Review of God's Not Dead (2014) by John M — 03 Sep 2014

Can't we all just get along? When Josh Wheaton (no relation to the Avengers) enrolls in a college philosophy class, he stands up for what he believes in to his professor (Kevin Sorbo) and refuses to give written confirmation that God is dead.

This really has been a year for Christianity in film; between this, Son of God, and Heaven is for Real, religion has been making quite a splash at the box office, especially when you bring into consideration their low production budgets.

From the opening credits, you can tell that this is going to be one of those lesson movies where everybody who originally was rigid learns about acceptance. Now I am not a terribly religious person, but that doesn't mean that I cannot relate to a story that deals with faith.

Let me momentarily digress to this to a TV show that I'm highly enjoying, but a little late with getting on the bandwagon: Lost. I may only be on season 3, but I take no umbrage with characters that have strong religious convictions, I only have a disconnect if a character is being a dick about it.

Any counterargument to believing in Jesus is only presented in the most cynical of lights, and all of the antagonists are not just atheists, they are vocally anti-God, and loudly so. Even from the get go, I don't believe that there are any college professors that are this confrontational with their students, and so overtly forceful in pushing their own personal beliefs.

When you get down to it, this is very TV movie, and the amateurish acting leaves a lot to be desired, and makes any discourse presented less compelling. The only story you have any investment in is the teacher vs.

student story, because rooting for the underdog is easily accessible. All of the side stories are just there for padding, and honestly, I kept on forgetting some of them were even in the movie; they could have easily been cut down for brevity's sake and turned this into an 80 minute feature.

There is cherry picking a plenty in this movie, and it is destined to be played at 10th grade religion classes.