Movies like Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, The
Avengers, X-Men, The Amazing Spider-man, The Dark Knight and The Man of Steel have been a part of the
genre that’s been dominating the big screen nearly every year in recent times:
the super hero. In 2014, however, a new
genre has emerged that no one saw coming: faith-based movies.
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| Top grossing movies for 2014 as of Aug. 1 |
This year, titles
like Son of God, Noah, God’s Not Dead,
Heaven is For Real, and the upcoming Left
Behind and Exodus: Gods and Kings are lighting up
(or will be lighting up) the big screen.
And what perhaps is the most surprising part about all of this is that
the ones already in the theaters have actually done very well. All, at one time
or another, made the box office top 2 for at least one week. Noah made it to the number 1 spot, while
Son of God, Heaven is For Real and God’s Not Dead peaked at number 2. The
latter did so despite playing in 2,000 fewer theaters than the number 1 and 3
movies of that particular week. And, for a time in late March/early April, Noah, God’s Not Dead and Son of God were all in the top 10. Finally, of the 391 movies domestically
released and tracked in 2014 by Box Office Mojo, all four movies are in the top
31, and combined have racked in just over $313 million at the U.S. box office. So
the interest in this subject is undeniably there.
The thanks for this
success goes out to the History Channel’s 2013 10-part, highly watched, mini-series
“The Bible”. Evidently movie studio executives and producers saw this success
and decided to take the faith-based movie genre out for a ride.
Being that I’m a "faith-based" guy, and have actually seen the four movies mentioned, I thought I’d
give my take on them, being as unbiased as I can, in the order that were
released.
Son of God (released February 28, 2014)
This 138 minute
take on the life of Jesus was predominantly a rehashing of parts 6-10 of “The
Bible” miniseries, with new footage spread throughout. In essence, if you saw the miniseries, you already
saw The Son of God. Not quite sure why husband and wife
creators/producers Mark Burnett and Roma Downey decided to even do this, except
maybe to give people who don’t have cable TV (and thus unable to get the
History Channel) a chance at watching the story. And if that’s the case, then that’s great.
The movie itself
was good and pretty accurate scripturally. Not sure Jesus in reality was as
good looking as the actor Diogo Morgado who portrayed him was (“….he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.” – Isaiah 53:2), but
Morgado did a good job.
I
do have one small gripe about the release of the movie on DVD. I would think, and hope, that the main
objective of the makers of a movie like this would be to get it into the hands
of as many people as they could as soon as possible in order to share the story
of Jesus. However, the movie was made available on Red Box a month after its
release on DVD. This is typically done to
give the movie a few weeks to make money on DVD and On Demand sales before
being made available for a $1.20 rental. Although not an uncommon practice, I was really disappointed when that
happened with this movie (this did not happen with God’s
Not Dead or Heaven is For Real). I know making money is the top priority for
movie studios, but I would have hoped Burnett and Downey would have fought hard
to prevent this from happening. And
maybe they did. Again, this is an
important story, and getting it in the hands of as many people as possible as
soon as possible should have been a priority.
God’s Not Dead (released March 19, 2014)
I have to admit,
when I first saw the title of this movie, I didn’t quite understand why it was
chosen. The company that created it,
Christian-based Pureflix, produces virtually nothing but Christian movies, and
quite a lot of them. Most don’t make it to the big screen, but this one
did. Some of their movies tend to be
aimed more at Christians than non-Christians, so choosing the title “God’s Not
Dead’, led me to believe this move was no different. If you were a non-believer or seeker, would
that title make you want to see this movie?
I was pleasantly
wrong.
Although far from
perfect, God’s Not Dead offers encouragement
for believers and something to think about for non-believers via the various
subjects and story lines throughout the movie.
Some are definitely better and more feasible than others, but the
filmmakers do a nice job tying them all together at the end. The best story line to me, by far, was the
primary one in which a college student refuses his Professor’s request for the
class to write and sign a piece of paper stating “God is Dead”. Doing so would
allow the students to skip the toughest subject in the class. By refusing, the
teacher instructs the student to prove that “God is alive” during the next four
class sessions. How the student does so
is fascinating and very well written. Good knowledge for everyone.
I did have a couple
of minor issues though. I was a bit surprised that only one student out of 80 in the
classroom had the nerve to refuse their professor’s request. But it’s possible.
