Full disclosure: As a backer of the kick-starter and fan of David Simpson's books I am undoubtedly biased, however, knowing what I do of the project and team behind it I'm certain that they will appreciate my honesty...
Firstly, after reading the critics reviews so far I know that initial responses have been something of a mixed bag and probably not the kind of overwhelming 'smash hit' impact any writer / director / actor / editor / producer would hope for, that being said, and all things considered, this movie is an absolute phenomenon and deserves so much credit; the fact that it exists is a potential game changer for the industry and for content creators who have a vision and something to share but have had little access up to now..
My initial overall impression mirrored what I have subsequently read from several other sources; it was dominated by the sound-track which although fantastic in its composition, is unfortunately overbearing in its application and something of a distraction in scenes where the dialogue really needed to be brought to the fore.
However, knowing something about how the movie was made this is not entirely surprising; whereas scenes with beautiful block-buster quality cinematics have been achieved here on a relative shoe-string budged, compromises were inevitable; professional sound capture would perhaps have been perhaps a bridge too far for such a small team on such a small budget and post recorded sound was a necessary compromise (not uncommon for any movie but in this case I believe most if not all of the dialogue was captured in this way - no small feat!)
Another technical limitation is revealed in low-light scenes where the gorgeous cinematics we already know this director is capable of capturing are lacking, let's be fair and honest; this is down to technical and budgetary constraints alone, and while David and Jenny have done the best possible job of making the most of the low-light camera equipment available as well as post-processing, the darker scenes inevitably have a different quality to the well-lit scenes resulting in a slight disconnect between the two which somewhat disrupts the flow of the production as a whole
So far everything I've said about the sound and cinematics relates to areas which to my mind are actually a massive credit to this director and his small team; yes, the limitations of technology and budget are apparent, but when one considers that this entire movie was made on a budget of tens of thousands rather than millions what has been achieved here is staggering, and given just a (relatively) small bump up in budget (i.e. 6 figures rather than 5) I have no doubt that none of these issues would be factorings, higher end low-light cameras would have allowed David's obvious talent and vision for cinematics to have flowed seamlessly from start to finish, and had he been able to capture sound and dialogue to a higher level I feel he would have been confident to lower the soundtrack in certain moments..
Another criticism which has been raised is that the length of the movie isn't justified and that some of the dialogue is over long; while I will concede that some editing may improve the feature overall, I also feel that the sound and visual continuity which a bump in budged would bring could largely negate this criticism - where some seem to have seen pretension, I see the cinematic talent of a Kubrick partially obscured by nothing but technical constraints and limitations...
When one considers the catalogue of work of a director such as Peter Jackson prior to his being given the LOTR project, all I can say is *watch this space* because with this one incredible undertaking David Simpson has proven his credentials as a writer, director, (and even as an actor), and I predict that this will be the start of a significant career in movie making
