Movie Review - Son of God

I went to the movies and saw Son of God a few days ago. From what I understand the movie took in 26.5 million the first weekend at the box office. Nobody expected that since the movie didn’t even open in all the theaters. I was deeply moved by it and highly recommend Christians take their unsaved friends and family to see it. Even if you don’t take someone with you, it’s worth seeing for no other reason than to show Hollywood that this type of movie is a money maker. Here are my thoughts on the movie.

Accuracy: There were some creative licenses taken with the timeline of Jesus’ life and with the some of the dialogue for dramatic affect. Some parts were also left out. This was done to present a story dramatically to show the political intrigue of Pilate, the Pharisees, and Jesus as they reached the climax in Jerusalem. It in no way detracted from the story or caused me to pause at the changes. They were true to the concept of the Gospel even if they did rearrange it a little. Beside, if they had focused on the whole story of Jesus instead of a slice of His life and times, the movie would have been way to long. I’d have to give them an A minus.

Message: The message of this movie is that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, God Incarnate, who came to Earth and died on the cross for our sins, and that we can only obtain salvation through believing in Him. It was not watered down or said apologetically. Jesus declared it many times in the movie. It was the main theme. I’ll give them an A plus plus plus for this.

Remake of The Bible: Some have criticized Son of God as a remake of The Bible on the History Channel. This story did have a number of clips from The Bible. But overall, it made a compelling story even if you had seen The Bible. This didn’t feel like a remake. Instead it felt like the story told from a different perspective. But because it did use some scenes from The Bible, I’ll give this a B minus.

Interesting Features: I loved some of the interesting perspectives and features in this movie that were in the Bible but weren’t shown in some of the other movies made about Jesus. I loved how they showed that Pilate was not an innocent bystander of the high priest’s schemes. He was an evil man who sentenced a man to death he knew to be innocent for expedience’s sake. It wasn’t the first time he killed an innocent person. This is the historically accurate Pilate of the Roman Empire.

I also was pleased that they showed the women in Jesus’ life were disciples who followed Him just as the men were His disciples. Mary Magdalene, who was not a prostitute or Jesus’ girlfriend as some imply, was a main character in this movie.

The images of the Passover where the lamb was slain at the same time Jesus died as the Lamb of God were powerful. When Jesus died and an earthquake shook the temple and tore the veil, I was enthralled.

There were other great scenes in this movie like how the crowds would show up wherever Jesus went and how the children would follow Him around. I also loved how they showed that not all of the Jews agreed with the Pharisees. The High Priest, Caiaphas, made sure the people who would do his bidding were the only ones allowed to enter when Jesus’ fate was decided. Another great part of the movie was after Jesus ascended to Heaven and Peter told everyone that they needed to get busy. And there was a hint of Jesus appearing to John at the end of his life as He did in the book of Revelation to declare that He was coming again.

Overall Rating:  ♥  ♥  ♥  ♥  ♥

Overall, I give this movie five stars even with the problems I mentioned. I don’t know how this movie could have been made better. The message that Jesus is the Son of God was powerfully portrayed. At the end, after the credits stopped rolling, I sat there for a moment taking it in. I didn’t want to leave. I was deeply moved by this movie.

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