For the most part, the acting was excellent. Top-notch, professional actors, including of course John Rhys-Davies, who was fabulous as always. That guy is an amazing actor.
The actor for Basil, on the other hand, was terrible. Basil, played by Samrat Chakrabarti, was basically Rhys-Davies' underling. Every scene from his first to his last was acted terribly. I'm sorry, Samrat, but you should not be in movies. Don't quit your day job. But he was the only actor whose believably was lacking.
Production quality: The production was at a professional level. The special/visual effects were well done, everything looked as good as any standard movie. Pretty impressive for a movie made by homeschoolers.
One thing kept bugging me: The CGI looked, well, like CGI. The computer generated landscapes and buildings were impressive, but they still didn't look real. However, the same could be said for The Hobbit, one of the most high-budget action movies in recent times, so I don't think that detracted from the professionality of the movie; only from the overall quality.
Writing: The scripting was very Paul McCusker. Like anything written by him, it was excellent for the most part. There were a few lines in there that made me cringe. There was at least one line of which he's used so many variations on so many occasions that I can't hear it anymore without groaning. And that line is:
Or bunglers, or idiots, or incompetence, or whatever the case may be. Mr. McCusker, I've heard you use that line before, and I do not think it's nearly as funny as you think it is.Fools! I'm surrounded by fools!
But the following line was what really made me cringe.
Honestly, Paul, you not only use a very cliche line, but you follow it with another, even more cliche line? Really?No one calls me a fool.
The other part that caused me pain was William's conversion. He seemed to know nothing of Christianity up to that point, and then all of a sudden this old priest dude talks to him, and he understands completely? His lines in that part were equally hackneyed.
Other than those, the scripting was well done; nothing else took me out of the movie.
My family complained that the dramatic music started too early and too loudly, but I didn't notice it.
Overall, I thought it was a pretty good action movie. They captured the period fairly accurately, the story was captivating, Benjamin Franklin was funny, the acting was for the most part excellent, the cinematography was professional. I have more complaints with The Hobbit trilogy than I have with Beyond The Mask.
Has anyone else seen this movie yet? What did you think? Agree/disagree?
