Higher Power (2018)

This movie deserved a four because I laughed SO much until the end.

The only thing that is good in this movie are the CGI effects. Everything else is not good (bordering - bad). You can watch the first 15-20 minutes and than jump to the last 10 minutes.

Why? I watched this film with no expectations at all, didn't know what it was about, and really didn't care. The buildup is somewhat cheesy but well-done familiar territory, and I was sympathetic to or angry with most of the characters by mid-film. So I was getting emotionally involved, and it didn't hurt that logic didn't suffer too much, even if motivations and dynamics were over-the-top. Then it hit me what was going on, the building of a superhero, so to speak. As if the film understood when I was supposed to get this, it revved up immediately and kept me entranced with its continuous upward arc of lights and sound. Yes, the effects were olden-daze, but I kept saying to myself, "Nice work with a low budget!" After all, who cares if its retro if it's GOOD, right? This ramp-up continued to make me smile until the fine crescendo, and all the implausible yet necessary events collided to make this a mix of Armageddon and Silver Surfer! What hit me is that they told a story simply, without having to appeal to comic fanboys with cute or snarky dialogue, or "correct" characterizations. If the complaint is how many coincidences and untested theories have to be withstood in order to accept the premise, how is that different than Hulk or Spider-Man transformations, or Stryker creating Wolverine's adamantium skeleton? Not at all, if you ask me. So the film also stands on its own as a genre film that has no previous background (of which I'm aware).Strangely, while writing this review, I discovered that director Matthew Charles Santoro worked on, among other things, the VFX for Marvel's Silver Surfer movie! So that makes sense! Woohoo! I was right!

The main review here is too harsh. The movie does have a poor general acting, still better than lots of movies (there is known actors here), the idea of the movie is good. It is interesting enough to watch it, the time pass fast so that means your are entertained. The end is well done.The effects are not really that bad and I think that more than lack of funds it has actually a deliberated artistic stile. It might be more presumptuous that bad effects.I enjoyed it and I don't tolerate bad acting and scripts, so is not that bad.