1. Jason Brown says:

    Yeah, I know the whole issue of “Where was Jesus in this Jesus film?” One of my favorite films, To Save A Life, got accused on amazon of being unchristian because it didn’t have a single spoken reference to Him. Some want a faith-based film done with a foundation based on their expectations or else. It gets annoying, to be frank.

    • This film actually has more Jesus in it … in surprising yet very biblically faithful ways. Some Christians simply felt the movie didn’t have enough exposition about what the Gospel is. And that is both unfair to expect of a movie, and inconsistent because the biblical accounts of Christ’s death and resurrection themselves don’t give that exposition! We find it later in the epistles. And we, personally, provide that ourselves.

  2. Lisa says:

    I loved the film. I found it refreshing to see a movie about the resurrection that wasn’t trying to explain away the resurrection but instead took as it’s premise, “Ok, this really happened. What was that like for the people of the times?” We are so used to the story that we don’t take enough time to reflect on the weirdness of the whole thing- all that popping in and out Jesus does, for example. And I loved the part where [SPOILER] Clavius confronts his subordinate and tries to convince him not to turn the disciples in, saying “These men hold the future of the world,” or something like that. That put a tingle up my spine. Great movie….reading those negative comments about it makes me grumpy so I won’t comment on them. 🙂

  3. Paul Lee says:

    Wow, this is great news! A little “gospel” in its own meta way, I guess.

    Thanks for reviewing. I need to see this film.

    “I desire only to see peace and a day without death.”

    “Well then. Know Him.”

    That is brilliant and wonderful.

  4. dmdutcher says:

    It’s yet another Bible movie. I don’t want more movies like that.

    We live in a geeky time where even the average soccer mom knows who the Avengers are. Despite this, we have virtually no Christian spec fic movies that rise above a bad Syfy film or student productuon. I feel like i have zero culture to even be a part of-its all Bible movies and Bible TV shows and Bible animated films and Bible manga adaptations and Christianmingle.

    • You seem to have not read the article (or the review at Christ and Pop Culture). Risen is not just “another Bible movie.” It’s biblical historical fiction.

      I think at some point we must make a kind of peace with the “Christian culture” we already have (even as we rightfully critique it) before we expect those cultures to reflect better the things we like. In the meantime, put your money where your mouth is — like with this The Wingfeather Saga animated series Kickstarter. Which, I will happily note, has easily hit well over its $110,000 goal (for its first phase of funding) in just a week or so.

      • dmdutcher says:

        That’s the same thing! XD. It’s not like Demetrius and the Gladiators or the Robe weren’t using original characters either. Bible movie = movie set in Biblical times, focusing around the events of the Bible. Not like we have a scarcity of those kinds of subjects in Christian art.

        I can’t really make peace with it, because I’m watching my tribe get completely ignored by it. If you’re a geek or like any kind of culture, you are almost always on the outside of Christian culture, even worse than it was while I was growing up. People can’t exist without a culture that speaks to them, and the endless stream of Bible movies and TV shows really don’t speak to anyone but the mainstream faithful.

        The kickstarter thing…look, I’m not funding some guys demo reel, which he will shop around for a couple of years hoping some producer will bite. If he made the short already, and was kickstarting for the film, yeah I’d consider it. But the amount of money he’s asking for means at best, it’s going to be a five to 8 minute short, and kickstarter-related fees eat up 20% of the cost! For some perspective, if he wanted to make an animated series on the caliber of My Little Pony, he’s going to need around $3 million US. He’s going to need a lot of funding for it to become anything more than cool added content he can use to market his books.

        • To me “Bible movie” means a straight-up adaptation of a biblical story, with key biblical figures (Jesus, Paul, Moses, Noah) as the central characters. Risen is biblical fiction. Whether you personally like this genre or not, it represents a break from Christian movie tropes and genres that are limited to “contemporary miracle” or “straight-up adaptation of a biblical story.”

          Methinks you could be less “tribal. ” The Bible takes a dim view about that kind of partisanship, whether it’s about denominations or “celebrity apostles” (1 Corinthians 2) or Geek Christians versus other Christians. This approach is both ineffective for your hopes, and far less joyful.

          I think you confirm this when you refuse to actually support a seriously proposed project by experienced storytellers and animation directors. There will always be people who, for all their complaints, would not know either what “victory” looked like or what they would need to do to help it happen. It starts small, with efforts like this. Let us quit looking for a “deus ex machina” twist in the real-life story of seeking better fantastical stories for (and by) Christian fans. Instead it takes hard work, money, actions that may look like “artistic compromise,” and a value of others and their interests — yes, even Christians who don’t like what we like, and vice-versa — over one’s self!

        • LM Burchfiel says:

          I think Risen is more Christian-adjacent than Christian, which is why the story isn’t preachy enough to suit the purists. But it does make me curious on what criteria it hits to make all the church-peeps glom onto it rather than Christian-adjacent things about….I dunno, monks/nuns.
          Random thought: what was the budget for RWBY? They made that in short installments with questionable CG, but they really had to overcome that hurdle with good story and characters and really cool fight scenes.

          • dmdutcher says:

            IMDB doesn’t have numbers, but they use a custom version of Miku Miku Dance, which is a freeware animation tool designed for Vocaloid music videos. You can search for MMD on youtube and find pretty good looking animation using it made by single hobbyists. Most of the cast and crew are rooster teeth regulars and amateurs.

            I think Video Game High School cost roughly $700,000 to make, and I don’t think RWBY would be anywhere near as expensive.

        • dmdutcher says:

          Stephen:

          It’s not really a break though. It’s a slightly different framing device to look at Biblical events. I guess I don’t see much difference between
          “portraying the Resurrection directly” and “portraying the Resurrection indirectly” I guess. From what I understand you still have the apostles, etc.

          The tribe thing…

          I’m not sure how you expect me to be joyful watching Christian culture ignore geeks. It feels odd that no one at all is even worrying about us. I mean, they even aren’t bothering to find out what we’re doing in order to condemn it any more. They just ignore us and keep on MOAR BIBLING. I guess this is being tribal by your eyes.

          Oh, and I gave reasons why I didn’t support it. If he does another kickstarter for the actual pilot episode, or tells me he has found a production company, or other things, let me know. I need some assurance that it’s going to be the animated series he wants it to be, not an eight minute short that serves as a book trailer on his web site.

What do you think?