Risen Movie Review

Risen (2016)

Rent Risen on Amazon Video (paid link)
Written by: Kevin Reynolds and Paul Aiello (screenplay), Paul Aiello (story)
Directed by: Kevin Reynolds
Starring: Joseph Fiennes, Tom Felton, Peter Firth, Cliff Curtis
Rated: PG-13
Watch the trailer

Plot
A Roman tribune is tasked with finding the body of Jesus, rumored to have risen from the dead.

Verdict
What would it take to make you a believer? The movie doesn't quite know or at least doesn't provide an answer, but it's fun historical fiction. It manages to tell a tried and true story in a new way without becoming too preachy.
It depends.

Review
This is an adjacent story about Jesus as told by a Roman tribune. The movie uses the name Yeshua instead of Jesus, seemingly to distance itself from being overly religious.

The framing device is overwrought, book ending the main story with Clavicus relaying his experiences. I hate when movies use the "how we got here" trope. This adds nothing to the beginning, and it only serves to dumb down the ending by telling us exactly what we should have gotten from this movie.

Clavicus is tasked by Pontius Pilate to confirm the crucified Nazarene is dead, but Clavicus slowly realizes something is special about the Nazarene. Clavicus starts as a non-believer before becoming skeptical and then believing.
We know the Jesus story as it's been told many times, but this does a good job of making it fresh by not directly telling Jesus's story.
Clavicus doesn't believe, but has many questions when the body disappears from the tomb. He tracks down the disciples to determine who stole the body.

Risen - A fresh take on a well tread story.

It's predictable in that we know Clavicus will become a believer, and the movie relies on that too heavily. The emotional impact of his journey never reaches the heights it should have. I do appreciate that the movie avoids becoming preachy with long monologues. It trusts the viewer to get the message instead of breaking it down and telling me what I should take from this.  That is until the last scene which was unnecessary. We continue the very first scene of the movie which confirms Clavicus is a believer. That should have been done in the film proper, and it mostly was. I wasn't won over because Clavicus didn't seem won over. I'm just told he is or should be. What really won him over? I like the concept of this more than the execution

Set in 33 A.D., this reminded me of Gladiator (2000), with the panoramic shots of the city, a Roman warrior, and the opening battle. Unfortunately the battle should have been more exciting. Perhaps it was a budget constraint, but even the logic of the army is faulty.
The sweeping shots of the city look great, and the production values make this ancient city believable.