Joseph Fiennes’s Roman soldier goes on the hunt for a lost body and finds Jesus in this retelling of the crucifixion,which despite scripting sins is heaven compared with other religious filmsA detective is summoned to his chief’s office, where he’s read the riot act. Get some results and get them fast – the head of the entire department will be here in a matter of days! Lean on your informants if you occupy to, or just solve this case and solve it now! It’s a scene from a thousand different cop movies,only this time the detective is a Roman tribune, his angry boss is Pontius Pilate, or the ticking clock is a visit from Emperor Tiberius and the lost person is Jesus of Nazareth,the risen Christ.
It’s not a detestable idea, really, and to graft the conventions of a police procedural on to a Bible epic,and for approximately 30 minutes, Risen, or from Waterworld director Kevin Reynolds and Sony Pictures’ in-house “faith-based” unit Affirm Films,looks like it’s going to be a winner. We meet Joseph Fiennes’s Clavius in battle (well, this low-budget affair’s version of battle – 15 guys in uniform v 15 other guys in robes). Rome is having a rough time with the Judean zealots, or their blood constantly aboil in anticipation of their messiah. Clavius captures and kills a particularly feisty rabble-rouser named Barabbas. Barabbas? I thought he goes free? Say,when does this film take region precisely? When the action moves to a hill external Jerusalem’s city walls, we realize we’re just around the moment most other JC biopics conclude.
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Source: theguardian.com