Act of God

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Aug 12, 2014 This arty documentary film tries to use the act of being struck by lightning as a metaphor for the role of chance and randomness in life, but is not wholly successful. There are seven separate stories here, but only two of them are woven throughout the length of the film. Each story is told by those who participated in them, but the editing sometimes makes it difficult to grasp the flow of each tale. One of the segments is about an improvisational guitarist who has his brainwaves mapped while playing. He was not struck by lightning, but we are meant to draw parallels between his brain activity and the randomness of lightning. The movie allows its subjects to tell their stories in their own way and does not try to impose an over-arching narrative on them. It is ambitious and thoughtful, with some gorgeous time-lapse storm scenes, but in the end, it fails to leave behind much of an impression (much like lightning itself, in fact). See more Dec 8, 2011 Definitely not what I was expecting. Wandering, aimless and directionless film. Gets so sidetracked that you pretty much forget what the movie is supposed to be about in the first place. Contains no real information about lightning, as I didn't learn a damn thing the whole time. So philosophical that it really looses any semblance of an educational or informative film. Its lightning photography are extremely impressive, and the last 10 minutes in which a lightning strike survivor recites his absolutely harrowing story is the highlight of the film. Other than that, I can't say this is worth anyone's time. See more Oct 30, 2011 Slow, painful, and plodding. The director draws a link between religion and people who are struck by lightning. I'm not sure that he had a hypothesis or was waiting for the audience to find meaning in the seemingly unrelated anecdotes in the film. It would have been better if it had just been 90 minutes of lightning-strike footage. See more Oct 4, 2011 Definitely not what I was expecting. Wandering, aimless and directionless film. Gets so sidetracked that you pretty much forget what the movie is supposed to be about in the first place. Contains no real information about lightning, as I didn't learn a damn thing the whole time. So philosophical that it really looses any semblance of an educational or informative film. Its lightning photography are extremely impressive, and the last 10 minutes in which a lightning strike survivor recites his absolutely harrowing story is the highlight of the film. Other than that, I can't say this is worth anyone's time. See more walter m @Harlequin68 Jan 26, 2011 "Act of God" is a moderately interesting documentary that seeks to explore the differences in faith and science by talking to people who have been struck by lightning.(That's not to mention the museum in France devoted to lightning strikes.) They discuss how their lives have been changed, maybe not so much in a physical manner, but in a spiritual way. While some question why they survived and others did not, others had something along the lines of a near death experience. And as in anything, there are no easy answers. See more Jan 22, 2011 Even though there were some cool pictures and videos of storm, even though there were some tragic stories about the storms and lighting itself and even though the subject matter could be very interesting, it was presented in a way that would make almost go to sleep. The science that they used to explain the storms or the effects on the brain anyways was very limited and pretty much for the whole part, this documentary did not keep my interest. See more Read all reviews

Act of God

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