Risen

This review may contain spoilers!

Sometimes biblical films can be amazing and sometimes they can be exceptionally preachy; and sometimes you get one of those biblical films that manages to be a bit of both. I would give Risen a 5.5/10.

What I appreciated about the first half of this film was how well the roman perspective of this film was done; the hunt for Yeshua's body and interrogation of his followers was actually really interesting and quite a unique perspective to take. The cinematography for this film was simple for the most part but it really knew how to compose the shots effectively, I don't think I saw one badly framed shot in this entire feature. The editing was also quite unique, I haven't seen that many fade transitions in a long time but in this instance it worked well with the film's style and tone.

Peter Firth, who played Pilate, was a fantastic Roman governor in this film; he had a strong presence and really delivered his dialogue well. Mark Killeen, who played Antonius, wasn't in this film for long but had a great impact upon the film; he introduced Yeshua incredibly well and in quite a memorable way.

However the best performance came from Joseph Fiennes, who played Clavius. Fiennes brought forward a strong character who demanded viewer attention when he was onscreen; he was a constant reminder of conflict and unceasing drive. I think the inner conflict around faith that Fiennes' role experiences in this film was best portrayed by him; he did a wonderful job at making this transition in faith quite convincing.

The last half of this film that focussed upon Yeshua and his disciples wasn't very well written and came across as quite artificial, suddenly the dialogue became hard to swallow and it was almost like experiencing a whole new film. Because of this final act the film slowed right down, fair to say this narrative change resulted in some serious pacing problems. The score for this film had some high points but more often than not you didn't pay much mind to it, it was certainly quite a throw away score. The special effects in this film looked awful, the CGI birds and Jesus' ascension really gave away the size of the film's budget.

Tom Felton, who played Lucius, was dwarfed by Fiennes' performance in almost every scene; it was made even worse when the two characters came into conflict and it became clear how weak Felton's portrayal was. Cliff Curtis, who played Yeshua, was just not really the right casting for this; he wasn't given enough focus in this film and ultimately didn't make a very big impact on the audience at all. Maria Botto, who played Mary Magdalene, gave quite a forced performance in this film; Botto really botches one of the more pivotal minor roles. Antonio Gil, who played Joseph of Arimathea, was another performer who didn't really stand out in this film; he seemed to have an important part to play in the Yeshua storyline but was swiftly forgotten about. Richard Atwill and Andy Gathergood, who played Polybius and Quintus respectively, couldn't act to save themselves; their accents were inconsistent and their characters felt very out of place in this story. Stewart Scudamore, who played Peter, played his character a bit over the top; Scudamore is a big part of why I label this film as 'too preachy'. Stephen Hagan, who played Bartholomew, gave what I consider the worst performance of the film; he made the disciples look like a bunch of drug addled hippies.