LIKES:
Good Message
Very Good Delivery
Great voice Acting
Authentic Emotion
Liked The Presentation
Cute/Funny
Very Friendly Family
Good Pace/Entertaining
Meaningful
Great Music
DISLIKES:
A Tad Preachy
Character Usage is Uneven
Lots of Material In One Movie
The Animation Is A Tad Off
Does Not Have The Full Movie Magic
Summary:
The King of Kings is a movie about one of the most powerful stories in the history of the world. This movie translates it quite well into a piece that feels welcoming to a wide variety of audiences, with kids and adults alike getting ensnared in the powerful prose of Dickens' storytelling. It's a solid delivery and presentation of the material, a combination of what feels like a good Christmas tale that mixed Sunday School and a sermon into an engaging narrative to a boy more impressed with Medieval tales. Inspirational, powerful, and motivational, The King of Kings intertwines the majestic tale of Jesus with a very adorable approach to learning from a child's perspective. Jang and his team (alongside the studio they bought) have managed to keep the magnitude of the miracles and the cute comedy in check, and in allowing the interruptions and jokes, it shows a clever character progression that feels almost as magnificent as the story being told. The emotional moments hit very hard, in particular, the ones where the fantastic musical score mixes with the perfect animation moment to give goosebump-raising moments that feel so in tune with spirituality. As for the voice acting, it's pretty good, with many of the characters brought to life with powerful delivery, especially Isaac and Branagh, who have this command of their figure's emotions and qualities. The poetic dialogue of Dicken's spin of the story sets up Jesus's commanding, yet calm, lines as he teaches his subjects the words of God. Such engaging delivery keeps the deep emotion flowing, presenting that prowess of the moment and, again, not becoming so ensconced in it to be too intense for kids. Especially at the end, where the story comes together full circle, and you are left with this aura that makes you feel lighter. And all of this is at a pace that moves to keep your attention and not feel like attending a bible study for nearly two hours.
Yet, the movie does still cross into preachiness at times, losing the balance and becoming more of a Sunday quoting session. These moments are limited in distracting, but still sometimes trip up the building moments of the movie. Past that, the movie struggles at times with character usage, so many of the members in the Bible feel diluted despite how much each of them contributed to Jesus' life. There's a lot of material in one movie, and so many scenes seemed to be as simple as the sentences in the good book. While this is accurate to a degree, I think that the movie could have used the movie design magic, adding a little more of that musical interlude, a bit more vivid imagination in the miracles, and some slight build-up of moments to fully add that oomph. I know it probably undermines the point of the tale, but just a little more detail or design could have gone a long way. Finally, the animation, at times, feels a bit off. Not in terms of lag, but more so in that the emotion doesn't match the feelings of the words, or maybe it's the opposite point around. At times, the characters seem to have extra words that don't have the delivery to match what they were trying to convey. Something just felt off to me, and though most will not care, that slight difference in delivery is enough to lose a little bit on the score.
The VERDICT:
The King of Kings will accomplish a lot for the target audiences of this movie and seems to be quite a force from my time at my theater. It was a wonderful work that blends entertainment and religion to a level that serves the time of the year, establishing hope, faith, and joy in what this story means. It's cute, but not to the level that makes being an adult stink, as it balances fun and seriousness in a nicely paced movie to entertain everyone. And the voice acting is just stellar on many levels, the two lead roles in particular unleashing their characters to amazing levels. Sure, the movie does get preachy at times, and the character usage and content are uneven, given how much happened during Jesus' first walk on Earth, and the animation/feel of the lines is off at some points. However, most of these moments are forgivable when you get those perfect moments of musical and visual splendor colliding to give you that amazing feeling this story brings. Is this the theater movie? Yeah, I have to say it is for a lot of audience members, with those who don't like this subject material or believe in it need to steer clear of this film. The movie's scores for me are:
Animation/Family: 8.0
Movie Overall: 7.5.
