Review of Son of God (2014) by Typhon Q — 16 Mar 2014

It's probably bad that I came out of this movie thinking about how great Noah looks. Undoubtedly, the relatively straightforward tale of a man tasked with saving the planet in the face of a flood will work better than the mess of a film that Son of God is.

Cut from what was apparently a relatively successful series covering the entire Bible, Son of God brings the focus to the life of Jesus of Nazareth and all of his accomplishments. This in and of itself is a problem. Despite cutting out the first half of Jesus's life, the filmmakers still end up with a massive amount of material to work with. Unfortunately, they try and cram all of it in. As a result, we get Jesus and his pack of disciples galloping from miracle to miracle, with essentially nothing to bridge the gaps in between. This works terribly. What we are left with is a superficial glance at all of the deeds of an intriguing man and no exploration of what was behind them.

As Jesus, Diogo Morgado does not work. He comes off as naive, uncertain, and dumb. He fluctuates between dead serious and hopelessly astonished. Unfortunately, he spends most of the time as the latter, which results in a bunch of moments where dramatic developments are rendered moot by the childish astonishment upon Morgado's face. The rest of the cast is rather underused. Most of the disciples come off as background characters, doing nothing more than filling the necessary quota of followers. Mary Magdalene tagged along incessantly and becomes ridiculously hysterical by the end. Two brighter spots were Potius Pilate and Nicodemus. They add a bit of a sense of conflict to a movie devoid of it.

With its rather bold title, one would expect Son of God to at least explore the titular character a tiny bit. Alas, this is not the case. This heavy handed film gives a quick glance at everything in a vast story without giving meaning to any of it. Things are left open to interpretation, entirely so, with no hints at some possible explanations. As a result, we are forced to make our own connections to them. I, for one, kept on thinking of Monty Python's excellent Life of Brian. "Blessed are the cheesemakers" might not be what Jesus said, but it's still more than anything that is said in this film.