This movie is absolutely abysmal. OK, I get that it's made with a limited time, on a limited budget, but at a certain point, you need to consider if you can still make the movie you're trying to make. I understand that the costumier had to leave early, so maybe consider whether you can still make a movie with costumed superheroes who have their powers taken away. Because if you take their powers away, and *spoiler* don't have them get them back in the final minute (Hey, that would have made a more interesting ending, huh?) then what you have is just people in costumes. If those costumes look like someone put underwear on their head, maybe consider making a different film. Amateur costumes can look good, but if you're lacking money, you need to put in time and skill to make up for it. You need to cover over the bad parts and accentuate the good. If, for example, the scene has someone bleeding to death from a stab wound, and someone is asked to go get a bandage, and that actor decides to saunter off with less urgency than I would go to make a cup of tea, then maybe as a director, it's time to offer a bit of direction. Like for example, "You're supposed to be the guy who's superpower was, up until now, super speed. RUN!" If I had super speed and lost it, I'd find it agonising that it took so long to get anywhere. In a race against time I wouldn't take such an agonisingly long time to do every single thing. Like the first round, where you have a 95 second fuse. From the moment they're told it's lit, they literally stand there for 52 seconds! I thought you were in a hurry to make this film? Maybe make a dash for the fuse, and the time you just saved filming that could have been more usefully spent? Like for example the guy you're fighting, Sledgesaw, could had had, for example, a saw of some kind? So his name makes sense? Rather than being dressed as a circus strongman from the fifties? Also, I presume you didn't show anyone's superpower due to budget, but surely you could have shown superspeed? Perhaps mix the powers up and have Shadow's being superspeed? Have the injection wear off at the last minute, film her carrying Charge away, speed up the film, and you've got a much improved ending. But that's the real issue. If you have to cut stuff while you're filming, you've not looked at how what you have left hangs together. If you've worked out a budget to start, and cut the parts you can't do, you can make what you have work better. You could barely forgive that rickshaw doesn't have a costume. James Remar can more or less carry those bits. Even Shadow doesn't have a costume so much as a hairstyle. In short, the film lacks polish. It lacks money. But it doesn't make up for those things with time, skill or ingenuity. It didn't have time to do things better with what it had, and due to the last minute hacked up script, it then lost any benefit it might have had from plot, writing or directing. But... surely they knew what the budget was? They had $20,000, so why not cut those extra scenes from the start and get the film to work with the funding they had?
