stevendecastro

Those who watch this series are bound to be attracted to Jesus the historical and religious figure. It can be expected that this audience would forgive a lot of problems with production values, as long as it depicts Jesus in a light which which comports to their pre-conceived view. I believe that this series does portray a sympathetic and surprisingly human Jesus, and that was most refreshing about the series. However, you have to sit through so many uninteresting subplots that Jesus and the apostles do not get a lot of screen time. That, and the directing seems to allow for a lot of very wooden acting. Also, the color grading is unexpressive, and the music is shapeless and a little phoned in. Christians already have a brand loyalty for Jesus, and it is as if they are trying hard to mess this up.

The film feels like it is directed by Ed Wood, who insists on always using the first take of every scene. Both in the writing and in the performances, each scene of the movie fails to land emotionally. Ironically, it is about a high school student who is very literal and has difficulty with understanding emotion, but sometimes it is the director who seems to lack the emotional intelligence. I don't fault the actors at all for the poor performances, bc it seems that none of them could really show their potential, except for Rory Cochran, whose lowkey performance was entirely believable. Having said that, the storyline is so endearing that it may just make it watchable.

Because of other reviewers, I don't have to go into the fact that this movie tries to make heroes out of people trying to kill Houthis who are simply defending their own land. But the movie's depiction of the troops itself is distracting, because the way they fight a war is that they travel in MRAP troop vehicles in inadequate numbers, and if they see the enemy, they try to engage with a robotic gun on the top without ever getting out of the vehicle. So essentially they play the war like it is a video game. Obviously their enemy will just place a few rocks in the road and then attack the stationary vehicle, even by lighting a fire under it, etc. A war movie is supposed to be about heroism, not about soldiers who come to Yemen to murder, who are too scared to step out of their armored vehicles.