This was one of those movies that I hesitated to watch, because of the very simple reason that it's a hell of a job to shoot a remake that at least equals the original on story-line, feeling, play...
With that in mind and still a bit worried about what I was about to spent two hours of time on, I sat down and watched. It wasn't a waste of time, but I wasn't really exited either.
In general I was right, it by far didn't match up to the original movie with Charlton Heston. To start with his counterpart, Jack Huston did a nice job for the main reason that he didn't simply tried to copy Charlton Heston. He put his own Judah Ben-Hur on screen. And no, not as strong and catching as Charlton did, but Jack showed us a decent Judah, fitting the new story-line.
One of the things that was really nice in this version was the background story of the friendship between Judah and Messala. How it was originated and how they got so close. At the same time the somewhat softness of (mainly) Messala was a bit of a downfall for me. For me there was a lack of expression on both characters, which made them a bit flat. Again, to me it seems fitting to the whole new story-line, so I'm not going to blame it on Jack and Toby Kebbel (Messala).
Even though I have to agree that the whole part of Judah going to Rome, get a new Roman family and become a wealthy heir to his former galley-master (in the original movie) is not necessary for the story, I somehow missed the interaction which explains a lot about Judah and show even more the kind of man he is. I can't tell if they intended to bring that back by the somewhat extended time Judah spends with Ilderim (Morgan Freeman), but if so, they didn't succeed.
While the scenes at sea and in the circus could haven been amazingly better due to all the new technical stuff we have these days, I feel that it isn't. It's not worse either, but to my opinion it could have been way, way better. To me it was pretty much equal to what we saw in the original movie.
I don't know why they decided to choose to let Messala live at the end, nor why they move away from Jerusalem. I also don't know why Drusus seems to have such an important role (which wasn't really all that important anyway) and did what he did for Naomi and Thirza. And where they filled in some gaps of the original movie, they created new ones in this version.
Somehow this movie has a remarkable happy end, compared to the original. Which to me doesn't feel right. It is a sad story. It is a sad time in history, a sad thing that happens between Messala and Judah, a sad inline historical view of Jesus death. And yes, some good happens to come out of it, but to me there should be a feeling of sadness and hope at the end of the story. Not the happiness in this version, that forgot all the hate and anger there also was.
As I said... could've been worse, but definitely could've been better...
With that in mind and still a bit worried about what I was about to spent two hours of time on, I sat down and watched. It wasn't a waste of time, but I wasn't really exited either.
In general I was right, it by far didn't match up to the original movie with Charlton Heston. To start with his counterpart, Jack Huston did a nice job for the main reason that he didn't simply tried to copy Charlton Heston. He put his own Judah Ben-Hur on screen. And no, not as strong and catching as Charlton did, but Jack showed us a decent Judah, fitting the new story-line.
One of the things that was really nice in this version was the background story of the friendship between Judah and Messala. How it was originated and how they got so close. At the same time the somewhat softness of (mainly) Messala was a bit of a downfall for me. For me there was a lack of expression on both characters, which made them a bit flat. Again, to me it seems fitting to the whole new story-line, so I'm not going to blame it on Jack and Toby Kebbel (Messala).
Even though I have to agree that the whole part of Judah going to Rome, get a new Roman family and become a wealthy heir to his former galley-master (in the original movie) is not necessary for the story, I somehow missed the interaction which explains a lot about Judah and show even more the kind of man he is. I can't tell if they intended to bring that back by the somewhat extended time Judah spends with Ilderim (Morgan Freeman), but if so, they didn't succeed.
While the scenes at sea and in the circus could haven been amazingly better due to all the new technical stuff we have these days, I feel that it isn't. It's not worse either, but to my opinion it could have been way, way better. To me it was pretty much equal to what we saw in the original movie.
I don't know why they decided to choose to let Messala live at the end, nor why they move away from Jerusalem. I also don't know why Drusus seems to have such an important role (which wasn't really all that important anyway) and did what he did for Naomi and Thirza. And where they filled in some gaps of the original movie, they created new ones in this version.
Somehow this movie has a remarkable happy end, compared to the original. Which to me doesn't feel right. It is a sad story. It is a sad time in history, a sad thing that happens between Messala and Judah, a sad inline historical view of Jesus death. And yes, some good happens to come out of it, but to me there should be a feeling of sadness and hope at the end of the story. Not the happiness in this version, that forgot all the hate and anger there also was.
As I said... could've been worse, but definitely could've been better...