Movie Review "The Son of God"

 

Today was the premier of the movie that many of us bible geeks have been waiting for "The Son of God". For those of you who might not be aware the "Son of God" is based on Roma Downey and Mark Burnett's ten hour mini series "The Bible" that was aired on the History Channel last year.  While the mini series encompassed the entire bible "Son of God" focuses on the three years of Jesus' ministry here on earth.

Other than a few references to the Old Testament and Jesus birth at the beginning, the entire movie depicts Jesus' earthly ministry, His death and a very condensed version of the resurrection.  The movie was well done and certainly was respectful and fairly accurate in its depiction.

Those who are well versed in the bible will notice that some stories were abbreviated.  I was some what disappointed that some key verses of John 14 were left out.  When Jesus spoke in the movie He jumped from John 14.1 right to John 14.4.  Eliminating the three key promises Jesus made to His friends at the Last Supper (there is more than enough room in My Father's house, I will prepare a place for you and I will come and bring you there myself).  There were other scenes where the same thing happened but that is the one that jumped out at me.  These abbreviations are understandable given the time constrains of producing a movie.

Some secular reviewers gave the movie poor marks, one even went as far as to say there was nothing fresh or daring.  Well I take that as a compliment because if there was anything fresh or daring about the movie it would not have been true to the bible on which it is based.  While this movie is unlikely to convince a skeptic it is a great two hour + introduction into Jesus' life.

This is the first motion picture in ten years to tell the story of Jesus' life.  The last one was Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ", which primarily shared the last twelve hours of Jesus life with the audiance.

 Overall, I would recommend going to see the movie especially if you want to get a nice little over two hour over view of the life of Jesus.