A World Away

This is a great family film. Every single actor did an excellent job portraying their characters. My kids enjoyed the story line and were inspired by the creative writing. Just toss in some grace regarding special effects. Today we're (the viewers) accustomed to incredible special effects so I found the not so special effects a bit distracting. But, if you can forgive a limited budget and embrace your imagination, you'll have a terrific adventure.

Don't waste your time with this awful movie. Bad special effects, bad acting, stupid story. I would rather stab myself with a fork than watch this movie again.

I did not enjoy the movie as much as I expected. The story went everywhere with some characters placed for no reasons at all. They could have done a lot better, in the delivery but they just had too many loop holes. Mostly, I was disappointed by the ending. According to my rating strategy : Story : 1/2, Task fulfillment : 0/1, Directing, Cinematography and Soundtrack : 0.5/2, Wow Factor : 0/1, Cast : 0.5/2, Viewer : 1/2

I saw the 7+ ratings and thought this would be a good movie to watch with my daughter, but I should have known better. This is essentially an amateur family home movie ropeing in the neighbors and friends to do a weekend project, with a script written on the Saturday morning and effects finished on the Sunday night, and somehow it got released, and shouldn't have, ever. While the film is not as bad as it could have been (the kids acting isn't great but it isn't horrible either, and the camera work is in focus and reasonably framed) it's like someone said to their neighbors "we could make a better film than half this stuff released today". then set out to prove that right, and wrong at the same time. The story rips off The Princess Bride' kids being told a story' set up and shoehorns in some silly Sci Fi rubbish, with mostly bad american brat/nerd kid cliche characters and some of the worst special effects this side of a 90s home computer, although not all of them suck, so it makes you wonder exactly what was going on with this thing, for a second, before you regret having watched it and try to forget it. This project should have stayed on the family hard drive for the friends to laugh at what a fun weekend they had playing film makers. Nothing wrong with that. Maybe some of these people will go on to do low level kids TV, it's not a million miles away from the lower level stuff which should also have stayed off our screens. Good luck to them, there's nothing wrong with practicing making projects like this, but they should never be presented to a wider audience.

As usual, the critics here are bellyaching about the lack of effects. Does no one have any depth to just sit back and listen/watch a story? Have you become that shallow and lacking in imagination that effects are all that matters? That is the foundation of the story from the first scene; story telling the old fashioned way. I only wanted one child to die, but I'm sure everyone wanted the same thing. Overall the movie like like a youth's book. A story to relax and read. It is not perfect, and geared for kids which is probably for the best as there are still some children in the world with an imagination. I won't critique the film because the flaws are not important. The brainwaves of the critics IS the problem.

Horrible special effects. The film was clearly very low budget. At one point you could hear the kids hitting their mics. There was a part with this glowing demon dog, but then it didn't show it again in the movie. It made you think there was going to be more to the story but it was poorly connected and the acting was probably better from the kids than from the adults. My kids and I agree that it was weird and a waste of time. Time for bed...

Watched this last night with my 12 and 14 year old daughters. From the start of the movie the plot was not clear and the characters had zero background. Special effects were laughable and the "bad guys" seemed like they were from a low budget power rangers show. Super cheesy. I really wanted to find some good in this movie but it was difficult. We watched the entire film and at the end we were left scratching our heads and wondering why it ended the way it did. To be honest I'm still not really sure what message the movie is supposed to be sending. Pros: no swearing Cons: bizarre storyline, no character development, terrible special effects, gross out effect in one scene. In addition, 2 of the main characters and 1 supporting character in the film are the director's children - they all STRONGLY resemble each other - but are not supposed to be related in the film so it's a little weird. While the acting for the most part isn't the worst I've seen, it was pretty hokey. Even my 12 and 14 year old daughters thought this movie was pretty bad and they usually love flimsy and/or confusing plot lines and mediocre acting. I wouldn't recommend this movie to others. Glad I didn't pay money to watch it.

My girls and I loved going on the adventure with this group of teens to another dimension. There was enough intensity to keep their eyes glued to the screen. But not too much to freak them out. And I always love a movie that offers situations and beautiful underlying messages that I can talk to them about. I wish it were longer. :)