Kim Gentes

As a movie, I liked the premise, most of the acting and the dialog in this film. I will say upfront that I am a Christian. What I appreciated about this film is that it brings to the front some major aspects of anti-Christian thought. That might sound dichotomous, but the truth is most Christians find it hard to think about how to respond to simple points like the ones brought up in this film.

The film is all dialog. No visuals, no scene change, one set, and about a half a dozen actors.  The visuals were actually not only simplified and stark, but poor and grainy. One recognizes the need to keep a low budget in such a film, but actual bad visual footage is not acceptable even in independent films.

I did like the mental gymnastics that Bixby makes in the dialog, as it gives good journey of thought to how some people can believe certain things. Sadly, there are several historical errors in the context of the film that make the journey simply factually misinformed. The historical aspects of much of the Ancient Christian era disputed by this film are simply wrong and in fact many prominent non-Christian and anti-Christian sources (contemporaries of the times of the original writings) clearly refute the errors presented by this film. Most prolific example was Josephus' 1st century extensive writings confirming much of the gospel accounts- though he remained a thoroughly non-Christian Jew. Even more pointedly Celsus' 175AD paper "The True Doctrine: A Discourse against the Christians" in which a devout anti-Christian clearly articulated that the then current Christian core belief that Jesus Christ (a man) was God. There are extensive examples of Christian writings supporting both historical details and time era references, but since this movie was clearly written to discredit Christian historical veracity, I have only listed non-Christian examples here.

That said, the film is a fun one to watch. Yes, as many have pointed out, it will offend some Christians, since it clearly is an anti-Christian basis in its message. I think the dialog is worthwhile, because it is well-thought, though ultimately misinformed historically. Laid on top of the bad history (related to Christianity) is a definite anti-Christian polemic at every major juncture.

As science fiction it is a fun yarn. Considering the idea that a man can have the biological possibility to live 14,000 years. Very interesting.

All in all, worth watching, though I think it would be more convincing if it didn't mangle history against Christians, and add statements like "it was all about Church power" in such a misapplied way. This statement, for example, certainly finds a strong resonance in the Medieval and later centuries, but the first 300-400 years the Christian church was persecuted and martyred under several Roman emperors and other local authorities. The dialog Bixby puts forth is that the words of Jesus were twisted in the early days to gain power in the church structure, but this could not be more erroneous since being a Christian in the first 400 years, being a Christian and believing those core tenants of faith meant certain persecution, imprisonment, torture, dismemberment and likely martyrdom. No group of people willingly makes up a set of beliefs (beliefs, which I have said are clearly agreed upon even by non and anti-Christian observers from the earliest days) about their faith, their God (in this case Jesus) and his teachings that would guarantee their persecution for 400 years.

If one is writing a polemic against Christians, one could write about the atrocities later introduced by truly corrupt Popes, emperors and rulers who usurped and married church structure to political establishment to gain control of over people and nations, to go to war and to kill dissenters to their cause of particular brand of theology. There are plenty of examples of bad things Christian religious structures have done (clearly against the historical and biblical tenants on which they claimed to be based). If one is to write against those, that would not only be historically accurate but also a proper lesson for future generations to avoid such abhorrent versions of faith activity.

Bixby ultimately weakens his film by negotiating against history to make his anti-Christian points. He could have done much better.

Again, because many Christians read my reviews, I will warn you- this film will offend you as it is written to discredit the core beliefs of Christian faith. If you cannot handle watching something critical in that light, you will want to skip this film.