Son of God
Directed by: Christopher Spencer
Written by: Christopher Spencer, Colin Swash, Richard Bedser, Nic Young
Starring: Diogo Morgado, Darwin Shaw, Sebastian Knapp, Greg Hicks, Amber Rose Revah, Joe Wredden, Paul Marc Davis, Fraser Ayres, Said Bey, Adrian Schiller, Simon Kunz, Roma Downey
Drama - 138 min
Written by: Christopher Spencer, Colin Swash, Richard Bedser, Nic Young
Starring: Diogo Morgado, Darwin Shaw, Sebastian Knapp, Greg Hicks, Amber Rose Revah, Joe Wredden, Paul Marc Davis, Fraser Ayres, Said Bey, Adrian Schiller, Simon Kunz, Roma Downey
Drama - 138 min
Son of God is a movie. Remove the external influencing factors of either belief or unbelief and there is a film to analyze here. Well, it is more of a miniseries edited down to feature length and stuffed into the shell of a film. Producers Roma Downey and Mark Burnett commissioned director Christopher Spencer to cut down 10 hours of History Channel’s The Bible into two hours of Jesus’s greatest hits. This explains the fade out transitions that feel like we’re headed to commercial and flashbacks to scenes that are not in the film but talked about like they are.
Spencer sets the audience up for an epic with expansive music by Hans Zimmer and a biblical narration while Jesus (Diogo Morgado) roams Judea collecting disciples and performing a miracle montage. Peter (Darwin Shaw) catches a boat full of fish from the Sea of Galilee, John (Sebastian Knapp), pulling double duty as narrator, witnesses a paralyzed man get up and walk, and in quick succession, we also get the multiplication of bread and fish, walking on water, and the rise of Lazarus. As disciples randomly appear from scene to scene, I can only guess the explanatory reasons for their respective arrivals were victims of the cutting room floor.
To address the inevitable comparison to Mel Gibson’s 2004 movie, The Passion of the Christ, which covers similar material, Son of God loses some impact as most everyone speaks in British English rather than Aramaic and some of the acting falls below expectations. Paul Marc Davis as Simon the Pharisee and Amber Rose Revah as Mary Magdalene are out of their element compared to their costars. However, Morgado as Jesus is effective and looks remarkably like the Buddy Christ from Kevin Smith’s Dogma (1999).
There was some controversy when The Bible miniseries first aired on television last year as the actor portraying Satan strongly resembled President Obama. This character seems to have been removed entirely during the conversion and does not appear in the movie thereby avoiding a rehash of the scandal.
Shot on location in Morocco, the scenery and background are a convincing portrayal of biblical Judea but the noticeable computerized aerial shot of old Jerusalem is shockingly amateurish. Every half hour or so we get a soaring establishing shot circling Jerusalem’s city walls or the Temple Mount with what sounds like the screeching eagle in the opening credits of The Colbert Report.
Was The Passion of the Christ released so long ago that we already need another retelling of the Gospel’s highlights, specifically a version of glaring lower quality in acting, atmosphere, and aesthetics? One favor Son of God does for the audience is that while we still witness an onslaught of whippings, beatings, a crown of thorns, and nails driven into palms, the torture porn comes nowhere near to the nightmare we endured in The Passion of the Christ. The violence inflicted here is only torture-lite compared to what we know the filmmakers could have shown us.
Son of God’s audience falls somewhere between a grade school and high school Sunday school class. The history and strife between the Jews and the Romans is dutifully chronicled, but following Jesus as he spreads his message from episode to episode is so basic it feels like it caters to folks who are unfamiliar with the story. There is a lack of depth, only brief discussion concerning outside issues, mostly by the Jewish high priests, yet there is a welcome coda post-resurrection most films in this genre do not cover. Son of God will easily soak up box office receipts from its intended audience of church goers, but this story should have stayed on TV where it could explore all of its issues in the time it takes to do so.
Spencer sets the audience up for an epic with expansive music by Hans Zimmer and a biblical narration while Jesus (Diogo Morgado) roams Judea collecting disciples and performing a miracle montage. Peter (Darwin Shaw) catches a boat full of fish from the Sea of Galilee, John (Sebastian Knapp), pulling double duty as narrator, witnesses a paralyzed man get up and walk, and in quick succession, we also get the multiplication of bread and fish, walking on water, and the rise of Lazarus. As disciples randomly appear from scene to scene, I can only guess the explanatory reasons for their respective arrivals were victims of the cutting room floor.
To address the inevitable comparison to Mel Gibson’s 2004 movie, The Passion of the Christ, which covers similar material, Son of God loses some impact as most everyone speaks in British English rather than Aramaic and some of the acting falls below expectations. Paul Marc Davis as Simon the Pharisee and Amber Rose Revah as Mary Magdalene are out of their element compared to their costars. However, Morgado as Jesus is effective and looks remarkably like the Buddy Christ from Kevin Smith’s Dogma (1999).
There was some controversy when The Bible miniseries first aired on television last year as the actor portraying Satan strongly resembled President Obama. This character seems to have been removed entirely during the conversion and does not appear in the movie thereby avoiding a rehash of the scandal.
Shot on location in Morocco, the scenery and background are a convincing portrayal of biblical Judea but the noticeable computerized aerial shot of old Jerusalem is shockingly amateurish. Every half hour or so we get a soaring establishing shot circling Jerusalem’s city walls or the Temple Mount with what sounds like the screeching eagle in the opening credits of The Colbert Report.
Was The Passion of the Christ released so long ago that we already need another retelling of the Gospel’s highlights, specifically a version of glaring lower quality in acting, atmosphere, and aesthetics? One favor Son of God does for the audience is that while we still witness an onslaught of whippings, beatings, a crown of thorns, and nails driven into palms, the torture porn comes nowhere near to the nightmare we endured in The Passion of the Christ. The violence inflicted here is only torture-lite compared to what we know the filmmakers could have shown us.
Son of God’s audience falls somewhere between a grade school and high school Sunday school class. The history and strife between the Jews and the Romans is dutifully chronicled, but following Jesus as he spreads his message from episode to episode is so basic it feels like it caters to folks who are unfamiliar with the story. There is a lack of depth, only brief discussion concerning outside issues, mostly by the Jewish high priests, yet there is a welcome coda post-resurrection most films in this genre do not cover. Son of God will easily soak up box office receipts from its intended audience of church goers, but this story should have stayed on TV where it could explore all of its issues in the time it takes to do so.
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