Do you have a video playback issues?
Please disable AdBlocker in your browser for our website.
Due to a high volume of active users and service overload, we had to decrease the quality of video streaming. Premium users remains with the highest video quality available. Sorry for the inconvinience it may cause. Donate to keep project running.
Roman military tribune Clavius (Joseph Fiennes) remains set in his ways after serving 25 years in the army. He arrives at a crossroad when he's tasked to investigate the mystery of what happened to Jesus (Cliff Curtis) following the Crucifixion. Accompanied by trusted aide Lucius (Tom Felton), his quest to disprove rumors of a risen Messiah makes him question his own beliefs and spirituality. As his journey takes him to places never dreamed of, Clavius discovers the truth that he's been seeking.
For a film that could have easily become bogged down in Sunday School reverence, or culture-war opportunism, Risen presents an intriguing, oblique approach to a Bible movie.
While Kevin Reynolds does try to do something a little different with Risen than we're used to seeing, it ultimately can't overcome its shoddy pacing and uneventful storyline, turning this into a rather forgettable biblical outing.
Risen is certainly a step up for this genre, and it's more open-minded than you would expect. But this is still a movie made for a captured Christian audience, and it will be those viewers who will like it best.
Risen is a reasonably decent movie, ideal for a young teenage audience. However, most adults will see it as little more than a reasonably clever whodunnit spin on the Resurrection.
It's pointed about how we treat today's zealots, as when Clavius likens the pain of crucification to "sucking air through a wet cloth" - a description of waterboarding.
There's nothing terribly wrong with Risen, and I'd happily watch it on television some lazy Sunday afternoon, but there's just not enough here to keep it from being, ultimately, a pretty forgettable movie.