Escape to the Movies: Son of God

[MortisLegio]

Double post...Sorry

 

[jecht35]

I knew this movie would be awful from the previews, as a christian I am just disappointed at the fact other Christians are paying for an awful movie,faith has got nothing to do with your wallets people! Also I like the avengers joke and how respectful BoB was in this review +1. But I still think your not being open minded enough about the new Godzilla movie. The trailer even specifically mentioned the 1950's version which was a more somber movie and very unlike the other Godzilla movies.

 

[dragonswarrior]

snips

I am an atheist skeptic and that is also one of my favorite films of all time. It's so well done...

OT: The opening to your review was brilliant. Also, from the brief shots and from what you said of the performance, it seems I would really like this actor's portrayal of Christ. Shame the movie/tv series had to be so shitty.

 

[teamcharlie]

The first half hour or so is pretty fun--lots to snark at. Incredibly white Jesus spends most of that time undressing everything in town with his eyes. After that, sadly, it just gets kinda tedious and heavily anti-semitic. Only worth it if you're seriously jonesing for something to make fun of. Which, fortunately, I was.

Side notes: for most of the movie, Pontius Pilate looks like he spent every waking moment between takes eating all the lemons in the world and hasn't pooped in weeks. Judas also does a pretty decent job at the whole acting bit, and Mary Magdalene's assorted screams are pretty choice. Too bad all of that is so few and far between.

 

[92Sierra]

Movie Bob, I have to say I like how you have grown as a movie critic. When I saw that you were reviewing this movie which I had never heard of, I thought that you would let your personal beliefs get in the way like you did for some of your other early movie reviews (See Book of Eli). But here, and at other movies you were able to detach yourself from the politics and religion and just review it as a movie itself. This is especially apparant here when you compared how it stood compared to the other Jesus films. Good work.

 

[Steve the Pocket]

I was like "Why is he summing up the entire review in the intro?" and then the punchline hit. I literally slow-clapped when the opening title rolled.

People who intend to make things like this really need to be sat down and told "Look. Literally nobody is going to be going to see this other than people who are already devout Christians. You're deluded if you think it's going to be an 'evangelism tool.' With that in mind, what are you actually hoping to accomplish here? Because, at the moment, all it's set to do is snooker people out of their money and forward it to some big-name distributor run by people who see your faith as little more than a vehicle for making easy money, and further validate that attitude."

In this case, I wouldn't be surprised if the creators of the film themselves got a raw deal. You know, like this recut was made without their awareness and they're getting way less royalties than if they had actually purposely made a movie themselves. Dunno why I have that impression; I admit I distrust the movie industry more than most people. (The wording of that sentence could be taken two different ways; both are accurate.)

I worked at a movie theatre when Passions of the Christ came out, and I can confirm that a very large portion of the population will come in well-organized droves to see any old drek they put up on screen that has a pretty white Jesus in it.

Also, they never buy popcorn. Not one of them.

Well, that's one ripoff they're smart enough to avoid, at least.

 

[Urameshi13]

Good review, Bob. I was very curious to see how you would handle this flick due to the misgivings you have over some of the, for lack of a better term, source material.

Also, regarding Sandler being involved in Pixels, just remember, he also brought us the awesome "Here Comes the Boom."

 

[GamerFromJump]

Was that Commissioner Bunnyface on the intercom?

 

[KiramidHead]

It's sad that we're stuck with a pretty bad Jesus movie in theaters right now. The Gospels tell a genuinely great story that I'd love to see a modernized take on. Then again, it's been told so many times that you'd almost need approach to the material, and recutting a not-very-good miniseries into a theatrical film is not the way to go. My recommendations for pre-existing Jesus films are Jesus of Nazareth, which was an excellent miniseries from Franco Zefferelli, and The Last Temptation of Christ, for those of us who don't mind a more radical take on the character. And for the love of God (pun intended), I hope Paul Verhoeven can get funding for his hypothetical Jesus. It would definitely be a fresh take and would be controversial in all the ways that entertain me so.

