Ben Hur
I was so excited going into this: an amazing storyline from the original legendary movie from 1959, some brilliant characters and inter relationships, licence for some wonderful panaromaics and some legendary action sequences for the worlds best stuntmen and CGI technician to go wild with.
Sadly despite spending the cash, they messed it up.
It starts with poor casting: Jack Huston who plays Ben Hur is simply not angry enough about the tragedy he has to endure.
Then we come to some very poor direction: this story hinges around the relationship between the Jewish Ben Hur and his adopted brother, Roman tribune Messala. The key moment of the story is when this relationship breaks down, and sadly in the version, its lukewarm, unconvincing and forgettable moment and makes all the subsequent vindictiveness from Messala seem unfounded and excessive. Likewise Ben Hur does not convincingly express his subsequent contempt or pain. The storyline simply lacks credibility.
Likewise the sub plot involving prophet Jesus is badly acted and not properly woven into the main story and so comes across as a disjointed afterthought. Truly a wasted opportunity as it could have provided some iconic modern day imagery of this great man in human history.
Thankfully all that money is not totally wasted as the panoramic scenery and costumes are amazing. And the epic ship battle and chariot race scenes are exhilarating, technology advanced and a joy to watch. For that reason alone it's worth watching in a 3d cinema.
I left the cinema totally frustrated. With a little more thought and care in direction, this could have been better the original. But sadly it ends up being a weak imitation: the 1959 original will remain iconic whilst this version will be quickly forgotten.
5/10
Hmm, can't wait to see it, but it's certainly getting universally panned.
