who wasn't relevant to the plot AT ALL. In fact, had it not been for the last few seconds of the film's ending where they show him getting the stigmata, Padre Pio could have literally been interchanged with any generic provincial Italian friar. I'd even go a step further: if all his scenes were deleted from the film, it would not have changed the plot in the slightest whit. I would have at least been a bit more forgiving if they had taken 'artistic liberties' with telling Padre Pio's life, as some over-enthusiastic biopics tend to do.... but they didn't even do that! They do not discuss, flesh out, or even relay the tiniest iota of the story of Padre Pio... he is merely an incidental and inconsequential character in a story involving the early struggles of Italian partisans against the nascent fascists. I'm not saying that there is anything inherently wrong with that type of story (though truth be told, even that was bland and uninteresting), but if that was the main point and intent of the film, then the filmmakers should have been up front about it, and shouldn't have duped the audience by disguising this as having anything remotely to do with Padre Pio. Shame, as Padre Pio's story is fascinating on its own, and actually TELLING his story would have been immensely more interesting than this insipid drivel we were given here.

The only impressive thing about this "film" was how they managed to get so many obviously fake positive reviews. To even give this one star was generous. I was once again duped into watching this as the result of the supposedly high scores this steaming log of dung obtained.

All this film consisted of was a bunch of wooden inept "actors" talking to each other. That wouldn't have been THAT unforgiveable if it wasn't for the fact that the dialogue was so unengaging and devoid of thought-provoking ideas.

Now I'm not one to slam a heavily dialogue-based movie, but in order for it to pass, it would HAVE to be interesting and/or original enough to keep its audience's attention. 'First Signal' does NOTHING of the sort.

A dialogue-heavy film that does it right is Pontypool. Similar to 'First Signal', Pontypool was mostly dialogue sci-fi/horror flick that was set in one location, but it was so damned interesting and original, it kept me glued to my seat throughout. To those who read this: watch this film only if you find amusement by watching paint dry. Don't listen to the false high reviews. You have been warned!