Samson (2018)

That was an excellent one.

Let's be realistic.

Don't listen to the negative reviews

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

This review is written by an agnostic with substantial biblical knowledge. The story of Samson and Delilah as written in the Old Testament isn't exactly an epic. It's short, crazy illogical, and seemingly pointless. This movie takes MASSIVE creative liberties in order to make the tale enjoyable and to illustrate relevant principles. Some viewers found this to be distasteful. If it's "heresy" to embellish in such manner in order to flesh out a film, then I'm President of the heretics fan club.The fight scenes were great, our leading man was perfectly cast and believable in his role. He played out some pretty illogical scenes, but as nonsensical as they were, they were better written than the bible has it written (or excluded). Jackson Rathborn, of Twilight fame, plays the wicked Philistine son of Billy Zane's King character. A quarter of the time Rathbone seems to be phoning in his performance. but when he's switched on, his conniving and overwrought expressions are priceless. I really enjoyed watching him. Zane sleepwalks through his scenes, but is at least somewhat believable. The chemistry between Samson and his beloved Taren is definitely present but is underdeveloped. This is a production with zeal. The cgi, choreographies, dialogue, direction, sets, are all on point. There are plot holes and irrationalities large enough to swallow a galaxy - but dammit- there wasn't much source material to work with so the writers made do. A lot of the storytelling is only insinuated and one must assume certain events or passages of time have occurred. That's the biggest disappointment. This movie deserves higher than the 4 point whatever it currently has. II'm giving is a 7 to help boost it. t's an enjoyable watch, and it was nice to see the story go to the big screen since it has only ever been presented as a short cartoon for children. The ending hints that another Old Testament film may be in the works, the story of David and Goliath. I'd watch it.

Honestly, I was surprised that I enjoyed Samson more than I thought I would. I went into this movie knowing almost nothing about it and when I saw that it had been created by Pureflix my heart sank a little. The best they can do is OK and the worst... Well, anyways, the acting was OK. There will be no Oscars handed out for these roles, but it wasn't so bad as to be distracting... most of the time. The scenes and backdrop were beautiful. It almost makes me want to get on a plane and visit South Africa. The fight scenes were not all that impressive. When Samson picked up the jawbone to kill one thousand men... I kid you not, I laughed the whole way through that bit.Like I said, overall it was not really all that bad for a Christian film. What truly bothered me far more than the production value of this film was the way they warped the message in an attempt to add spiritual value. If you look at the Biblical account of Samson he was not a good man. Delilah was definitely not a good woman, and yet in order to make this movie more appealing to their target Evangelical audience (of which I am a part), this film comes off making both decent, or at worst Byronic, heroes. Rather than creating a Biblically sound movie, the end result is more of an apologetic for Calvin's just war theory.

Ok, it is no Cecil B Demille epic and there are no Oscar winning performances. But it was engaging enough, and it did hold my interest, and entertaining enough. To tell the truth only watched it because the bloke out of those British Vanquis credit card adverts was in it. If you can get passed that it is made on a budget obviously, you might enjoy it, give it a try though. Actually, I am going to watch it again. Watched it on the pc first time round, now going to watch it on our 50 inch tv for a better experience.Well got round to watching it on our bigscreen tv, and I still think it is good, not brilliant, but good. Put it this way, I gauge how interesting a film is by if I go to the toilet while watching it, if I am bursting and hold off going till the end of the film, that means the film was good to me, I needed to go desperately, but held off, because the film had me hooked. Oh and I have upped the rating to 7 from 6 also.

Nope! Botched it in every way I can think of. Props, location, most of the acting. Surely they could afford a few consultants that know these kinds of stories.