Now, I also love Biblical epics in general, especially since the best examples showcase all that lovely old school movie making that I absolutely adore. That's why I'm looking forward to Noah and Exodus, since they're revivals of a subgenre I love to death. Noah is especially interesting to me, since that's a story never really got the proper big budget presentation that other Biblical tales did back in the day.

Um... Bob... regarding your second end credit message...

Have you actually sat down and watched the original Godzilla from 1954? Because, yeah, the series as a whole may have diminished into the silly, the original movie (which the new one purports to be following the lead on) is an entirely different beast compared to what came after it (no pun intended... oh, who am I kidding? Pun very much intended).

Yeah, the original Gojira was almost a cosmic horror story. It was about characters dealing with a monster that nothing seem to be able to stop, the result of a weapon that had already destroyed two Japanese cities. It was about questions of the use of another weapon that could bring devastation to the world. It explored the mind of a man who could build such a weapon, but still doesn't want it's knowledge being let out. What could push a person to open that Pandora's box?

Yeah, I'm starting to get really annoyed at how Bob wants everything to embrace the silly. It's like he has a problem with movies even attempting to be dark and/or serious. It's the same as his silly rants about Batman, he's ignoring the widely acclaimed, serious version of the character just because he'd rather go "oh, shiny!" at every big blockbuster that comes out. One would think a man who extolled how Machete was "about something" would appreciate the same qualities coming from the new Godzilla, but noooooooooooooo, let's make everything silly and stupid just because.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

I believe we are missing the larger point of; Why do religious movies seem to always fail?

 

[inidu]

You know I'd like to see the Jesus story told from a non-mythological perspective, portraying his life as a series of incidents that while not supernatural, some might exaggerate to the point that when someone got around to writing his tale a century or more later it comes out sounding like he's got super powers. I'd like to see him portrayed as something of a rabble-rouser, definitely aimed at doing good but ultimately merely human and burdened by his frustrations with the corruption running society around him until ultimately he's labelled a criminal and suffers a brutal execution at the hands of the wealthy elite who are the heart of the corruption and want to make an example of him.

Then you should read the book The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ by Philip Pullman, which is precisely that: a secular retelling of the gospels in which Jesus' life is exaggerated and made legendary by his contemporaries.

 

[Skeleon]

Nice, you had me at the start there. I thought it was leading up to other Jesus-movies, like Passion of the Christ or something, not... that.

So... it's basically a movie spliced together from TV-episodes of that Bible thing? A clip show episode that got a theatrical release, except they took out the framing narration? That... sucks.

 

[blackrave]

Bob, Bob, BOB!!!
This movie IS origin story
For what you may ask?
For eventual Super Best Friends movie
Now we only need origin movies for Krishna, Buddha, Moses, Laozi, Joseph Smith, Sea Man and Muhammad CENSORED
Oh, wait...

 

[blackrave]

Spoiler: Here

Hulk smash?
Please!

 

[RA92]

Um... Bob... regarding your second end credit message...

Have you actually sat down and watched the original Godzilla from 1954? Because, yeah, the series as a whole may have diminished into the silly, the original movie (which the new one purports to be following the lead on) is an entirely different beast compared to what came after it (no pun intended... oh, who am I kidding? Pun very much intended).

Nah bro, the metaphor for nuclear holocaust in a movie released just a decade after Japan had two A-Bombs dropped on them IS TOTALLY SOME GOOFY LITTLE SHIT HAHAHAHA!!!11

Seriously. If the buildup of the Godzilla franchise from the original film to Godzilla fighting an ever increasing roster of ridiculous monsters had happened during Bob's time, there would have been no end of him complaining about the desecration of the original film that actually had something to say.

At any rate, the new one has Rodan in it, most of the scenes so far are in daylight (*shakes fist at Pacific Rim*), and the last trailer managed to create quite a bit of atmosphere without actually showing any of the monsters. So I'm personally a bit pumped.

 

[Undomesticated Equine]

REligion is waste of time and cash as well so i guess this movie captures that part of the deal.

