Review of God's Not Dead (2014) by Alasdair B — 25 Feb 2015

Faith based films have always disappointed me. While I don't think this one is as bad as Left Behind (Nicholas Cage), it's a close second. The point of the film is to debate the existence of God with atheism. This could have been an interesting discussion, but sadly this is one of the most biased and one sided film I have ever seen. This review is not an attack on Christianity, or any other religion. I will make a few points on my opinion, but I am mainly here to simply review the movie. "God's Not Dead'' is directed by some guy named Harold Cronk and stars Kevin Sorbo, Willie Robertson, Korie Robertson, and a bunch of people I have never heard of before ever.

The plot, and there are a few subplots, but the main plot follows a young man named Joss Whedon--I like to call him that--I mean Josh Wheaton (Shane Harper). Josh is a young Christian college student enrolling in a prestigious college. He enrolls for a philosophy class taught by Mr. Ratburn--excuse me--Professor Jeffrey Radisson (Sorbo) who is an atheist. On the first day of class he--for some reason--tells his students to write three words: God Is Dead, on a sheet of paper. Josh of course is disgusted by this and refuses to write what the teacher said. So, Radisson challenges Josh to lecture his class on his world view and prove that God exists. Does he? Not really.

It should be said right away, the acting in this film is not good. It's very reprehensible and just plain dull. If anyone did a great/good job it was Kevin Sorbo. He actually gave a coherent performance. The character he is given is horrible, but he delivers what the script wants him to. The young man playing Josh was okay. I mean, it wasn't a good performance, but it wasn't as atrocious as it could have been. Everyone else is basically Hallmark channel bad. The cast is mostly horrible.

On a logistical level, this film is poorly made. The direction is god awful. I's horrid. The director is clearly clueless. The script is probably what fails the most. Every bit of dialogue is absolutely generic and horrendous. The characters in this film are not even one note. They lack any human emotion. None of the characters are interesting, none of them feel real. They are cookie cutter characters. The main kid we are supposed to root for is just a brick. The only somewhat interesting character is Sorbo's. He was the only character who had any valid points or that was in any way somewhat compelling. The camera work in this film is laughable. The shots are terrible. I was screaming internally, "why are you filming from that angle?''. Worst of all had to be the score. The symphonic beats were so unoriginal and lazy. It's obvious that aside from Kevin Sorbo, no one has any idea what they are doing. No one knows how to do their job.

On a intellectual level the film is very juvenile. First of all, the fallacies. You could rename this movie: "Fallacies 101''. The entire film is chalk full of fallacies. The freshman's opening argument was hinged on his response to the professor. Ratburn states, "you can't prove there is a God,'' and the kids response was, "well you can't prove there isn't one''. This is not a logical valid argument. This is a classic example of a bad argument. It's just circular reasoning. The entire film is basically a straw man fallacy. It paints atheists as abusive, mean, and horrible people. Radisson is extremely abusive to Josh and other characters such as his wife. This is extremely biased. Whether you are religious or not, I think we can all agree that no matter who you are, you can be abusive. But no; the film insists that atheists are horrible and that Muslims are abusive. I will never defend the Koran. It is a terrible book. However, the stereotypes presented in this film are extremely offensive. There is a Chinese kid, a messed up Muslim family, and uncaring cruel atheists. All while, the Christians are perfectly nice people.

I understand that there have been cases where a student has been abused or shamed by their teachers in college. To pretend like these things don't happen now and then is ignorant. The fact of that matter is; if you are religious there are options to go to a Christian school. If you don't want to hear secular teachings, go to a private school. Otherwise, all major prestigious universities will teach that god doesn't exist.

The films closing statement--or you could call it the last debate--ends with Josh trashing Steven Hawking. The writers have no idea what they are doing. The kid looks like a fool up there debating a genius like Hawking. His final statement is directed at the teacher. "Why do you hate God?'' he screams over and over. And then, in his next sentence, he completely demolishes his already incoherent and stupid point. "You can't hate what you don't believe in.'' That's right. God's Not Dead does nothing, but defeat itself.

"God's Not Dead'' is another faith based fail. It made a ton of money, and has six million likes on Facebook. That does not change the fact that it is poorly directed, horribly shot, badly acted, terribly written, and an illogical piece of nonsense. It's not the worst I have ever seen, simply because of Sorbo. It's also interesting and somewhat entertaining to see a movie defeat itself. If you are a Christian, this film will offend you. I have read reviews by Christians saying they thought it was heavy handed and dull. That should be telling you something.