Joining the prestigious likes of the original Battlestar Galactica and the Nicholas Hammond Spider-Man show, TV show The Bible makes the leap from the small screen to the big screen with this new film about history’s most famous figure.
Son of God is a radically cut-down version of the ten hour mini-series, which proved successful enough in the USA to prompt producer Mark Burnett (the man behind reality TV hits like Survivor and The Voice) to plan a theatrical release. There are scenes here that didn’t appear in the show, but for the most part, it’s an assemblage of moments familiar to anyone with a passing knowledge of The Greatest Story Ever Told.
The man playing Jesus, Portuguese model-turned-actor Diogo Morgado, looks like he stepped off the cover of a Mills & Boon novel, and he harms any attempts to take the film seriously.
Indeed, there is very little grit or texture here, just a lengthy trotting out of stories all of which have been much more convincingly told elsewhere. I found myself getting nostalgic for Mel Gibson’s controversial The Passion of the Christ, which at least had some drive behind it.
The radical effect of Jesus’ message is something of a foregone conclusion in this film, which brings new meaning to the phrase “preaching to the choir”. If I wasn’t watching this in a theatre, I might’ve presumed I got sent the film on VHS after responding to a late-night infomercial.
As an exercise in reverence designed to be enjoyed by the faithful, it does what it sets out to do. As a movie, it’s a complete failure.