So, you don't feel that humanity benefits from having a concise moral framework?

The ratio of people who are religious and are actively trying to be nice and adhere to the tenets of their religion to people who say that they are while they doing whatever they want or use religion to justify it hilariously small.
What you call "moral framework" does not exist what does exist is crowd control using religion as a dog so that the sheep go wherever you want them to go.

 

[Quanten1972]

You know I'd like to see the Jesus story told from a non-mythological perspective, portraying his life as a series of incidents that while not supernatural, some might exaggerate to the point that when someone got around to writing his tale a century or more later it comes out sounding like he's got super powers. I'd like to see him portrayed as something of a rabble-rouser, definitely aimed at doing good but ultimately merely human and burdened by his frustrations with the corruption running society around him until ultimately he's labelled a criminal and suffers a brutal execution at the hands of the wealthy elite who are the heart of the corruption and want to make an example of him. This kind of 1% vs. Jesus idea would strike a few chords these days and while I'm sure those who defend the privilege of the wealthy to push others around won't see it that way, maybe we'll get a few of those bible-thumping activists to stop pretending that their "faith" gives them the right to exploit capitalism to the detriment of others with this "we need God in government" crap.

Sorry to tell you this, but the mythic Jesus "is" the only Jesus. There are no records of him, his deeds, or anything else about his life in the orthodox documentation of history by historians. The gospels is where Jesus lived. You can't make a biopic of a man's life, when there is no man. It would be like producing a movie telling the true story of Perseus. How could you possibly do that?

Note: I am not wanting a religious battle. My above statement is a fact, not an opinion, or a belief.

Actually that isn't a fact. It's still being debated. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historicity_of_Jesus

Actually if you read it correctly, what is debated is whether a human being existed or not named Jesus and was crucified by roman. Most history schollars will say "highly probably yes", using some form of textual criticism. There are a few like Carrier which disagree with it, but the argument are weak, and sadly not peer reviweed IIRC. Well anyway Bert Errhman is one of the most contemporain holder of "jesus existed".

But where it crosses the line from historicity to complete religious myth, is *any* statement beyond "jesus was a jew crucified by roman around the early first century CE", and really nearly everything beyond that. As such the previous poster is right, eliminate the bible, and there is no record of any miracle or action of jesus whatsoever.

Personally as an atheist , I don't care either way (if a real man existed or not). In either case there is no evidence of gods or miracle or anything. So I don't really have money placed on whether a jesus existed or not. All I know is that as usual the utterly historically wrong picture of the long haired caucassian jesus was used in the film. A jesus from that epoch and region would not be caucassian and long haired. In fact the short haired black bearded guy we see during the moviebob presentation is a much better historical picture. A jesus of that epoch would be frisked at every travel at the US airport .

 

[Quanten1972]

REligion is waste of time and cash as well so i guess this movie captures that part of the deal.

So, you don't feel that humanity benefits from having a concise moral framework?

Moral framework predate religions. Moral framework originate from the need to have "rules" for social animals. Animals without moral will simply lead to the social group break down or disappear, whereas animal with morals lead to a strengthening of the social group, so the bigger the group the more you need such unwritten social rules. Heck you can even see moral behavior , like altruism in other species.

Religion co-opted moral framework and pretended to be the origin of it, but frankly, nothing absolutely nothing in the various religious book was not in place before. Did you really think the summerian did not have a moral framework ? From where do you think the golden rules come from ? And it was there even before. And you think murder was not punished or frowned upon before the OT ? Think again.

No really, religion is not the origin of moral framework in the slightiest.

 

[Quanten1972]

While the events of his life are subject to debate, at least one scholar from the time (Titus Flavius Josephus [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flavius_Josephus]) made several references to John the Baptist and Jesus "who was called Christ."

The josephus quote is highly disputed and thought to have been added partially or fully at a later date.

 

[Stabby Joe]

I think by this point it's safe to assume that bob WILL hate the new Godzilla film regardless of its quality. This has to be the fourth most recent pop against the film. I going to need to remember to quote this when his review comes out.