It's really surprising to look at the IMDb page for this movie and see at at 8.2 out of 42 votes. The only explanation I can think of is the cast and crew who worked on this must've come here and given it their 10/10's because this movie is embarrassing.
The Last Descent tells the true story of John Jones, who tragically passed away in 2009 after getting stuck in Nutty Putty Cave, thus causing the cave to be closed for good because it was seen as too dangerous. Making a movie like this is a bit tricky because it is a sad ending, but sad endings aren't always bad as long as you have a purpose to your movie or a message to tell. This one gets it all wrong as it hits all the wrong notes. They could've pushed the faith-based angle. They could've done something inspirational, but instead they just showed a story of a guy slowly dying for 105 minutes and you leave the theater feeling depressed and angry as if the movie just forced you to re-live the worst day of your life for no apparent reason.
But not just that, on a technical aspect, this movie is a mess. The lighting is awful. The cinematography is pathetic. The camera angles are weird. The editing is choppy. The dialogue is poorly written. The direction is horrible. The acting is fine, but that's about it. Half of the movie goes back and forth between an awkward close-up shot of John and a worm's eye view of the rescue worker. The other half is a romance drama of how John met his wife and all their dating stories. Why? I guess they just didn't know what else to do with the time. Like they wanted to make a movie, but only had like 20 minutes worth of material, so they threw in a lot of filler and a bunch of unnecessary small talk.
Don't go see this movie. It's not worth your time. It's not worth your money. Some sort of story about John's passing could be told as long as they focused on his family and how they dealt with it, thus turning the movie into a faith-based film about life after death and how to deal with the death of a loved on. But this is not that movie. It's a cinematic mess that looks like it came from a junior high school student and makes you emotional for all the wrong reasons.
I don't like dropping 1/10's on movies I don't like. I have seen worse movies in my life and I've probably seen worse movies this year that were more offensive or more of a mess. But for me a 3/10 is pretty bad.
The Last Descent tells the true story of John Jones, who tragically passed away in 2009 after getting stuck in Nutty Putty Cave, thus causing the cave to be closed for good because it was seen as too dangerous. Making a movie like this is a bit tricky because it is a sad ending, but sad endings aren't always bad as long as you have a purpose to your movie or a message to tell. This one gets it all wrong as it hits all the wrong notes. They could've pushed the faith-based angle. They could've done something inspirational, but instead they just showed a story of a guy slowly dying for 105 minutes and you leave the theater feeling depressed and angry as if the movie just forced you to re-live the worst day of your life for no apparent reason.
But not just that, on a technical aspect, this movie is a mess. The lighting is awful. The cinematography is pathetic. The camera angles are weird. The editing is choppy. The dialogue is poorly written. The direction is horrible. The acting is fine, but that's about it. Half of the movie goes back and forth between an awkward close-up shot of John and a worm's eye view of the rescue worker. The other half is a romance drama of how John met his wife and all their dating stories. Why? I guess they just didn't know what else to do with the time. Like they wanted to make a movie, but only had like 20 minutes worth of material, so they threw in a lot of filler and a bunch of unnecessary small talk.
Don't go see this movie. It's not worth your time. It's not worth your money. Some sort of story about John's passing could be told as long as they focused on his family and how they dealt with it, thus turning the movie into a faith-based film about life after death and how to deal with the death of a loved on. But this is not that movie. It's a cinematic mess that looks like it came from a junior high school student and makes you emotional for all the wrong reasons.
I don't like dropping 1/10's on movies I don't like. I have seen worse movies in my life and I've probably seen worse movies this year that were more offensive or more of a mess. But for me a 3/10 is pretty bad.