Review of Evan Almighty (2007) by Harry W — 18 Dec 2013

On the surface, Evan Almighty doesn't sound like a good film, because it takes the supporting character from a Jim Carrey comedy and gives him his own spin off, yet the character Evan Baxter was meant to be a supporting character and should stay that way. Making a spin off of such a great film is also a challenge, and I honestly did not think Evan Almighty would have what it takes to pass.

It really didn't, despite its ambitions.

The context of the story about Noah's Ark is absolutely ridiculous, so moving it into a contemporary context for the sake of a comedy film is actually a decent idea. Yet the story has everyone looking at the main character like an idiot, and that is where the main source of humour for Evan Almighty comes from. There are little jokes and more visual effects, which would explain how the film came to be the most expensive comedy ever made. Yet this is strange because $175 million is way too much to put into the budget of a comedy that's a spin off of a Jim Carrey film, particularly after the abysmal box-office performance of Son of the Mask. Clearly the studio producing the film thought Steve Carrell's comedic charms could carry the paper-thin plot to the end, but in the process they forgot to write jokes for him to work with and so instead the majority of the comedy pertaining to him comes from watching him struggle or suffer. That's pretty sadistic when you think about it.

Evan Almighty just forgot that it was a comedy and it takes its story way too seriously. While it is filmed very well and has great visual effects, it completely forgets its roots as a comedy and is very rarely likely to have viewers laughing as was the case with me, even though I'm a fan of cast members Steve Carrell, John Goodman, Morgan Freeman and Wandaa Sykes. While they did all give good performances, they weren't funny enough due to working with a lacklustre script.

Somewhere along the way in the production of Evan Almighty the crew must have gotten too biblical because they put more effort into making Evan Almighty a moving story than a comedy, and while it does succeed at giving meaning to the actual story behind Noah's Ark and why its important, this is a comedy film. Not a contemporary bible epic, but you wouldn't be able to tell by watching Evan Almighty.

Really, Evan Almighty is easy to watch and does have strong technical qualities and a talented cast, but its an excessively high-budgeted comedy which has less laughs than use of the film's message repeatedly hitting the viewer over the head.