Lightning Strikes (2009)

Fresh and Exciting

Fantastic!

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

I don't think Lightning Strikes is as bad as some of the other reviewers say, but I do think it is a movie with a lot of problems. Having seen almost all so far of SyFy's work over the past two years or so Lightning Strikes is nowhere near their worst nor is it an irredeemable movie. If anything, despite being very problematic, it is actually one of their more watchable efforts. There are good things at least. The music is decent, not mind-blowingly good but at least it fits the atmosphere of the movie. The finale is exciting and by far the highlight of the film, there is at least some suspense and the pace really picks up here. The creature does look good, much more serviceable than the ridiculous-looking ones that SyFy usually churn out. The human characters, with one exception, are clichéd and not developed so well, but at least have some likability, have an awareness of their predicament and show some decent chemistry. And the acting especially from Kevin Sorbo and David Schofield(who has the best line of Lightning Strikes, see in my review title) is above average. I was mixed on the technical side, the editing was at least comprehensible and the lighting had some atmosphere but the settings, reminiscent of someone's basement shows a serious hindrance in budget and apart from the finale the special effects are not great(though not as bad as those of most other SyFys). On the other hand, there are a number of bad things. First and foremost, the character of the mayor, he is incredibly irritating by how much of a stupid sissy he is and he is very overacted by Todd Jenson as well. I wish we learnt more about the creature as well, there was a really intriguing idea but the movie just doesn't do very much with it. Apart from one good line, I generally did the dialogue much too talky and very clunky in tone, while the story generally is slow and predictable with too much of an emphasis on the disaster movie genre rather than doing anything to develop the creature. The killings were rather weak too, lacking in any surprises or shock value and some of them are too brief as well. So all in all, a mediocre movie that still is above most of SyFy's movies. 5/10 Bethany Cox

I would like to add a few more goofs to the ones already listed: Isn't it illegal to park in front of a fire-station?The sheriff's house is so far from town that you need a car to get anywhere (son is complaining that he can't go anywhere because his car still isn't fixed), but close enough that a half-dead woman from the hospital can reach it on foot in 5 minutes.If they are going to ride a van into a lightning storm, shouldn't they have tested it first?Why are they using a voltmeter? It is emphasized several times that it is extremely important to start the anti-lightning machine at the right "amperage": 1000 Amp's. And the machine is indeed started up at 1000 Volts.I have given it a 2 out of 10 because it was so funny.

The first 5 minutes of this movie caught my attention. It was downhill after that. Hunky Kevin Sorbo played the sad-eyed sheriff of a cardboard one-intersection town with an idiot mayor who sported cheesy bleached hair. Awful production values throughout. The townspeople strolled casually through the streets, ignoring the sidewalks, and even the annual Pumpkin Festival was held in the same intersection. The storm-chasing scientist and his two grad student assistants were morons. ****Spoiler**** The monster had potential, but there wasn't even the usual low-budget explanation for his existence. The crusty monster-hunter was interesting but underused. I stuck around for the well-telegraphed climax--waste of time.

I have watched a lot of movies in my life, and from the biggest A productions, to quickie drive-in fodder from the 50's, to quirky little independent films, and Lightning Strike is without a doubt the silliest film I have ever seen! And I mean that in a bad way.I don't know where to start, the bad acting, the bad writing, the ham handed "character development," the fact that it's sort of a steal, bordering on a parody of Jaws, only with "a lightning storms a comin'" instead of a great white shark, or the seemingly endless scenes of Sheriff Hercules trying to talk the mayor to get people out of town because "a lightning storms a comin'" and getting people indoors would do no good, we have to get them out of town (storms don't happen outside of town?) so many times I thought the film had looped back about 20 minutes and started again.Perhaps it's that according to his film you can dodge lightning if you see it coming first, I think that's the main thing that broke the needle on my silly meter.Alright, alright I get it, the Saturday night Syfy movies are almost always dogs, and you know that coming into one and 19 times of out 20 you're going to end up getting just what you deserve for tuning in, but this puppy I fear abused that privilege.