Review of Left Behind (2014) by Empiric — 02 Oct 2014

I'll avoid here (as often seems to be the case reading the critic reviews) making this review a critique of religion, rather than a critique of the movie, and presume a baseline "suspension of disbelief" one might apply to, say, a mainstream science fiction, action drama, or fantasy movie. The movie does indeed require that, both for the nonreligious and for those not agreeing with the literalist and future-looking interpretation often favored by Evangelicals in particular.

In overview, the movie has an odd disparity of quality between broadly the first half and the second--it almost seems as if an entirely different producer took over midway. The general presentation of the first half seems rather amateurish. The dialogue is generally wooden in presentation and simplistic in writing quality (from my after-movie discussion with someone who knows, it does not correspond with the books). It does serve as needed exposition for the characters one will be expected to know well enough to feel some concern for later in the movie, but one gets the sense of production values more on the level of a local play than a big-budget Hollywood feature. The first half lacks even anything notable in terms of soundtrack, which it seems it could have definitely benefited from.

The second half is considerably better, and led by Cage's acting capabilities (which are noticeably and persistently categorically higher than anyone else's in the film) does reach moments of affecting drama, and gratefully, a quality soundtrack backing finally kicks in. The special effects are creditable and on a par with other "airline disaster" films. How one will view the overall plot line and resolution of the film, compared to others of that type, though, will be highly informed by how one views the "context" within which this film would be a short episode.