KING OF KINGS REVIEW

“For anyone who already knows this much-told story, it’s a watered-down telling that’s sometimes as grueling to get through as Sunday school.”

Over the last few years, I’ve reviewed many of Angel Studios’ films, and I’ve frequently mentioned how some of them don’t really go too hard on the faith and religion stuff. That changes with King of Kings, which is a full-on animated retelling of the Jesus story but done in a way clearly meant for younger kids.

The film begins with a framing sequence of acclaimed author Charles Dickens (voiced by Kenneth Branagh) dealing with his precocious youngest son Walter (Roman Griffin Davis from Jojo Rabbit) and eventually telling him the story of Jesus, directly taken from the New Testament. (Uma Thurman voices the role of Dickens’ wife Catherine.) Oscar Isaac, who already portrayed Joseph in the Catherine Hardwick-directed The Nativity Story way back in 2006, provides the voice for Jesus, while Pierce Brosnan voices Pontius Pilate and Sir Ben Kingsley voices High Priest Caiaphas.

Co-written and directed by first-time director Seong-ho Jang, who comes from the visual effects side of filmmaking in South Korea, the film remains pretty faithful to the story that most people (even non-Christians like myself) will already know. Other than the voice cast, this seems like mostly a Southern Korean production, which might make one wonder how much Christianity or Catholicism there is in South Korea to spur a filmmaker there to take this on. The voice work for the film is just fine, as is the writing, though the movie is filled with many clichés, particularly when it comes to some of Jesus’ better-known parables, which feel almost shoehorned in to make the story feel even more familiar. It was only much later that I even realized that Dickens actually did write a book about Jesus called “The Life of our Lord” on which this movie is loosely based.

Even so, it was hard for me to not watch this film without some cynicism and even an occasional smirk, because I’ve watched Monty Python’s Life of Brian far too many times over the years. I’ve also seen Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ and Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, so I’m not sure that King of Kings really has that much to say except to create a version of the story that won’t traumatize the youngest viewers. There’s a lot more action in this version of the story, maybe to keep those same younger viewers captivated to what might otherwise be a story that is only vaguely interesting. Furthermore, Walter begins to get quite annoying, as he ends up inside the story being told, basically yelling at the actions of those looking to torture and kill Jesus. Somehow, they manage to show all of that torture in a way that fits into the film’s PG rating.

King of Kings looks great and has a glorious score by Tae Song Kim, and that goes a long way to make the film at least watchable. Unfortunately, the movie ends with a cheesy song that will probably be vying for an Original Song Oscar, because clearly, Angel Studios really wants to be taken seriously as a studio, and Oscar nominations are a good way to do that.

For younger folk who don’t know the story of Jesus, King of Kings may be a fine introduction, but for anyone who already knows this much-told story, it’s a watered-down telling that’s sometimes as grueling to get through as Sunday school. Kids might enjoy this as their introduction to the upcoming Easter holiday, but it doesn’t offer much else.

Rating: 5.5/10

King of Kings opens nationwide on Friday April 11.