Plot Summary
When the mysteriously provocative carpenter named Jesus of Nazareth was executed by crucifixion, it was no skin of Claudius’ nose. That is, until he was forced to be a part of a political conspiracy with the goal of covering up claims of the same carpenter’s alleged rise from the dead. But as he is drawn deeper into the conspiracy, Claudius finds himself interested in Jesus and His followers and wonders what they have that he does not. What will he end up believing in the end?
Production Quality (1.5 points)
Though this was a 1999 production, the creators were definitely trying in this film. Video quality is fine, as is the camera work, although there is some randomly poor lighting in the indoor sets. Most of the sets and props are somewhat cheaply constructed, though the outdoor locations are fine. Audio quality is what it should be, but the soundtrack is extremely generic. Further, though this film is less than sixty minutes long, the editing is not exactly great as it is slightly choppy. In the end, this production comes out as average and demonstrates good enough effort.
Plot and Storyline Quality (.5 point)
Though this Roman-soldier-becomes-involved-in-the-Resurrection-cover-up is nothing new, Resurrection and the Max Lucado book it is based on actually predates the other attempts at this, such as The Final Inquiry and Risen. Nonetheless, it is still an interesting idea. However, this rendition does not contain very much content as a majority of the fifty-minute runtime is bland characters standing around and talking about offscreen content. Even then, the dialogue that is used is uninspiring, which in turn creates the bland characters. At times, it is difficult to follow the train of thought this plot is trying to make, and some of the characters are easily confused with each other due to their lack of originality. In the end, this is really just an extremely pedestrian Christian film that could have been way better, which is the story for a lot of Christian films.
Acting Quality (1.5 points)
Although this cast is not entirely culturally authentic, at least it’s not full of obviously BRITISH white guys. These cast members mostly post good performances, including good line delivery. Their emotions are a bit too theatrical at times, but this is a passable effort overall.
Conclusion
Unfortunately, Resurrection was stuck in an era when Christian movies were so self-segregating and only tried to appeal to very small audiences. Were this made today, one would think that it would have wider appeal, but nothing is guaranteed. At the very least, perhaps this film can be a blueprint to build off of to know how to improve a bland film. In the future, hopefully we will see more engaging Biblical movies come out.
Final Rating: 3.5 out of 10 points
Box Office Revolution 