Blu-ray Review Son of God Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

Son of God Blu-ray Review

If there’s a spirit of déjà vu hovering over every frame of Christopher Spencer’s Son of God, it’s not just because it’s telling a story that has been told in every possible entertainment sphere and through every possible motif including pop opera and ballet. No, Son of God is a distillation from five of the episodes from last season’s epic miniseries The Bible, reformatted into widescreen for theaters (and this subsequent home video release) and with some additional cut footage clumsily edited into the finished product to give it an epic length running time. One might have disdain for such an obvious second bite of the apple if the film weren’t so obviously a labor of love, its earnestness and piety worn on its sleeve and evident in every moment. There are several far greater versions of this legendary story; this one is only the most recent.

Studio: Fox

Distributed By: N/A

Video Resolution and Encode: 1080P/AVC

Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1

Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HDMA, Spanish 5.1 DD, French 5.1 DD

Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French

Rating: PG-13

Run Time: 2 Hr. 18 Min.

Package Includes: Blu-ray, DVD, UltraViolet

keep case in a slipcover

Disc Type: BD50 (dual layer)

Region: A

Release Date: 06/03/2014

MSRP: $39.99

The Production Rating: 3/5

The film spends its opening five minutes with quick recaps of the Jewish tradition (taken from other episodes of The Bible miniseries) and a brief glance or two of the birth of Christ in Bethlehem. The vast majority of the film, of course, covers the final adult years of Jesus of Nazareth (Diogo Morgado). No, there is no episode with John the Baptist or Christ's temptations in the wilderness, and we only see a few of the disciples chosen for his mission while getting to know them almost not at all, one of the film’s severest deficiencies. What aspects of their personalities drew Jesus to them? Why did they choose to follow him instead of some other preacher or teacher? The patchwork screenplay by Nic Young, Richard Bedser, Christopher Spencer, and Colin Swash offers no explanations.Because the episodes have been combined and somewhat reordered from the miniseries, the cutting back and forth between Jesus and his work and the political machinations going on behind the scenes with Roman prefect Pilate (Greg Hicks) and his increasingly short fuse dealing with the threatened and unsure-of-his-position Jewish priest Caiaphas (Adrian Schiller) results in jarring segues and a frustrating lack of dramatic development in either sphere of the storytelling. Most of the highlights of Jesus’ adulthood of sermons and miracles are at least touched on: the loaves and fishes, the Sermon on the Mount, walking on water, the resurrection of Lazarus, but there is a rush seemingly to get to the film’s last hour, the trial and condemnation of Jesus and his Crucifixion and Resurrection. While certainly not approaching the gore quotient of The Passion of the Christ, rest assured that there’s enough brutality and bloodshed to make one wince, made all the more uncomfortable by the director’s fondness for excess slow motion in all of these moments dragging things out to excruciating lengths.Diogo Morgado who plays Jesus is thoroughly convincing with the strength and charismatic humility in his performance making his journey a commanding one. As his disciples, Darwin Shaw as Peter (by far the most impressive performance of the disciples), Sebastian Knapp as John (who narrates the film sporadically, another lapse on the screenwriters’ part), Joe Wredden as Judas, and Matthew Gravelle as Thomas are the most memorable of the group. Adrian Schiller as Caiaphas is also a noteworthy presence though Greg Hicks as Pilate is perhaps a bit too one-dimensional in his sneering distaste for his position, and producer Roma Downey has little to do as the older Mary except to stand teary-eyed on the sidelines.

Video Rating: 4.5/5 3D Rating: NA

Shot digitally, the aspect ratio for the movie version of this footage has been widened from 1.78:1 to 2.35:1 in 1080p resolution using the AVC codec. The increase in width has resulted in some tops of heads being lopped off (though in the cinema this might not have mattered as much with a larger image to view). The picture is generally very sharp except when CGI is utilized to create long gone dwellings of the ancient world resulting in some softer imagery which doesn’t always match felicitously with the live action footage. Color has been desaturated a bit to give the film more of an aged appearance resulting in paler than normal skin tones. Black levels are very fine. The film has been divided into 36 chapters.

Audio Rating: 4/5

The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 sound mix uses the front soundstage well to blend the mix of music and sound effects which greatly complement the dialogue tracks found in the center channel. But the rear channels only get for the most part the Hans Zimmer-Lorne Balfe background score which has an impressive spread across and through the soundstage. Sound effects are only a sometime thing in the rear channels betraying somewhat the television origins of this material.

Special Features Rating: 2.5/5

Son of God Reborn (28:33, HD): producers Roma Downey, Mark Burnett, and Richard Bedser, director Christopher Spencer, co-stars Diogo Morgado, Joe Wredden, Darwin Shaw, Sebastian Knapp, and Matthew Gravelle, composer Hans Zimmer, and an assortment of clergymen from various denominations (Rick Warren, T.D. Jakes, Joel Olsten, and Sam Rodriguez) sing the praises of the production.From the Son of God Set (7:19, HD): a behind-the-scenes look at the filming of the Crucifixion sequence jumping back and forth between real-time filming and the way it appears on screen.Son of God Reborn En Espanol (22:58, HD): basically the same featurette named above but in Spanish with English subtitles or with Spanish voiceover.Compassion Video (5:16, HD): producers Romy Downey and Mark Burnett introduce a video about Compassion, a Christian-centered organization that rescues abused or homeless children.Theatrical Trailer (2:27, HD)Promo Trailer (HD): The Bible miniseries.DVD/Ultraviolet: disc and code sheet enclosed in the case.

Overall Rating: 3/5

Son of God can’t hold a candle to Jesus of Nazareth, King of Kings¸ or The Greatest Story Ever Told in terms of scope or production values, but as a condensation of some of Jesus’ work during his last year of life, it’s a relatively effective feature film. (The miniseries The Bible from which most of the footage in the film was drawn actually includes more of the story than is found here and would be the choice I’d make if I wanted only one version of this particular rendition of the story.)

Reviewed By: Matt Hough

Support HTF when you buy this title:

I didn't realize during the theatrical run that this was taken from the miniseries footage.

According to one of the featurettes, Romy Downey predicted during the making of the miniseries that they'd be able to make a feature film out of the Jesus segments if the show was a TV hit, and when it was, they felt they had the go-ahead to do the feature which brought in nice box-office for it.