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Ben Hur (2016)
Ben Hur is the third remake of the 1925 classic, it was remade first in 59. I hold the 59 version as one of the all time great epics. Does this remake live up to that title, lets see.
So the plot centers around the prince Ben Hur and hiis adopted brother Messala. When Messala becomes a general in the Roman army, he falsely accuses Ben Hur of treason for his Jewish heritage. Ben Hur is then seperated for his wife and must spend years working as a slave. But through fate and a series of spoilers and stupid events, the Ben Hur fights for revenge against his brother in the chariot arena.
I guess I'll just start with what I liked.
The acting in the movie is surprisingly passable, with one exception I'll talk about in the negatives. Toby Kebbell was the "standout" performance in the film, as in he was good while everyone else was okay.
The very first action sequence is really well done, it's intense, you can make out whats going on, they mix the CGI with practical effects pretty well. And the sound design made the battle feel huge.
And now for the negatives.
Remember the one performance that I mentioned that was bad, yeah, it's Morgan Freeman. The best actor in this movie gave the worst performance, he didn't try at all. You could easily see on his face that he did not want to be there and that he just wanted a paycheck. And his character is supposed to have an accent, no accent, just Freemans usual monotone that doesn't work for this film like it does with his other ones. Throw in a really bad dread lock wig that makes Battlefield Earth's wigs look decent, and you have this Razzie worthy performance.
And the action after the first battle scene goes completely down hill. I'll give the movie credit for using practical effects instead of CGI, but the cinematography and the camera work are abysmal. I looked like the director was trying to use both Paul Greengrasse's and George Miller's action styles and combine them, and it doesn't work at all. There is far to much shaky cam that doesn't know how to keep focus, and even if it did, there are way to many edits to comprehend whats going on.
And now the story, for the most part, it's the same as the originals, only in this one, they're focusing much more on the revenge aspect and not the character of Ben Hur. For the most part, I'm actually fine with that, they're doing something sort of different with a classic tale, that's fine. But what makes me mad, is the ending. It is one of the laziest, most rushed ending I've ever seen in my life.
So long story short, the movie started as just bad with a one or two good moments, but those good moments are over shadowed by the laziest ending in human history, and thats what makes it truly awful
Ben Hur (2016)
Ben Hur is the third remake of the 1925 classic, it was remade first in 59. I hold the 59 version as one of the all time great epics. Does this remake live up to that title, lets see.
So the plot centers around the prince Ben Hur and hiis adopted brother Messala. When Messala becomes a general in the Roman army, he falsely accuses Ben Hur of treason for his Jewish heritage. Ben Hur is then seperated for his wife and must spend years working as a slave. But through fate and a series of spoilers and stupid events, the Ben Hur fights for revenge against his brother in the chariot arena.
I guess I'll just start with what I liked.
The acting in the movie is surprisingly passable, with one exception I'll talk about in the negatives. Toby Kebbell was the "standout" performance in the film, as in he was good while everyone else was okay.
The very first action sequence is really well done, it's intense, you can make out whats going on, they mix the CGI with practical effects pretty well. And the sound design made the battle feel huge.
And now for the negatives.
Remember the one performance that I mentioned that was bad, yeah, it's Morgan Freeman. The best actor in this movie gave the worst performance, he didn't try at all. You could easily see on his face that he did not want to be there and that he just wanted a paycheck. And his character is supposed to have an accent, no accent, just Freemans usual monotone that doesn't work for this film like it does with his other ones. Throw in a really bad dread lock wig that makes Battlefield Earth's wigs look decent, and you have this Razzie worthy performance.
And the action after the first battle scene goes completely down hill. I'll give the movie credit for using practical effects instead of CGI, but the cinematography and the camera work are abysmal. I looked like the director was trying to use both Paul Greengrasse's and George Miller's action styles and combine them, and it doesn't work at all. There is far to much shaky cam that doesn't know how to keep focus, and even if it did, there are way to many edits to comprehend whats going on.
And now the story, for the most part, it's the same as the originals, only in this one, they're focusing much more on the revenge aspect and not the character of Ben Hur. For the most part, I'm actually fine with that, they're doing something sort of different with a classic tale, that's fine. But what makes me mad, is the ending. It is one of the laziest, most rushed ending I've ever seen in my life.
So long story short, the movie started as just bad with a one or two good moments, but those good moments are over shadowed by the laziest ending in human history, and thats what makes it truly awful