The Young Messiah
Written by Evan Purcell, March 24, 2016, at 4:45 p.m.
The Young Messiah is exactly what its title implies: it’s a Muppet Babies-version of the New Testament. Specifically, it follows a seven-year-old Jesus who learns about his powers, his responsibilities, and all the crap he’s going to have to go through in the future. People tell him he’s special a lot, and he has to come to terms with that. It’s a lot like the first Spider-Man movie, actually, except really boring.
Adam Greaves-Neal plays the pre-adolescent messiah, and he’s a pretty solid child actor, despite the fact that (like a lot of other cinematic Jesuses) his long, billowing hair is slightly more expressive than the rest of him. The rest of the cast is largely forgettable, except for a figure who’s sort of Satan but not really. He slinks around and whispers at people. He’s the kind of movie villain who somehow manages to twirl his mustache in every scene even though he doesn’t have a mustache.
In all honesty, I haven’t seen a lot of faith-based films, mostly because I’m not in the target demographic, and because a lot of these films are preachy and/or filled with Kirk Cameron. I made an exception for this one, however, because the premise intrigued me (Baby Jesus!) and it was based on an Anne Rice book. Yes, the author of Interview with the Vampire wrote a book called Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, which by all accounts was heavily researched and completely vampire-free. (She wrote it during her brief return to Catholicism, which she’s since backed away from.)
Unfortunately, the source material and the interesting concept don’t exactly translate to the screen. This film is as dull as a sermon. It’s not preachy, but it’s so lethargic that it was a struggle to get through without praying for the credits.
It’s not an R-rated torture-fest like the most famous faith-based film (Passion of the Christ), which is a plus. The production values are pretty good. I mean, it doesn’t look like a TV movie, which is perhaps the nicest thing I can say about it. The background music is pleasant. And it doesn’t feel as low-budget as it probably was.
However, there’s really no reason for this thing to exist except to squeeze money out of the wallets of the faithful. So in that way, it’s a lot like going to church.