A QUESTION OF FAITH
creators' Web site
Web site for downloading @ TheForce.Net

review written 2/23/2003

I like the title. I like the production company logo. I dislike the ugly capital letters on the title cards, but it's accompanied by nice music. I like the music choices in this flick a lot, actually. Appropriate always, and varied.

And I gotta say, I was really impressed with the opening shot. Where did you guys find that place? Can I shoot there some time? (But if I do, I'll try to use better sound recording tools and techniques.)

The plot is this: A whole bunch of Jedi go out into the woods for the purpose of fighting cool guys with lightsabers. Yeah. This is what disappoints me. It's nice fighting. But the plot is uninteresting (I would almost rather have no plot at all), the dialogue is clunky and the actors seem to have decided that the way to sound Jedi-like is to sound noble with a tinge of snottiness.

When the characters aren't fighting, I just want them to get on with it. The location (a forest) is not cool enough to deserve beauty shots of Jedi walking through it, and those beauty shots are washed-out and a little blue. The flaws of MiniDV (I'm guessing it's MiniDV) are not dealt with well.

The swordplay is pretty good. It is a shame that the Web compression has made these look choppy. And then the fighting stops, and I get bored, and wonder what lightsaber color is going to be introduced next.

So what is the question of faith? I don't know. But I have a possible answer.

Perhaps these guys should do A Question of Faith II as a comedy. A lighter touch. Have one of their wonderful fights, then abruptly end it with a character farting (okay, something better than that, but you get my drift). Director Jason S. Alexander admits in his bio on TFN that it was primarily an excuse for saber duels. If you can surround those duels with something new, or at least creative, you might surprise us all—even yourselves.