Regardless of your personal beliefs, the biblical rapture is a potentially excellent premise for a movie.

The most devout followers of God are ripped from their earthly bodies while everyone else is left to deal with a demonic apocalypse? Count me in.

Unfortunately, even with Nicolas Cage (who is our greatest living actor), “Left Behind” fails at every conceivable level. It’s obviously targeted at Christians, which is fine, but that audience deserves something with at least a little bit of craft.

For the uninitiated, “Left Behind” is actually the second film adaptation of an exceedingly popular novel series about the Christian version of the apocalypse.

 Cage plays an airline pilot who is flying across the Atlantic when the bad business starts, while Cassi Thomson plays his daughter who is stuck in New York City.

It’s clear from the start that this is a shoddy production in every way.

The cinematography is heavily reliant on awkward angles and zooms, while characters don’t converse so much as they awkwardly recite lines into each other’s faces.

It absolutely reeks of poor direction from Vic Armstrong, a former stuntman whose last directorial credit was in 1993.

It’s a bummer because there’s something to the idea of a low-budget apocalypse movie that isn’t just a big effects showpiece like “2012.”

It would be fascinating to see the deterioration of society as all the sinners and heathens realize they’re essentially doomed to hell on earth.

Sadly, “Left Behind” doesn’t even try to hit that angle. Possibly in order to gain a secular audience, it doesn’t wear its evangelical message on its sleeve.

In fact, the whole rapture thing is mostly forgotten in the third act of the film, which is mostly a junky thriller about trying to land an airplane.

The entire world is falling apart, but the audience is treated to the exciting story of a bunch of people on a plane spouting horrific dialogue at each other.

When some people on the flight suddenly vanish, one character even blames the lone Muslim onboard.

There’s definitely nothing awful or gross about that.

Left-leaning Hollywood doesn’t do much to appease the audience of films like “Left Behind,” so these types of films tend to be fairly profitable regardless of quality. However, it just feels like someone identified an unserved audience and decided to barf out something for money, with little thought given to making a decent movie.

For that reason, “Left Behind” feels exploitative of its audience, and it’s difficult to recommend to anyone, regardless of their religious beliefs.

It barely acknowledges its Christian roots and does absolutely nothing well as a piece of apocalypse fiction.