The Moore's have made the best low-budget, big fun movies and short films that the whole family can truly enjoy. The actors may not be long time pros that everyone would recognize, but that's what adds to the fun of their work in this movie. Ace Wonder is a thoughtful faith-based mystery that combines family drama, young sleuths and even some science fiction to make for a fun movie. You'll pick up missed details the second time around.

The writer/director, John Robert Moore, must hate himself. The property is an update of The Rover Boys via The Hardy Boys via The Three Investigators. A grandfather dies and leaves a puzzle for his grandson, Derek. Here is the first subplot: Derek wants solve the puzzle but is stymied in large part by the estrangement he has from his own father. The second subplot revolves around Ace Wonder, a ten year old would be detective and graphic novel writer. Now the basic idea isn't bad but the best actor in this mess is a tree which is some sort of energy transfer device created by the grandfather, an eccentric inventor who we learn felt estranged from Derek's father. If Moore had raised more money for the project, if Moore had hired actors who had more emotive abilities than the bark of a tree, if Moore had hired someone to edit his script, and if Moore had just stepped away from the project then a competent director might have given us a pretty good film. It is painful to watch this cast move about the screen destroying dialogue. I'm not sure how you would get a pre-teen to watch this mess. I suggest if your goal is a film for preteens then watch The Adventurer: The Curse of the Midas Box. If nothing else the contrast in acting is palpable.

I it is very curious how the few 10/10 ratings sound like promos for the movie. They all seem to have a lot of info about the production, have the same basic concepts in them and the overall feel of a sales pitch. On the other hand, the lower ratings are written with different styles and they each have their own thoughts about the movie. I also noticed the high ratings don't speak in the first person as all of the others do. The low ratings say stuff like "I thought" or "I felt like this part..." while the high ratings read like the back part of the DVD case.

----TLDR: Don't post advertisements on the User Reviews section please.....----