Natural Selection

While this movie definitely has a low-budget feel to it based on story, character depth, and music, it still manages to send an important message to the viewers.

We need more movies that bring up the end-scene topic - which is predictable - but it needs to be done with better scripts, casting, and musical score to reach people other than the Hallmark "after dark" and similar audiences.

In total, not bad for what it is. Nice to see a movie with an actual ending for once!

Natural Selection stars Mason Dye as the new kid in high school who has must moved to town with mother Amy Carlson. Carlson has never gotten over the breakup of her marriage and has sbstance abuse problems. Often Dye is the designated adult in the family.

Because of his home situation Dye doesn't make friends easily. One who does befriend him is Ryan Manzert who is friendly enough and acts as a protector of sorts. But is gradually revealed to be a very dark character.

Natral Selection is a well acted drama. But the pace is dreadfully slow. It's like an extended version of an after school special.

Natural Selection isn't a good movie, but it IS entertaining. Another review related it to a Hallmark movie channel special, and the comparison is apt. Though a few curses are sprinkled throughout and the subject matter has the potential to be darker and grim, it is actually extremely tame.

Our protagonist, Tyler, who I will henceforth refer to as Mr. Vanilla, is the new kid at a school full of more-annoying-than-usual-teenagers and a security force comprising of only Anthony Michael Hall (who, unsurprisingly, is by far the best actor here and actually gives a believable solid performance). Mr. Vanilla inexplicably befriends his polar opposite, a little stinker whose parents clearly don't love him because they named him Indrid. While their friendship begins over Indrid saving Mr. Vanilla from some (foot)balls in the face (not kidding, they even refer to it as this in the movie), their connection is absolutely baffling. Mr. Vanilla is a bland drone who has some redeeming but painfully by-the-book "heroic" qualities. Contrarily, Indrid is bursting with personality. He's a beguiling character, always starting shenanigans, giving delightfully over-dramatic speeches about natural selection, and causing chaos in an otherwise bland movie. This made him by far my favorite character of the film. With the exception of one scene where Indrid is confrontational with Mr. Vanilla's mother for literally NO reason the first time they meet, his qualms with his peers are understandable and relatable for anyone who has ever lived through childhood, and the viewer begins hoping that Indrid pulls through while these other terrible kids get their comeuppance.

...Which clearly should NOT be the movie's intent, considering Indrid is the *potential* school shooter. Somehow, this movie breathed so much life into its antagonist while making every other character either bland or downright despicable that I rooted for the very person it wanted me to pity and dislike.

Natural Selection also wastes too much time sneaking a teen romance in the mix between Mr. Vanilla and Paige (AKA Little Miss Perfect, or LMP). There was little reason for this to be in the film other than to pad the run-time (director Scheifele already directed a short film by the same name in 2009, seven years before this released, so it's possible he searched for new subplots to throw in the mix). Indrid does have issues with LMP and sabotages the budding relationship every chance he gets (to which I cheered), but otherwise her contribution was minimal.

Natural Selection also suffers from some issues that many films with a lower budget suffer from. Namely sound issues (odd levels of focus between foreground and background sound during outdoor scenes, and I swore Mr. Vanilla's mother's sigh in one early scene was recorded and repeated four times in a row), odd music choices, cringy dialogue, and bad acting. Mr. Vanilla's mother was sometimes painful to watch. Mr. Vanilla himself wasn't very good, but I could see he gave a solid effort. Ryan Munzert (Indrid) looked like he was having fun and was charismatic and cynical enough to be an absolute blast to watch, but not once did I feel he was dangerous despite all the film's foreshadowing. At best, he seemed like a little stinker, but that's what made this film entertaining enough to finish. Lastly, the ending was an absolute non-ending. It was actually so bad that I remember coming across it within the last few years as a separate clip on YouTube and being absolutely underwhelmed even without seeing the movie. Well, now I have, and the ending's still bad. It's just there to supply a quick mandatory resolution and give everyone a quick happy ending (except for Little Stinker, unfortunately).

Oh...last thing. There was this really weird Christian tilt throughout the film that made me wonder if this movie was originally intended to be marketed to Christian-only audiences. Multiple times throughout the film Indrid talks about the Christian God almost as if he's angry at a deity he doesn't appear to believe in (which doesn't realistically mesh with how most atheists and/or agnostics arrive to their conclusions). There's also a Christian program with a preacher that apparently everyone watches; Indrid is shown watching and mocking it at one point, while its message is on in the background when Mr. Vanilla is preparing for a heroic moment, which felt like proselytizing with convenient timing. I'm not completely sure this was intended to beat the viewer over the head, but it was definitely noticeable.

Overall, I don't regret my time with Natural Selection. It entertained me, but not in the way I expected. Is it so-bad-it's-good? Meh. Kind of. I wouldn't recommend this over classics like The Room or Birdemic, but it certainly never bored me.

I think this was ultimately a Christian movie without being preachy, so have at it.

Both the protagonist and antagonist show some decent acting. A similarity of a troubled past and a lack of love and being taken care of, make the characters struggle with their lives. How they cope with this darkness differs strongly, which makes for a great tension between the two. The antagonist shows great acting skills by not being completely demonized, yet a very manipulative and snide boy who can't stop inflicting his bitterness and nihilism onto others.

The downside of this movie is that it lays it on too thick. The overwhelming amount of dramatic past incidents is just too much to remain functional in bringing the viewer to sympathize with the characters, or even makes it incredible and unrelatable.

Not all the actors are great, but it is certainly decent enough to make it worth the watch.

The main topic of interest is what the protagonist will do with the different forces in his life that are pulling him in different directions, but thanks to the good acting of the antagonist this character is also interesting to watch, aside from the unfortunate fact that he is too easy to read because of the frequent references in the script to what he is planning to do.

Lighting and screenwork is also suited to the story; not too flashy, but directing focus the right way. Music is okay, but sometimes a bit too standard for my taste, as it sometimes reminded me of those free tunes that come with your computer.