Review of God's Not Dead (2014) by Thequietgamer — 16 Aug 2014

It's a movie made by christians with the hopes to not only entertain fellow christians, but also spread the message and love of Jesus to nonbelievers. Basically the standard of any christian film. As you can see from the vast majority of reviews on here it doesn't do a good job of drawing in nonbelievers, and will offend all but the most open-minded of them.

This has to do with the way the non-believing characters are portrayed. It paints atheists and other nonbelievers as just bad people, who do nothing but hurt those who are christians, whether they be family or strangers, and constantly try to get them to deny their faith. I get that there are people like that in the world, but the movie doesn't show that there are those who are tolerant of it. Instead painting every non-christian as that. It will offend non-believers for that, and not because of it's message that "God's not dead.".

As far as things like acting and plotting go it's not too bad, but could be better. Outside of a select few (basically just the main two characters) the acting could be better. The main plot is very well done, but is surrounded by a few lackluster sub-plots that really just feel like unnecessary intrusions that break up the flow of the movie. To make matters worse only a few pay off in the end. Still the main plot delivers and, outside of the previously mentioned way of how it portrays non-christians, it won't (or rather shouldn't) offend with it's message.

Watching the back and forth between the teacher and student is actually quite entertaining. The movie manages to make a compelling argument for why "God's not dead," and it does so without shoving religious belief down the throats of the non-believing audience. It more or less shows why people follow the christian faith and believe in God, gives a strong argument for why it's right, and tells you to do with that what you will. It's pretty impressive stuff that doesn't come off as preachy.

So at the end of the day the movie isn't perfect, but for christians it will be one empowering film that any non-believer should see. For non-christians it has the potential to offend quite a bit, but if they are willing to accept that it's portrayal of non-christians is flawed, and solely just watch it to see why christians believe the way they do, then they may find an eye opening film. One that might not get them more interested in learning more about Jesus, but will at lest show them that christians aren't lunatics for their faith. My total score for the movie is a 7.5/10.