A couple of characters went from passionate unbelievers to believers a bit
quicker and easier than one would expect. But again, it’s certainly possible. The
professor claimed to be an atheist, yet he asked his students to write “God is
Dead”. Saying that God is dead implies
that God was once was alive. That doesn't sound like an atheist to me. That actually would have been one of my first questions for the professor. But as the movie
progressed and we learned more about him, we understand why that was the case.
Anyhow, my issues
were pretty trivial as far as the big picture goes. The film effectively depicts the different levels
of peoples religious beliefs or unbeliefs, from the atheist, to the seeker, to the ignorant, to
the closest Christian. Two characters
accepted Jesus as they faced death, while others because they simply made a choice to
believe. Others are given the chance but refuse it. As a bonus, the Christian rock group “The
Newsboys” make a cameo in one of my favorite scenes in the movie. Plus they
sing the title song. And the “Duck
Dynasty” folks even make an appearance in a memorable scene with a reporter.
This was my favorite
of the four, and worth a look. Just keep
an open mind if you do!
Noah (released March 26, 2014)
Heaven is For Real (released April 16, 2014)
Originally a book, Heaven is For Real unfortunately
succumbs to the far too often reality of falling short as a movie. I read the
book over a year ago and thoroughly enjoyed it.
So when a movie version was announced, I was cautiously optimistic
(although I vowed never to be again after reading and watching “The Firm” some
20 years ago!) In case you don’t know, the book and movie are based on a true
story of a four year old boy named Colton Burpo who is visited by Jesus and
angels while experiencing Heaven during a life-threatening appendicitis surgery
back in 2003. In the days, weeks and
months after the surgery, he reveals things he was never told and, according to
his parents, couldn’t possibly have known.
His father, Todd
Burpo, a Pastor of a church in a small town in Nebraska, spends much of the
time trying to understand and comprehend what his son is revealing. In the
book, he does so via his strong faith and a supportive congregation. In fact, Burpo is constantly saying how Colton’s claims
reminded him of one Bible passage or another. In the film, however, there are
very few Bible references, his faith wavers, he consults non-Christian
(and in one case, atheistic) council, and his church board members threaten to remove
him from their church. None of which was in the book. And that, my friends, is
what happens when corporate Hollywood decides to take Christian content and
reshape it for a secular audience. They are so afraid that if the content is
too “religious”, no matter how good the content is, the film won’t attract a large
audience. It’s all about making money, which is sad. The makers of Noah did the same thing to an extent.
Unfortunately, the
“secularization” that was done to the Heaven
is Real story was so blatant that it really affected the original story. I
won’t go into much detail, but one scene which bothered me that was changed for
the movie involved what happened during Colton’s surgery. During the procedure,
Todd escaped into a “small room” (actually, the pre-op room) where he “lashed
out” at God for putting his son through what he's going through (among other things). Sometime after the surgery,
Colton specifically told his dad that he saw him yelling at God in a “small
room”. Yowza! In the movie, Todd lashed out at
God in the hospital’s chapel, with Colton later stating that he simply saw his
dad lashing out at God. Hardly an “oh
wow” moment. But the fact that Colton
specifically mentioned (in the book) a small room is a pretty amazing
revelation! Unfortunately, that was lost
in the movie. There were other examples, but I’ll stop there.
So, given the
choice, I’d recommend reading the book whether or not you see the movie. But
definitely read it if you see it!
Left Behind (to be released October 3, 2014)
Also originally a best selling book, this is a remake of the 2000 movie of the same name starring Kirk Cameron. This version stars Nicolas Cage. Tim Lahaye, who co-authored the book, stated earlier this year after a screening of the movie that "It is the best movie I've ever seen on the rapture." That's encouraging! Anyhow, you can see a trailer for the movie here: http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2165550105/.
Exodus: Gods and Kings (to be released December 12, 2014)
This is a retelling of the story of Moses and the "exodus" of the Jews from Egypt, as told in the Biblical book of Exodus. This rendition starts Batman, I mean Christian Bale, as Moses. Terrific actor, so that should be interesting in itself. The movie is directed by Ridley Scott, which could really be interesting. A trailer was recently released, and you can view it here: http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1575529497/.
