Son of God Movie (2014) Review

The Son of God movie was pretty good.  When it comes to gospel based movies, you’ll never get one that is JUST like the bible.  Everyone wants to add things for clarity.  On the other hand, if you compare this movie to other movies in the theater, then it might not measure up well.  This is a movie that will make sense to Christians due to familiarity with the bible, but not so much to non-Christians.  It’s because of the bible that I liked it, and because of the bible that I find things I didn’t like.  It’s better than what comes on TBN though, that’s for sure.  Presently on Rotten Tomatoes, the critics gave the movie a 25% and the audience gave it an 80%.  I myself would probably give the movie a 70-75%.  Obviously the audience on Rotten Tomatoes were more so Christian and the critics, maybe not so much.  This is my review from a Christian perspective.

Did it have touching moments?  Yes.

Did it have sappy moments?  Yep.

Did it have inaccuracies?  Oh yeah.

Did it have some good points?  Yes.

It’s not the best, it’s not the worst.  It’s kind of up there, but not at the top.

Movie Details

The movie starts with John.  It made me think that they’d follow the gospel of John, but it didn’t follow any one of the gospels, but bits and pieces of all of them.  The intro was good, but I noticed that it was a compilation of bits and pieces of “The Bible” from the History Channel.  It all looked good, but then it showed Sampson, a thick buff black man.  I have 2 problems with that: 1, Sampson’s strength came from God, not from him being a pro weight lifter, and 2, why is he African if he’s a Jew?

There was lots of epic music, almost too much in fact.  I started noticing that every time the camera went up in the air over Jerusalem, a bird crowed.  It’s either a hawk, an eagle, or a rooster, but it’s always a bird.

Sometimes the teachings were mixed in with situations.  I liked that sometimes.  Like when Jesus taught the parable of the Pharisee and tax collector praying, a Pharisee had just called Matthew a bad guy, and Jesus turned around and said the parable of Luke 18:10-14.  It didn’t happen that way in the bible, but it was an interesting and touching connection.

I kind of liked how Jesus walked on water with the storm.  It being dark with flashes of lightning revealing Jesus on the water for split seconds was the most realistic of how I think any movie has portrayed the actual walking on water for Jesus part.  It’s no wonder they thought he was a ghost when you see it like that.  Unlike the bible though, Jesus wasn’t just speaking in Peter’s mind to come out on the water like He was in the movie.

Speaking of touching, a lot of the time the guy that was playing Jesus probably tried to be too touching.  Speaking slow so the point will sink in, holding people’s faces…  Stuff like that.

Inaccuracies

I’m not here to rip the movie up, so I’ll just talk about some of the things that were inaccurate off the top of my head instead of making a huge list.  They weren’t real serious, so it’s not a big deal but….

• In the movie, Peter was alone in the boat, Jesus climbed into his boat, touched the water, and Peter threw his net out several times…  In the bible, Peter was at least with Andrew (Matt 4:18), and in Luke 5:7, there were two ships with a group of partners.
• Mary Magdalene was constantly with the 12 and had more lines than most of the apostles.
• Mary asked, “how do we pray?” and Jesus said, “like this”!  Then he bowed His head, closed His eyes, held his hands together.  Everyone looked around like, “Oh!  Are we supposed to do that?” and they did it too.  HAHA…  there is no posture for prayer.  Prayer is about the heart, not posture.  Lay down, stand up, eyes open, eyes closed; it doesn’t matter.
• The paralytic on the mat didn’t make sense.  Mark 2 says there was no room, and that’s the reason why his brothers broke the roof to bring him to Jesus.  In the movie, it wasn’t too crowded AND Jesus was teaching outside.  Why break through a roof?
• Check me on this, but Jesus never called Levi by the name of Matthew.
• In the movie, Martha came to Jesus and said, “My brother’s been dead for 4 days”.  In the bible, someone said Lazarus was sick, and by the time Jesus got there, he had already been dead for 4 days.
• In the movie, Jesus went INTO Lazarus’ tomb, touched him, and brought him back to life.  In the bible, Jesus called Lazarus out of the tomb.
• Barabas had a small role in the movie, challenging Jesus to stand up and be the messiah.  In the end, he’s being judged as a murderer along side Jesus with the people partitioning for one of their lives.  I get what happened because of the bible, but if I was just watching the movie alone, it wouldn’t make sense at all… Like, at one point, he’s part of the crowd, and the next minute he apparently murdered someone.
• At Passover, John was sitting all the way on the other side of the table from Jesus.  In the bible, John was leaning right up against Jesus (John 13:23).
• After Jesus was betrayed at night time, he was judged privately, then brought out in the morning.  This was funny…  It’s day light.  Two crowds of people met face to face, one with people including Judas and Peter, another with soldiers and Jesus.  Judas didn’t try to pleed with anyone for Jesus’ life, he just randomly threw his money at them.  Then, out in public with everyone listening in silence, someone yells at Peter, “Don’t you know Him”?  Peter said, “No”.  It happened two more times, then a soldier punched him in the stomach.  What was that for!?  In the bible, that all took place at night time.  It wasn’t as confrontational for Peter as it was in the movie.  See Mark 14.
• Pontius Pilate was disinterested in Jesus and it seemed like he didn’t care about Jesus at all.  In the bible, Pilate was actually trying to save Jesus.  Pilate totally believed that Jesus was a holy man, a king like Jesus said, and Pilate was freaked out and desperately trying to do things that would either prevent His death, or give the responsibility to another.  Pilate was a Roman who believed in many gods.  He believed his wife’s dream as a sign.
• In the movie, the stone that covered Jesus tomb was broke into a few pieces.  In the bible, the angel rolled the stone back and sat on it (Matt 28:2, Mark 16:4).
• Peter saw Jesus’ empty tomb, then ran to the market to buy wine and bread so that he could have communion in front of everyone, then Jesus appeared, THEN Thomas doubted Jesus was actually Himself.  In the bible, Jesus came once before when Thomas was gone, Thomas didn’t believe it, and then Jesus came a second time.

It’s like Shea said in his review, there’s no significance of Jesus death and resurrection and how it affects us, and that’s really the most important connection.

My Recommendation

Read the bible.  If you’re a Christian, you’ll think the movie was alright.  If you’re a non-Christian, then you won’t be impressed by it.  I’m still waiting for a great animated and accurate version of the gospels.