Ben-Hur Summary & Review
Like Ghostbusters and The Birth of a Nation (later this year), I feel like I have to support any movie that gets a good amount of backlash. Getting mad at a movie is probably one of the worst reasons to be angry. Out of the many movies that have received backlash this year, one of those was Ben-Hur, a new adaptation (NOT a remake) of a famous novel from the 1880s. This version follows the same story, about a prince named Judah Ben-Hur (Jack Huston), who is falsely accused of treason by his adopted brother, Messala (Toby Kebbell). After 5 years of slavery, Judah escapes and, with the help of a horse-keeper named Ilderim (Morgan Freeman), seeks redemption for what has happened. Keep in mind, this movie is NOT a remake of the 1959 film, so no comparisons will be made to that film. This movie will be reviewed as a single film. So, how did this film turn out?
What I like about it:
– The visuals were awesome. Everything looked realistic.
– The action scenes were entertaining. The chariot race sequence was very thrilling.
– The costumes and set pieces were very well done, and pretty accurate to the time period, with a few exceptions.
– The performances were good. They seemed committed to the roles.
– The cinematography was really good. Everything looked nice and it made the film look vibrant.
What I didn’t like about it:
– There were not a lot of redeeming moments to make up for the bad moments.
– It went on too long, and didn’t have enough moments to pick the film back up.
Ben-Hur is not as bad as critics say it is, but it’s not a good movie. Everything on the technical side of the film was great. If everything else had been as good, it would have been a great movie. Unfortunately, there just weren’t enough moments in the movie to pick it up from the bad parts for me to fully enjoy the new film. It certainly does hold up against the backlash that developed from the first trailer, but just barely.
