Ben-Hur (2016), PG-13, ★★

Welcome to the Ben-Hur 500: Chariot Style.

Mostly everybody who is familiar with Ben-Hur is familiar with the Charlton Heston version in 1959 because it is established as a classical epic about a man's journey for vengeance and redemption intertwined with the tale of Jesus Christ. However, back in which Hollywood was more restrained and directors have more creative control, legendary director William Wyler had eye into what the story can factor with support from some great performances and an epic scope. Ok, when I heard about a remake about this movie, I was rolling my eyes and saying that this will be a bomb, which it will be because nobody will care about this remake. Regarding my instinctive expectations, this movie had me for about 30 minutes, but then dives into monstrosity into balancing the emotional, religious aspect with such distracting special-effects extravaganza that it adds to the plot's conclusion with such laziness.

The movie has a more different structure than the 1959 version with opening with an in media res structure with Judah Ben-Hur (Jack Huston) and his adopted brother, Messala (Toby Kebbell) challenging each other before the chariot race. They both were very close since there were younger adults as they look out for each other especially when Judah gets injured when the horse throws him off. Their mother, Naomi (Ayelet Zurer), is displeased with their actions whereas Judah's sister, Tirzah (Sofia Black-D'Elia) has a crush on him, which bothers Naomi. Judah also meets Jesus of Nazareth (Rodrigo Santoro) who spreads compassion amongst all the Jews and Zealots. Judah also meets a woman named Esther (Nazanin Boniadi) and falls in love with her.

Messala joins the Roman army and leaves without saying goodbye to Judah. They both exchange letters over the next three years. Messala and Judah reunite and Messala talks about the Roman ideals and Pontius Pilate and Judah disagree with some of his beliefs and ideals. When a boy attempts to fire an arrow at Pontius Pilate, the boy runs away. Pilate (Pilou Asbaek) demands to know who did it or will get the family killed, Judah takes the blame and he is separated from his mother and sister.

For five years, Judah has become a slave for the Romans and he is on a ship. When an enemy attacks the Roman fleet, all the Romans are fighting and get killed except for Judah, who is floating for days and gets washed ashore. Judah is found by the sheik, Ilderim (Morgan Freeman) and learns that he is a slave and could be of use for his horses when he manages to control them when they are loose. Ilderim then plans to have Judah to compete against Messala in a chariot race for honor and for glory. It sounds kind of macho, eh? Haha.

We're traveling and talking.

Setting my expectations aside, there was a watchable film here for the first 30 minutes or so as the movie sets up the relationship between Judah and Messala whereas the 1959 version did not do as we just deep right into the conflict surrounding the Roman beliefs with the Jewish beliefs. It also becomes a bit more spiritual and more forgiving towards the religious context surrounding Judah and his journey back to Jerusalem to find questions regarding where his sister and mother are. However, the problem is that the plot regarding her mother and sister are minuscule and not as broaden because it focuses mostly on the brother v. brother story which is fine but there needs to be some more narrative backbone onto why he wants revenge not sorely because of motivation and small news and explanations throughout the journey.

Surprisingly, I thought Jack Huston and Toby Kebbell were compelling and believable as former friendly brothers from opposites of the spectrum. You can believe that they were brothers. Morgan Freeman is one of my favorite actors ever and rarely gives a bad performance. However, he sometimes phones it in as the sheik reciting dialogue like he is smiling that he is going to earn a big paycheck after the experience is over. The female characters especially Esther does not get much to do regarding development as the movie mostly focuses the brotherly rivalry. Lastly, Rodrigo Santoro as Jesus is fine as he plays a larger role than in the 1959 version but does not have as emotional an impact as that version.

The second half of the film is where it derails as the movie tries to wrap it up as quickly as it can by inserting brief but important news to the journey just to set-up the climactic chariot race and its conclusion. The chariot race is cool, yes, with some nifty special effects and great camera angles but a little bit of the zooming in and over-the-top stunt work took me out of the movie. The mother-and-sister story has no emotional depth. And, the conclusion is terrible. Director Timur Bekmambetov has a good remake in there somewhere with some great acting and mostly great set-ups to a ok-to-solid sequences. However, the movie goes into too many directions as to what the movie wants to be: a more spiritual story or a revenge picture. It is not tightly focused. But, I am kind of impressed because it is not an awful remake from a production and storytelling standpoint, however, it needed work on its script.

**