One reviewer referred to Risen as: CSI: Jerusalem, and I'd say that was a fair (and clever) description of this movie. Joseph Fiennes is great in the lead, he's got the perfect look for a Roman Tribune. My problem with the movie is that it wasn't balanced the way I would have liked it to have been. I would have liked more time upfront establishing the Tribune character and what his motivations were for questioning his faith in Mars and the empire. As it stands, the movie rushed too quickly into becoming too overtly religious. I'm sure that was a smart financial move for the Easter audience, but for someone like me who enjoyed the excellent detail of Roman colony life (baths, shield battle, etc) and the pure detective story, the good stuff ended all too soon. *B*

This was sort of boring, but the actors were good and the sets were nice. Still not the great biblical epic the world needs. Much better than Noah, anyway.

C

I saw this a few months back and compared to other religious movies this was decent. Fiennes keeps your focus throughout with good acting. The conversion here also doesn't seem organic because we are not shown why the Tribune didn't have faith in the first place or how far was he lost(?). The sets seem very cheap but that was kinda expected.

4/10