I had expected much more of this film. I've been looking forward to it for months, having read about it in Brad Stine's e-mail newsletter. I had liked it on Facebook, saw all the trailers and news feed updates, and had high expectations. Well, I saw it this afternoon, and left feeling cheated.

I'm an evangelical Christian and a Tea Party conservative. In my mind, it is not outside the realm of possibility that it may one day become illegal to practice my faith. The Bible and the Constitution are both under attack in today's America. So I had hoped that this film would be a great dramatization about how that just might come to pass, because that's what all the hype pointed to. Well, if that's what they tried to make, they failed. Maybe my expectations on that front were too high. But it's not even a particularly good movie.

None of the characters are likable, and there is no time given for any real character development. Those who are supposed to be Christians are hardly shining examples for the faith, not what one would have expected from these producers. Brad Stine's character is particularly odious, and given that he's a Christian comedian, and listed as a co-producer, I have to wonder what he was thinking about. The "bad guys" are pretty much boilerplate. Fred Thompson plays the most sympathetic character, but his effect is diluted because his relationship with the preacher is not explained early enough. (Plus, I couldn't get his reverse-mortgage commercials out of my head!)

The music is ominous from the beginning, never seeming to stop, and the lighting is dark and stark. You can't support a nightmare scenario without first setting up normalcy. This film never does. The plot progression is confusing and portions of the action are not credible. There are some good production values, and I suppose it works on some levels as an action thriller, but I found it largely unsatisfying.

I had read some negative reviews this morning, but figured they were just examples of non-Christians who felt threatened. We've seen that with good films with a Christian message such as "Courageous," "Fireproof," and "October Baby." Turns out that this time, the secular reviewers were unfortunately right on. "Persecuted" is not what it was advertised to be. It is a huge disappointment.

So full disclosure I am an atheist who went to see this to know how Christians perceive that they are being persecuted in America or are being persecuted in other nations, I got nothing of the sort. So what did I get? I don't know.

So our protagonist is a Christian presumably Catholic as you find rather late in the film living in what I can only assume is an alternate history America wherein the only difference is that this bill attacking his faith would not be utterly unconstitutional, said bill would attack his faith by mandating all religions give all other religions speaking time at their place of worship. If you are even passingly familiar with US law you will note this is highly illegal and even if it wasn't it appears 90% of America is Christian in this film and this would also attack other religions in the same way so they would not pass it nor would I as an atheist, I can think of literally no one who would approve of this bill at all. So he oppose this as anyone wold but in this world he is presumably the only one and thus is framed by the entire government from the Police to the Secret Service for murder, a murder that even our protagonist questions if he actually committed. Then in a very broken story he gets acquitted and gives a speech at the White House who never actually stopped pushing this bill but still let him talk because... well the film never says. So what about this speech? Not in the movie, it just cuts to black.

Pros? Well i did not feel like I was being preached to... so that is good. On that note it also feels like this is not even a pro Christian film, just a bad action film and for some reason the factions are Christian guy V Government that is insane.

Cons? I hated all of the protagonists and antagonist in this film alike, this film has no message, to many plot holes to count, and even by the standards of Star Wars this film is utterly unrealistic.

Plot

An evangelist finds himself framed for murder and on the run after he refuses to back a senator's proposition calling for sweeping religious reform.

Cast

A lot of people I'm very disappointed in such as James Remar, Bruce Davison and Dean Stockwell while made by the same sadsack who made the new Christmas anti-cancel culture movie.

Verdict

Lusko's new juvenile Jingle Smells was unintentionally hilarious due to how offensively bad it is, this however is a different creature altogether. You see this is played so incredibly serious, a thriller/drama/melodrama/Christian foolishness.

Set in a world where Christians are persecuted by the big bad government. Yep, they went there. It's not a surprise really considering they generally believe that they are persecuted in real life.

It's a painful watch, full of cliches, bad writing and is more unbelievable than a Scyfy original.

This man needs to stop making movies.

Rants

Some people just NEED to be the victim, you can see it in IMDB reviews where people get offended or feel attacked and you can see it in the world. Men who feel like misandry is actually a thing, straight people who don't understand why straight Pride isn't a thing, Christians who think they can't say merry christmas and they're being persecuted and around and around we go. If you want to be a victim and have no persecutor, make one in your own mind.

Breakdown

Embarrassingly written Concept is ridiculous Director is incompetent on every level.