So we went to see the movie last night. It had a lot more Mormon-ness in it than I'd been lead to believe, (which makes me wonder even MORE what Askmen.com was doing reviewing it... But that's neither here nor there.)
The general consensus seems to be "it didn't suck like I was afraid it would." I wish it would have tried just a *little* harder to be professional and less to be Mormon. It wasn't things that would seem obvious that were bad - the scene in sacrament meeting, for example, was excellent. But say, Collins' proposal was BAD. I felt like I was watching Final Cut, and just wanted it to be over.
My biggest complaint overall though is that they needed better cinematography- some of the camera angles were horrific. The last big scene, the "first kiss, yay happy ending scene," I was terribly stricken with how bad the camera angles were. And I'm not a film person normally- it's like computer animation for me: If I of all people notice it, it's REALLY BAD.
But that is part of what comes with having a small budget to work with I guess. This movie shows that as long as the people behind the camera get brains and some creativity, instead of thinking that Mormon-ads are great movie material, that the "mormon movie" genre could actually be good someday. Apart from that, as a movie it's a good chick flick, and it's an even better BYU co-ed chick flick. If you've ever been at BYU, you will be amused at how well the characters of Austen work with the characters of the Y - you'll recognize almost everyone in there from Austen as well as from your real life.
And we laughed a lot.
