Review of Ben-Hur (2016) by Nicole V — 18 Aug 2016

I still have not seen the 1959 Charlton Heston version, but I did see the mini-series from a few years ago. I was familiar with the plot coming into this, but even so, the movie still managed to surprise me at certain points, and since I'm such a visceral viewer, there were moments when I audibly reacted to the action on-screen.

I thought the director could have made better use of the 3-D--there weren't too many scenes where things were notably popping out at me. The chariot race was riveting, as expected, as was the sea battle sequence.

The acting was solid, and as one critic pointed out, Jack Huston brought notes to his performance which Charlton Heston could not. Like crying, for instance--the imdb trivia page said Heston could not cry and opted to cover his eyes instead.

Speaking of crying, I am a crier at movies and I did shed a few tears several times during this movie. For it's 2 hour and 30 minute running time, the movie moves briskly, and I felt the ending arrived rather quickly after the denouement.

At least it's concise and doesn't linger too long in any given scene. While the violence looks dialed down by others' standards, there were times when the scenes felt downright brutal and I wanted to avert mine eyes.

There were some Cloverfield-ish shots in here where I had difficulty focusing, but it could have been the 3D. For me, this was a "once is enough" movie--but it's still worth that one viewing.