Journey to Bethlehem

Scene stealing megalomanic King Herod (Antonio Banderas) hams up marvellously in this enjoyable if totally forgettable pre-Nativity Christmas story. He presides over the kingdom of Judah towards which three magi are heading when they espy a bright star in the sky portending an event of great importance. Meantime, the well educated Mary (Fiona Paloma) is regaling against an arranged marriage with a man she's never even met! Anyway, times being what they are, she has to acquiesce and meets the fairly easy on the eye Joseph (Milo Manheim). It's not exactly hate a first sight, but one night she get's another - more celestial - visitor who leaves her with quite a belly ache. She tells her folks, then her would-be husband and is soon, unsurprisingly, on her own... Quite why Gabriel couldn't just have told everyone at once? Anyway, the increasingly paranoid Herod gets wind of this impending miracle and uses the three kings and his son Antipater (Joel Smallbone) to track down and destroy the potential usurper. That fact that we still celebrate Christmas eliminates any sense of jeopardy so this is essentially just a light-hearted piece of musical theatre that uses the two slightly soporific stars to tell us a story of when Mary met Joseph. The songs are standard fayre with plenty of perfect choreography, some earnest lyrics about love and loyalty (and a fun song from Banderas about absolute power) before Omid Djalili's visiting Melchior tries to explain what myrrh is for. It's wordy, cheesy but joyous seasonal stuff that I was rather surprised to find got a cinema release in the UK. You shouldn't hate it.

It's a musical, so I had to coerce hubby to go with me to see it. Not twenty minutes into the film and I knew that I wanted the soundtrack.

The music leans Disney, almost like the scores were compiled by a team of individuals from early 2000s Disney payroll.

Expect theatrics, dances, choreography...everything. It's done quite well. Very entertaining. The sets fall someplace between a small-stage theater and a big screen production. Simple script, but good. Well acted. Beautiful cast members, costumes, and settings.

Hubby confessed how much he enjoyed the film, especially the end. And of course, it's clean family fun.

Others may disagree, but I see the liberties taken to fill in gaps are reasonable and necessary. The movie presents a vision of the possible life and expletive of Joseph and Mary and the 3 wise men and, likely, the evolution of a soul when presented with the gift of God through Jesus Christ. Perfect? No. Well done? Absolutely!

Three wise men as stooges or comedic interludes? Nope, not even barely! They show the son of Herod (a prototypical seeker) learning from the 3 wise men in his transformation.

The movie shows what did happen and what might have happened in the gaps that exist in scripture. The characters are well-developed and the viewer is able to see the world from many different angles.

Frankly, if anyone criticizes the depiction of Mary because she doesn't fit into their "mental picture" of who Mary was and is, then shame on you because this Mary is much more realistic and approachable than any other depiction of Mary that I've ever seen or heard.

I've watched this film more times than I can count because it is helping me through medications for physical Illnesses that I have. I know the film isn't perfect, but WOAH! The characters and their passion for God and truth is clear and obvious.

Take what you will, but know this: God is in this story!

Adam Anders did a spectacular job with his first film. This movie was an amazing success and quite an amazing musical for the Christmas season. There were a couple of bits of the beginning that were confusing, but overall, it was quite spectacular. The cast performed powerfully and comedic at the same time, especially Milo Manheim and Fiona Palomo. Antonio Banderas was an amazing, creepy, terrifying antagonist that will give you chills. The music was unique, well-written, and beautifully composed. It was a good twist of modern music for something that was set in ancient Israel. The humor was also really great and was perfectly timed. Overall, this was the best musical I've seen since The Greatest Showman and I would recommend people to watch this with their family in December for sure.

I don't mind musicals, but they aren't necessarily my favorite genre of film. I saw the trailer for this movie and thought it looked corny, however, a friend wanted to see it so I thought I'd give it a chance. I have to admit I was blown away. Yes they do take artistic license with some of the nativity story, but the most important aspects are featured so I don't think anyone would say it was heretical. What really captured my attention though was the musical performances. The singers were amazing. The musical score was top notch. As I was watching it other artists and productions came to mind to compare it with. One of the early songs Antonio Banderas sang reminded me of the Imagine Dragon song Believe (it wasn't exactly like it, just gave me that strong hard edge vibe that fit the horrid King well). A song that Mary sang reminded me a little of the film The Greatest Showman. I even got Evita and Yentl vibes. The quality of the performances were that good. If you like musicals you should like this one. And, it doesn't stop there. The cinematography was done well and the production value was high quality. Great costumes, make-up, and set design. I couldn't find how much their budget was, but if it was low you sure couldn't tell it. I hope people give it a chance. The more people who go the longer it will stay in theaters. I might even go again if it doesn't leave theater's too quickly. It's a good family friendly movie, just right for this time of year.