Humaira Grant
It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.
Adeel Hail
Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.
Billie Morin
This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows
Ariella Broughton
It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.
Jason Brown
The Bible is quite deep, many complex, culturally rich, spiritually enlightening stories that too many in this generation fail to realize...
Wait, I just realized I'm reviewing the show.
The show was more than a chore to keep paying attention with its lack of finesse, nuance,attention to detail, care for God's character, etc.
Literally from the first minutes of episode 1, I was deeply troubled that this would do more than worry me, but that my concerns from hearing it'd be on the History Channel (or "Hitler Channel," as a friend calls it) would be realized. Quite sadly, they were. Adam and Eve, respectively, get about a second of screen time each, a couple of other stories are shoved in your face, barely any comprehensibility, then the first story to get focused on is Noah's Ark. Seriously? The beauty and perfection of God's creating the universe gets dwindled down to basically a footnote? Roma Downey needs to get touched by an angel herself.
To make things worse (and then worse), each episode starts with a disclaimer that "This adaptation stays true to the spirit of the book. Some scenes contain violence." The book? How quaint. Only violence? I grew up hearing the bible stories kids in church environments would know. I've read it on my own terms and was deeply shocked (and fascinated) as a teen that it contained not only graphic violence but plenty of sex scenes and prophecies that have vivid sexual imagery. Yet, compared to "the book" itself, the violence is seriously tame. It gets the second worse from how the narrator treats you, the audience, like you're in Sunday school, which annoyed me as a high schooler that Christian movies dealing with the Bible often did. You don't have movies like Passion of the Christ nor Risen or TV shows like the cancelled Of Kings and Prophets lecturing the audience on what's going on. Those treated you like you're an adult that can get an idea of what's going on.
Now, for every major story they show, they completely miss, at the very least, 50 substories. Major characters don't get all the necessary details in their life that helps them become who they were in the Bible. The episodes with Jesus, for example, seem a bit too focused on making the Pharisees "bad" and "popularity-seeking" while almost just grazing Jesus any screen time in comparison. Just one miracle. Just one parable. A handful of smackdowns upon the Pharisees. Next to no cultural accuracy for the stories. This show presented Jesus in such a lackluster way that I thought "If skeptics were to get their experience of the Bible through this, I wouldn't blame them at all for not caring about Jesus."
This wasn't just a waste of budget, it's a waste of time. I will not watch the sequel series nor recommend this heretical trash to anyone.
If there's anything I *will* give credit for, it's a (kind of) decent camera lense and *some* of the costume design.
kimape098
I only watched the first episode (up until the Israelites were enslaved by Egypt). I would have found how dramatic everything was amusing if I wasn't so embarrassed by the film in general.I am a Christian who believes that the bible is God's word. I respect the effort to inform the masses about the bible (which is why I am giving it a 2 instead of a 1), but I thought they made the stories they chose to tell seem almost silly.I also really wish they would have represented not only the easier to digest parts of the bible but also the difficult parts, like when Lot was going to send out his daughters to be violated by the crowds surrounding the house (one of many examples of parts of the bible that are difficult to read). Not including the difficult parts makes it seem as if the the people who made the series are embarrassed by what God chose to share with us. Just because an event is portrayed in the bible doesn't necessarily mean that God approved of the actions of the people involved, but they seemed to be deliberately hiding parts of the bible that might make people uncomfortable. I also don't like that they portrayed Abraham as someone who did almost nothing wrong. The stories seemed to glorify man too much. Overall, the episode didn't seem to portray very well that God's people are sinners who often fail to obey God and be faithful, but that God is always faithful, working things out for the good of those who love him and believe his promises. And I think the fact that the episode didn't portray this makes it misleading. It confirms the misconception that God chooses people who are good because they are good, rather than being merciful on sinners (which we all are) who want mercy.Also, this is much less important than the last point, but I saw a preview of an episode with Jesus in it, and even if they weren't going to make him look Middle Eastern like he actually was, I really wish they would have made him look like ANYONE else rather than the stereotypical pretty white Jesus with the smooth brown hair, just to acknowledge that we know Jesus didn't actually look like that. I mean it doesn't have to be a big deal who plays who, because with most bible characters it's not relevant to the story what they looked like, but that stereotypical incorrect image of Jesus is just so overused....I do not recommend this series at all, to a Christian or to anyone else. Please read the bible instead.
auntlulu
I have to say that the bible isn't there to be picked apart by wanna-be critics. The people who wrote and directed this mini-series didn't do it to make people happy-they did it to show the true stories depicted. Yes the Israelites were fighters-at some points they had to be! And the Nebuchanezzar episode? That story is absolutely true and happened just as you saw (or in some of your cases, you didn't make it that far-just the second episode?) just as CHRISTIANS (not Xtians) read these stories, and grew up hearing them (myself included), the stories are depicted. I do wish they had included a bit more in the story of Joseph. That is my only complaint. I watch this series because the way they come across rings true. It isn't i overacting if the words, emotions, and reactions are taken from the pages of the bible.
televisionseriesreviews
The one thing I was instantly pleasantly surprised with when I watched the first episode of The Bible was the scale of this production, especially for a TV Mini-Series. Unlike most of its predecessors this classic story has been made into a Hollywood epic, both in terms of proportion and the style in which it has been filmed. The visual effects are very impressive and the score, composed by the brilliant Hans Zimmer is beautiful. Perhaps some might argue that it is more of an "entertainment" series rather than an "educational" one, but all the key points of the Bible have been respected. It's well scripted and the actors did an excellent job in portraying very believable characters, and how great to see the beautiful Roma Downey play the part of Mary!