a5c7b9f00b Jerusalem, 33 AD. Clavius (played by Joseph Fiennes) is a senior officer in the Roman army. He spends most of his time putting down rebellions but recently he has been given a different task. He is to be the officer-in-command at a crucifixion and ensure that no incidents occur at or after the executions. When the body of one of the executed disappears from its tomb, his own reputation is at stake and he does his utmost to recover it. The man who disappeared was knownYeshua, or Jesus… In 33 AD, a Roman Tribune in Judea is tasked to find the missing body of Jesus Christ who rose from the dead. When I saw the trailers I was excited, it seemed like there would finally be a movie about the story of Jesus that wasn&#39;t completely pandering to a Christian fan base. The story of Christ through the eyes of a nonbeliever they said.<br/><br/>It wasn&#39;t that. The movie was well done, the directing was clever (if not a bit overt with all the moving into the light when talking about the Messiah), writing was pretty intriguing at least in the beginning and the acting by Joseph Fiennes and Tom Felton was outstanding. Surprisingly I felt that Tom Felton actually did a better job. <br/><br/>This movie starts out really interesting. There&#39;s no clear bias. It&#39;s just a man trying to discern truth from fiction in a time where it can be extremely hard to tell. The inner character struggle of Claviusis really well done. You can see it pains him to do the things he does, but feels he must in order to achieve peace. <br/><br/>Let&#39;s talk about the good parts first, the reason it gets a 6 instead of a 3. The first and perhaps most important thing is that it isn&#39;t hateful. So many Christian movies nowadays are quick to say anyone who doesn&#39;t believe in their Almighty is a sinner and a heathens. This movie stays true to Jesus&#39; real message of love and not passing judgment which is something the Christian community could certainly use a little more of nowadays. Also on its side it is a slow burn thriller that keeps you guessing and intrigued for quite a while no matter which side you&#39;re on. It helps that it doesn&#39;t make things black and white. Many of the Romans who did kill Christ they&#39;re never paintedflat out bad, they are rationalizing their actions in a hard world to navigate. <br/><br/>Now on to the bad. It&#39;s super biased. I probably should have figured that going into it, but I got excited about maybe a more scientific or logical explanation people had at the time for what had happened. I knew in the back of my mind that this idea would be way to liberal for Hollywood, but a guy can dream. The writing starts out very strong, but after they&#39;ve unveiled their &quot;truth&quot; to you it&#39;sif they stop trying. It becomes just a celebration of Jesus rather than a story, whichfarfilm narrative is concerned is a huge no-no. The other issue I have with this film is its implications. The main character starts out methodically trying to find Jesus&#39; body. He uses deduction and critical thinking to get him quite deep into the whole mystery. However, to turn around and say, &quot;Hey! Stop! Don&#39;t ask questions! Just follow!&quot; Is a detrimental message to send to people. Critical and analytical thinking are unimaginably important to achieve a better world for all of us. This is a big issue and theme running through all Christian media, the idea of letting Christ guide you and not to question or think for yourself, if it was pressed any harder on people it would legally be considered brainwashing.<br/><br/>All this said, in my honest opinion there were a lot of parts of this movie I enjoyed even if I was disappointed with the ending. I think that the director/writer should have tried to offer two explanations for what happened and let the viewer decide. <br/><br/>There was one point in the film where Clavius talks to Jesus one on one. I was really hoping at this point he&#39;d say that some stuff was true and some wasn&#39;t, but regardless of what he chooses to believe happened, it doesn&#39;t matter. All that matters is that it&#39;s changing people for the better. But that didn&#39;t happen, so oh well. I just want to review ita film, so my take on this is pure based on the entertainment and technical aspect, not historical or the religious stuff.<br/><br/>The story was not bad, which is set in the Israel 33AD where a Roman man tells his story what he just went through. So the flashback begins, just like an unofficial sequel to &#39;The Passion of the Christ&#39;, the story continues after the crucifiction of Yeshua.<br/><br/>Sealed the tomb with the roman mark and guarded it by an armed force, the body of Yeshua goes missing. With the widespread speculation going around and the order from a higher authority, the Roman soldiers led by Clavius attempts to locate the body by following the hints. So the rest of the story is racing against the time where many unexpected and strange events follows.<br/><br/>It was a perfect setting for a tale like this. The characters were good, but in the end it certainly questions their actions based in what purpose. It was told from a Roman perspective and his transformation to what he ultimately believes.<br/><br/>The details were good while depicting the events. A simple narration with not so fancy stunts and others tricks, yet somewhere it loses its realistic approach to the supernatural thing.<br/><br/>Since they did not mention anything related to the real account, it is fairly debatable yet not worth debating seriously. Because different people have different opinion regarding religious, historical and entertainment angle. But absolutely this film is target every one of them.<br/><br/>This kind of films is worth watching, because each writer, filmmaker gives us a different take on the person who is behind the world&#39;s largest faith. So &#39;liked it&#39; or &#39;didn&#39;t like&#39; should come after the view. Though it was a quite enjoyable film.<br/><br/>6/10 The film, directed and co-written by Kevin Reynolds ("Fandango," um, "Waterworld"), is a nice-enough telling of the Resurrection of Jesus, which at times seems like it also wants to be a Very Special Episode of "CSI: Jerusalem." It's well-made and well-acted.
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330 weeks ago