Raising Dion (2015) User Reviews

Amazing to say the least

[sollymca · 9/10 · 9 November 2015]

I was totally compelled to watch as soon as it appeared on my screen. By the end of this trailer I was in tears. Kudos to the director for daring to be different. I can't wait to see the Feature version of this. I actually ordered the comic book version which is pretty good. The only reason I gave this a 9 is because all of us are anxiously waiting to see more of this. I do feel this superhero story should be told worldwide so that people of all cultures can experience a different tweak on the superhero trope. The mother Nicole was such a great narrator and the kid was so freaking cute. I'm pretty sure they already have something in the making whether its a television show or feature. I recommend this 100%.

Don't see the appeal at all

[Horst_In_Translation · 2/10 · 10 November 2019]

"Raising Dion" is an American live action short film from 2015, so this one is almost half a decade old now and it was written and directed by Dennis A. Liu. So with him in charge behind the camera and the two protagonists in here being Black, there is a great deal of different ethnicities working on this project. Shame that while focusing on this, they apparently forgot to deliver quality. Well, I cannot really blame the actors because the material they were give was so weak that probably nobody could have made it work and turn it into an interesting film. This is the story of a young boy who has superpowers and we see the every day struggles by the mother in bringing him up. these struggles go beyond the usual because things keep explofding and it is probably not the best idea either to get Dion angry. Add to that, a statement that tells us that the son's father died, felt pseudo emotional to me, going for a cheap sob story, even if there are no further elaboration on what happened and when. Of course, the female protagonist is not a woman you'd divorce from because of how great she is. And still how flawed and authentic. Oh well, honestly I wasn't buying any of this. And I am surprised, if not shocked, to see that this film was apparently good enough to some (no clue what's going on with the rating) that Netflix picked it up and turned it into a series. Oh well, judging from the quality here, there is no way I am gonna check out this most recent project by Liu. Technically, it did not even look bad, the camera angles, the special effects etc., but story-wise it was just such a bummer. Highly dispapointing. I was tempted to give this two stars out of five actually, but I had to reduce it even further when the super pretentious final quote of the mother happened that really could not have been any more shallow before the closing credits roll in. This film was a big failure to everybody with an open mind who sees through the wrapping. Highly not recommended.