I agree with the question that many of the reviewers here have brought up: why on earth would someone decide to spend a lot of time and effort and money in remaking a once-in-a-lifetime classic movie like Ben Hur. The only sensible reason can be that you want to give the story an interesting twist: make it some sort of prequel or sequel to the original or focus on some new aspects. But to re-make the entire original movie step by step, almost without changing a thing, seems superfluous to say the least, or down-right stupid.
Having stated this, I must give the makers of this version due credit: it's not such a bad movie at all. It's visually attractive, has a good pace, the (unchanged) storyline is as strong as ever, and the acting (contrary to what some of the reviewers think) was in my opinion pretty good, as far as the protagonists of the story are concerned. It took me a few minutes to adjust to Joseph Morgan, but after that he turned out as a very convincing Judah Ben Hur, with a strong and very physical screen-presence, equally realistic in his emotional outbursts and anger as in his more softer moments. He totally held his own against the very strong Stephen Campbell Moore as Messala. The Roman characters like Quintus Arrius, Marcellus Agrippa, Pilate and emperor Tiberius were also given solid performances. Emily VanCamp as the love-interest Esther had more will-power than beauty, but this fitted the story fine. And I didn't have any trouble with Lucía Jiménez as the prostitute slave-girl Athena; maybe her way of talking seemed a bit declamatory, but she had to play a foreign (Greek) woman so her accent and deliberate speech was actually a realistic part of the story.
My only disappointments concerned the mother and sister: their parts were rather small and unconvincing, but this was mainly due to the script that didn't offer them much space. Why on earth Kristin Kreuk (who is a gifted actress that I absolutely loved in Smallville) agreed to play the sister is beyond me, her character was as thin as wall-paper with hardly three lines to say! Well, maybe she just needed a vacation in Marocco, where they filmed!
The movie has some great and spectacular scenes, like the sea-battle with the galley's and of course the famous chariot-race. The religious aspects (the Ben Hur story more or less crosses the story of Jesus on his way to crucifixion) are not overblown, but still very much present. Judah's magical moment when facing Jesus and helping him with lifting the cross-wood during his way to Golgotha is well-done, although this Jesus must be the most uncharismatic Jesus that I've seen for ages in a movie, it's a wonder in itself that Judah senses anything special at all. For some reasons (they were probably afraid to shy away the non-religious viewers) the miraculous healing of the mother and sister from their affliction with leprosy is not visually linked with the meeting or touching of Jesus (or are we to think that they were hiding in the wagon nearby and the healing was radiated to them from a distance?). Anyway, the sickness didn't seem to be so bad as to justify the fuzz everyone was making over it, I mean, the make-up department could have put in a little bit more effort. Now we see Kristin Kreuk desperately trying to hide her afflicted face but when Judah lowers her scarf she reveals her usual beautiful self with just one large pimp on her forehead.
All in all I was reasonably entertained and satisfied, but still left with this unsolved question: why did they bother???
Having stated this, I must give the makers of this version due credit: it's not such a bad movie at all. It's visually attractive, has a good pace, the (unchanged) storyline is as strong as ever, and the acting (contrary to what some of the reviewers think) was in my opinion pretty good, as far as the protagonists of the story are concerned. It took me a few minutes to adjust to Joseph Morgan, but after that he turned out as a very convincing Judah Ben Hur, with a strong and very physical screen-presence, equally realistic in his emotional outbursts and anger as in his more softer moments. He totally held his own against the very strong Stephen Campbell Moore as Messala. The Roman characters like Quintus Arrius, Marcellus Agrippa, Pilate and emperor Tiberius were also given solid performances. Emily VanCamp as the love-interest Esther had more will-power than beauty, but this fitted the story fine. And I didn't have any trouble with Lucía Jiménez as the prostitute slave-girl Athena; maybe her way of talking seemed a bit declamatory, but she had to play a foreign (Greek) woman so her accent and deliberate speech was actually a realistic part of the story.
My only disappointments concerned the mother and sister: their parts were rather small and unconvincing, but this was mainly due to the script that didn't offer them much space. Why on earth Kristin Kreuk (who is a gifted actress that I absolutely loved in Smallville) agreed to play the sister is beyond me, her character was as thin as wall-paper with hardly three lines to say! Well, maybe she just needed a vacation in Marocco, where they filmed!
The movie has some great and spectacular scenes, like the sea-battle with the galley's and of course the famous chariot-race. The religious aspects (the Ben Hur story more or less crosses the story of Jesus on his way to crucifixion) are not overblown, but still very much present. Judah's magical moment when facing Jesus and helping him with lifting the cross-wood during his way to Golgotha is well-done, although this Jesus must be the most uncharismatic Jesus that I've seen for ages in a movie, it's a wonder in itself that Judah senses anything special at all. For some reasons (they were probably afraid to shy away the non-religious viewers) the miraculous healing of the mother and sister from their affliction with leprosy is not visually linked with the meeting or touching of Jesus (or are we to think that they were hiding in the wagon nearby and the healing was radiated to them from a distance?). Anyway, the sickness didn't seem to be so bad as to justify the fuzz everyone was making over it, I mean, the make-up department could have put in a little bit more effort. Now we see Kristin Kreuk desperately trying to hide her afflicted face but when Judah lowers her scarf she reveals her usual beautiful self with just one large pimp on her forehead.
All in all I was reasonably entertained and satisfied, but still left with this unsolved question: why did they bother???