Newest Review is LIVE!!! Today, let’s tread back into the world of modern remakes.
Hello All,
For any of you who saw my twitter feed the day before I posted this, you know that I did a live tweet review of the 1959 version of the story of Ben Hur, (which fun fact itself is a remake of a 1929 silent film, which was based on an 1880’s book). In the end, I gave it a 10/10. I did that, because I knew that I would be seeing the new remake as the first of the three new films coming out this weekend. I mention this because, as much as I ended up enjoying the 59 version, for the sake of this review, I am judging the new one entirely on it’s own merits. If I do make any slight errors in this, note that I simply am comparing technique instead of quality. With that out of the way, let’s begin shall we?
Plot Summary - Judah Ben-Hur (Jack Huston) is a Jewish prince living in Roman occupied Jerusalem. When his adoptive brother Messala (Toby Kebbell) returns from duty in the roman army, he asks Judah to help him repress rebellion in the city. When Judah refuses, Messala uses an opportunity to seek revenge by destroying his family, and sending him away to a slave ship. However, when Judah finds himself freed, he finds himself employed by Sheik Ilderim (Morgan Freeman) who provides him an opportunity to seek his revenge.
Pros - The film is quite a visual spectacle. The galley scenes are intense, and the chariot race feels nicely paced. It even manages to throw in a couple of ouch moments as well in the race. The cast is fine for the most part, and there are some parts of the story that are actually quite well done as well. It does get across the message of the original story as well in a way which kind fo works.
Cons - Since it is during the Roman occupation of the holy land, Jesus does play a background character throughout the story. Sadly though, what he contributes to the actual story is super minimal, and his presence feels like lip service to the fact he was more significant in the previous version. In an effort to compress the story down for time, huge chunks of the story are told through exposition, and yet they feel the need to try and show us more of Messala’s time in the army, which does nothing really to help the story except to reinforce the idea that the Romans are the bad guys, which the rest of the film does fine. They rearrange some elements of the story as well in ways which doesn’t make sense. Now, for what will be my only direct comparison to the 59 version: Since that one took the time the tell the full story, we got to experience what the character was feeling step by step. Since the new one cut a lot of that out, what they had to put in to fill those voids had to work just as well, and sadly here while some of it does work well, almost the same amount, if not slightly more doesn’t. Apologies if this sounds repetitive, I just really want to make sure I make myself clear.
Final Score - 4/10
Overall, I can’t be too mad at this film. It sadly falls in the needless remake category, and while it could’ve been a lot worse, I feel like this film missed most of the point about what the original story was trying to tell.
Next: Kubo and The Two Strings - I really want to see this tomorrow, but a rainy day ruined my plans on Wednesday, so I’m trying to find a balance between the two.
Links:
Last Review is Here: The last review was a side by side comparison of the two types of kids films: The Good and The Bad. You can read that here.
Twitter Account is Here: Don’t want to miss my next review live tweet session? You can follow the blog twitter account through this link here.
NEW!!! Suggestion Box is Here: Are you sick of gaps in my posts? Why not suggest a film or film series for me to watch? Suggestions will be completed in order received, and if you’d like to leave your name for a suggestion credit and anything you’d like me to promote (within reason) I’d be happy to do that too. This suggestion box will be a permanent fixture of the blog, as again I’d love any and all help you guys want to offer.
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Until next time, I’ll see you folks at the movies.
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