By Allie Pino ’15

The newly released film “Son of God,” directed by Christopher Spencer, is one of the best movie versions of the story of Jesus. Unlike the graphic “The Passion of the Christ” and controversial “The Last Temptation of Christ,” “Son of God” is aimed more at a Christian audience wanting to see the traditional Biblical story and is unlikely to rouse controversy even though it includes violent scenes of Romans beating and killing Jews and a horrendous crucifixion scene.

“Son of God” is a cut-down version of producers Mark Burnett and Roma Downey’s TV miniseries “The Bible,” depicting the story of Jesus. Notably, scenes with Satan have been removed from the movie because the actor who played him reportedly looked like Barack Obama.

There are moments when “Son of God” still looks like a TV show. Camera work that was realistic on the small screen can be head-throbbing on the big screen. Shots of ancient Jerusalem that looked reasonable on TV appear fake in a theater. The jumps over commercial breaks makes the film version a bit choppy in scenes.

The costumes and settings all seem to attempt a classic Christian look and the actors – for the most part – visually represent the biblical figures most people are familiar with. More than that, though, “Son of God” ponders many of Christ’s teachings and pure way of life.

Viewers get Jesus (Portuguese model Diogo Morgado) reciting some of his more famous sayings, usually within a brief, recognizable biblical scene. Since the Nativity portion of his life was skipped in this version, Jesus appears on screen fully formed. The disciples move as a clear unit in “Son of God,” speaking when biblical text requires them to. Viewers still get a sense of these historical figures, such as St. John (Sebastian Knapp), who gives brief pieces of narration to string the story together.

Like many Christ stories, this one clearly prefers to focus on Jesus’ torture and crucifixion over his teachings and ideas. Christ’s sacrifice is central to many Christian churches, so it tends to be the root of most filmed version of the life of Jesus.

“Son of God” ultimately is more about depicting the source of people’s faith than about the filmmaking. And while some additional footage was shot by other directors to turn the original miniseries chapters into a whole feature film, the primary objective of the film is to provide a representation of the life of Jesus for those who believe him to be the savior of mankind.