- Samson, the upcoming
Biblical epic from Pure Flix
coming out February 16th.
And as the title suggests,
it's about the Old Testament
character of Samson.
It stars Tyler James as Samson
plus Billy Zane is in
it, surprisingly enough,
and Jackson Rathbone,
who is best known as,
you know, that guy in Twilight, remember?
So I got to see the movie and
I wanted to tell you about it.
So here we go.
So Samson pretty closely follows the story
of Samson laid out in the Bible.
A baby is born, his parents
make a covenant with God
that they won't cut his hair,
he won't drink any wine,
and he won't touch dead stuff.
And because of this, God
allows him to be super strong.
Though he has a few hangups,
like having an eye for pretty women
and a tendency to, you know,
murder a bunch of people,
and these hangups actually
end up being his downfall
as he's pushed to breaking
his covenant with God
in all three cases.
And I won't spoil the rest of it
for those you who haven't read the book.
Now I will say that this
movie did actually stick
to the Biblical telling of the
story of Samson really well.
If I'm being honest, it
has been a little while
since I, myself, have
read the story of Samson.
So while I was watching
it, there were a few things
where I was like, "Did that really happen?
"That's a weird detail
that they put in there."
So whenever I got home, I
went ahead and read the story
and I was actually pretty surprised
that a lot of those details
that were in the movie
were actually in the story,
though there were a few
other moments that were in the Bible
that the movie kind of edited out,
moments that would have probably
made the movie a little more,
well, less family friendly,
maybe even pushing it to an R rating.
Which is interesting,
just the thought of, like,
"Oh, we've got to edit
the Bible to make sure
"that it's appropriate for all audiences."
I understand the tendency
to have to do that,
but unfortunately the
ramifications of that weren't just
that they made the movie cleaner,
they actually made Samson
seem like a much better guy
in the movie than the
Bible makes him seem.
In the movie, Samson seems
like someone to look up to
and in the Bible, he
doesn't seem like someone
that you should look up to at all.
There were also some other
things that were changed
from the Bible story that
I think were really helpful
for the movie.
So, like, in the Bible,
there's a lot of points
where Samson has conflict
with the Philistines.
So what they did in the movie is
they actually gave a face to that,
they have a character in the movie
that Samson is continuously
having trouble with
and that individual character kind of
represents the Philistines.
It personifies the Philistines in a way
that I think really worked
for the medium of film.
Obviously, of course, it's
not historically accurate.
It's a little weird that Samson doesn't,
doesn't look quite
Jewish, but I understand
that this is in the vein of
classic Biblical epic films
and so you're going to have
people with British accents
and the acting is fine.
It's a little stilted
but it's fine, it works.
On the other hand, even
though this is a story
straight out of the Bible,
it does follow kind of
a cliche storyline, very
similar to the film, Gladiator.
And because it's so similar, I can't help
but draw some comparisons.
In the movie, Gladiator, at the beginning,
there's something very
significant that happens to him
and the movie makes that clear,
this is a significant moment,
this is what's going to
motivate him throughout
the rest of the film.
You feel bad for him and you
want him to be the champion
for the people.
A very similar thing happens to Samson,
but yet when it happens, it's
almost like the movie didn't
realize that this was an important moment,
it just kind of skipped through it,
like, "Oh yeah, that happened."
Hey guess what?
This is the thing that's
going to motivate Samson
throughout the whole movie.
Don't worry about it.
I didn't feel, I didn't feel anything.
The movie's also really, like, goofy
when it's supposed to be serious.
They have Samson kind of doing
almost this Aladdin-type
scene at the beginning
where him and his friend
are running through a city
and they're being chased by the guards.
That's a little weird to see Samson
doing these practical jokes.
And then he's also, like, a flirt,
you know, he's like a jock.
Hey ladies, how's it goin'?
I'm Samson.
But the way the Bible portrays him,
his problem is not just
that he's flirtatious,
like this dude has a problem.
This guy has an addiction to women.
He needs an intervention.
The low budget of this movie
was super glaringly obvious
throughout the entire film.
And part of this may just be that,
whenever I saw the trailer and
the way it's kind of presented,
it's like, this is this Biblical epic,
it's going to be one of the
biggest movies of the year,
and then watching it, I'm like,
this doesn't quite cut it.
Whether it's the emotion and
script writing, camera work,
framing, editing, special
effects, choreography,
I'm saying to myself,
"Okay, I get the idea
"of what they're trying to do here.
"Like I've seen this done in other movies,
"but they're not quite pulling it off."
And it's hard for me to watch a movie
that's constantly asking me to forgive it
for being a low-budget film.
For a movie who's
tagline is finish strong,
it feels like most parts of
the filmmaking process were
just done halfway.
So in the end, if this
movie was like part of a VBS
or a Sunday school curriculum,
then I would have been blown away.
What an amazing accomplishment!
But the fact that this is being marketed
as this big blockbuster for this year,
when held up to that
standard, it just falls short.
I mean, I saw the trailer for this movie
in front of Star Wars.
Obviously they put a lot
towards the marketing,
maybe half that and put
it towards the script.
So if you're looking for something
to go see with the whole family
that you can use as a discussion piece,
talk about the real story of Samson,
this might be something
you want to check out.
But if you're a fan of Gladiator or Troy
or other swords and sandals-type movies,
and you're thinking this is
going to be that type of movie,
well, you're going to
be pretty disappointed.
Alright, that's all I
have to say for today.
Thanks for joining me for
my very first movie review
right here on Christian cinema.
A lot of big Christian
films coming out this year
and I'll be reviewing them,
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if that's something that
you're interested in,
plus I'll always be
bringing you the latest
and greatest news
surrounding faith and film.
I'm Kevin.
Have a great week.
