Kanye West: Jesus Is King

Imagine an Imax screen that's 4 stories high. Now imagine seeing a blurry photo of some thistles while choir music plays. It's jarring and at times nauseating. A lot of this video is shot with bad camera angles and very little movement of the camera. In fact it looks like the Heaven's Gate cult got back together to sing Gospel.

The good news is that the performance by the Sunday Service Choir is excellent. This music video disappointingly fails to showcase them as the vocal force they should be.

I don't know why they shot in this art installation. It makes the whole thing claustrophobic with its extreme close-ups. An audience doesn't need to see Kanye West's meter long chest hairs. An audience doesn't need to be made to feel cramped when IMAX is made to exude space.

Speaking of which, Kanye's barely on screen for 5 minutes. A lot of it, covered in shadow.

I recommend renting this one and enjoying it on your own TV with a promotion credit or something. It's really half an hour. The people in the audience that bought the large popcorn tubs and sodas didn't even have a chance to get started with their munching before the credits came up.

It definitely wasn't what I expected of Kanye but I loved the abstract cinematography and the choir was really nice. I think it's pretty neat how the film wasn't focused on Kanye as much and was instead focused solely on Jesus and His gospel. To see Kanye not sucking up all the attention and being self centered is pretty refreshing. I definitely was shocked when the end credits came up so early haha. I was hoping to see some more visuals and songs from his album but I guess he wanted it to be more raw and artistic. Overall I'm glad I saw it for the experience.

Kanye uses Kubrick-esque cinematography to explore raw musical ideas on the theme of worship. It's challenging for someone who just wants Kanye. It's a near-perfect glimpse inside his creative vision - beyond what a casual Kanye fan will appreciate. Will likely receive terrible reviews - which I believe is exactly in line with Kanye's vision for this project. As always, he challenges pop culture norms. People will "get it" in a few years when the culture catches up to him.

Jesus is King's success for you will solely depend on your honest views of Kanye West himself as the film leans on both sides of praise as well as criticism.

If you like Kanye for his visual presentation, Jesus is King will satisfy that need. There are some stunning wide shots of the Sunday Service group within the art installation Rodden Crater. The choir as well sound amazing together and the IMAX format makes you feel the echoes of the acoustics of where they recorded.

If you don't like Kanye and find his work pretentious with no reason behind it, Jesus is King won't change your mind either. The film lacks any real backstory of Kanye's train of thought in the film, which is severely needed in this era of his. There are many shots that feel like it's leading to a larger narrative, but ultimately don't go anywhere.

Whichever way you may swing with Kanye, it's still worth a watch in IMAX. Maybe you will feel the praise or maybe you won't. It's all open to you as the viewer.

Short but very sweet like this review. Kanye shines a whole new light on the visual album experience with his new film