Son of God - A Movie Review

I watched Son of God this past weekend at my local theater and decided to share my thoughts. Not sure why, except I started blogging a couple weeks ago and I'm starting to like it.

Disclaimer: I'm not a movie critic, as a matter of fact, this is the first movie I've ever reviewed. Although, I did sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night. 

Disclaimer: I'm biased and know it. Any movie that comes close to my own values will automatically get an extra star.

  4/5

Not many have rated it as high as I have. I'm OK with that, mainly because I think it's weaknesses can be a strength.

Strengths
Realistic Characters - I loved the disciples. They were gruff with shaggy beards. Some with hair and some without. I could relate to them because they seemed like normal guys.

Great Setting - It was filmed in Morocco and looked like what I expect Judea to look like in A.D. 30. I've never been to Israel and don't know what the area looks like personally, but I'm assuming it looks something like the movie depicts.

Thought Provoking - I'd love to say that I would never have reacted to Jesus the way the Pharisees did. The movie caused me to stop and ask myself how I would have reacted. The reality is that I'm part of the modern day religious system similar to how the Pharisees were in their day.  I could compare and contrast but I hope you get my point without it.

Weaknesses
Conclusion - While watching the movie, I tried to think about how someone who didn't know the story would interpret it. My first thought when leaving the theater was that they lead you to believe that 40 days after Jesus resurrected, he disappeared. Then all the original disciples died as martyrs except one.  End of story. Really. It would have only taken five more minutes to describe what God accomplished through the disciples, and show how the resurrection changed everything.

Lack of Tension - When you read the Gospels chronologically, you start to get a sense of God's plan and how the tension builds from Jesus' first miracle till he enters Jerusalem just before Passover. I have to admit that trying to recreate the last 3 years of Jesus' life in a two hour movie is nearly impossible. Personally, I was able to fill in the gaps, but again, if you didn't know the story, it might have seemed odd that Jesus was such a threat to the religious establishment.

Summary
I liked the movie, even with its weaknesses. There are many sites that describe all the inaccuracy, etc. but I didn't notice anything that warranted that much scrutiny.  I think they just create a reason to discuss the movie, and Jesus in particular.

Go see it and keep in mind that they are only presenting a very small slice of the whole story.

You can find professional opinions here:
Washington Post
Roger Ebert
Christianity Today