Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Risen

This is topic Risen in forum Film Handlers' Movie Reviews at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://ft-forum.com/ft/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=4;t=002189

Posted by Stu Jamieson (Member # 4626) on 02-20-2016, 05:40 AM:

Risen picks up where Mel Gibson's Jesus hit, The Passion of the Christ left off. Where The Passion of the Christ finished with Jesus' resurrection, Kevin Reynolds' (who hasn't directed a feature since Tristan + Isolde 10 years ago!) presents, not so much a sequel, but perhaps a spiritual successor to Gibson's film.

Naturally, given the story, the torture porn of The Passion is mostly absent here and in it's place is a fictionalised account of a Roman Tribune, Clavius (Joseph Fiennes), and his efforts to locate Jesus' (Cliff Curtis - makes sense) resurrected personage before he once again inspires Judaeans to reject the good, wholesome Roman way of life endorsed by Prefect Pontius Pilate (Peter Firth).

On the strength of the trailer, Risen looked to be an interesting study on the juxtaposition of faith and reason. Clavius, an unbeliever of all things messianic, has his thoroughly reasonable belief in Roman polytheism shaken as he fails to locate the corpse of the crucified cult figure.

Sadly, the film proves to be unchallenging in almost every respect, preferring to simply follow the established biblical narrative rather than engage in any kind of philosophical discussion. As a result, the film preaches to the converted whilst alienating any atheists (like me) who happen to stumble into the cinema expecting a jolly good piece of sword 'n' sandalled existentialist entertainment.

In pure cinematic terms, the film is structurally flawed. From the outset it appears that the film is about Clavius' search for evidence of Jesus' demise. Yet when this plot is resolved, the film meanders for a good deal more for the seemingly express purpose of satisfying it's target Christian audience and completing Jesus' scriptural journey towards ascension.

Like The Passion of the Christ before it, Risen is one for the believers only.

6 out of 10

Posted by Bill Brandenstein (Member # 7758) on 02-24-2016, 05:01 PM:

Stu, since I'm a believer I'm very interested in a take such as this from you since you're viewing it for different reasons. I appreciate your attention to both the strengths and weaknesses of the film. While personally I'm glad it doesn't try to reinvent the portions of the biblical narrative it makes use of, I'm sure when I finally have time to see it, I'm going to agree 100% with you about the flawed arc and meandering end. It's intriguing to me that the story device of the "outsider," Clavius, still ends up producing a picture that's best appreciated by believers. That seems like such a mis-step. It's also intriguing that for all of its production values and marketing, it really hasn't found much of an audience, either secular or of believers. Tepid!

Posted by Stu Jamieson (Member # 4626) on 02-24-2016, 07:24 PM:

I look forward to reading what you think of it, Bill. [Smile]

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 02-24-2016, 08:12 PM:

Michael Medved was really pushing this one on his show this afternoon - I heard two or three plugs for it over the course of a one-hour drive. Presumably the talk radio demographic is its target audience.