Plot: Josh is a student in a university who takes a philosophy class taught by his atheist Professor, Radisson. Because he is a Christian, Josh refuses to write "God is dead" like Radisson tells the class to do in order to pass the class, so they make an agreement that Josh has to make a three-session argument in front of the class that God is real. Meanwhile, we have a series of subplots that include 1) Radisson's relationship with his girlfriend who is also a Christian, 2) her relationship with her brother while their mother suffers from dementia, 3) a left-wing blogger who discovers she has terminal cancer, 4) a Muslim student who is secretly a Christian, 5) a Chinese student in Josh's class who is intrigued by Josh's standing up to Radisson and 6) two pastors unable to go on a road trip to Disneyworld.
When I heard about this movie, I was curious about what they would do with the argument about whether or not God is real. I didn't think they were going to do something really spectacular in how they tackle the subject, but it looked like it would at least give us some interesting points. What I got when I finally saw it...was very underwhelming. Even through the debate between Josh and Radisson is the main story, the argument itself about God's existence is barely in the movie. It is mostly left on the sidelines so that the movie can focus more on the subplots that kind of connect with each other but at the same time not really. One video reviewer on YouTube put it best on his on review that this movie acted more like it's directed to one specific audience rather then a general audience. It just wanted to please Christians with all of these stories about Christians or people who have something against Christianity more then it wanted to have a story with a well thought out message to reach a general audience. And don't get me wrong, if you enjoy these subplots and maybe even relate to them in some way because of your own walk with Jesus, that's fine. Don't let me stop you by any means. But these plots have been done before, are far to simple and contain very cheesy dialogue. If any of them were to really work, they would have to get rid of some of them so that the ones that are left can be fleshed out more. Otherwise it would've been best that they would all be removed from the film so that we would have more of Josh and Radisson debating about God's existence.
But as bad as all of these things are, they don't compare to Radisson as the villain. This is probably the most corny villain I've seen in a live-action movie in a long time. He was so stubborn and egotistical about how Josh is trying to take people away from his side in the debate about God that it was annoying. They also made so one-dimensional that he would also publicly humiliate his girlfriend because of her faith. Even when we do find out why he is the way he is, it's still unoriginal, was very rushed, and even if you put all of that aside, they made him way to much of a jack-hole for us to care about him at all. I also can't help but call bull-crap on the fact that he's supposed to be this philosophy professor at a university. As someone who has taken philosophy classes such as ethics and the philosophy of religion where the teachers talk about those subjects in a mature manner where they are respecting people's beliefs at a community college, he was just too hard to take seriously as a philosophy teacher at a university. Heck, there are moments where he would threaten Josh to stop the debate or something around that where he easily should've been fired from his job.
If there's anything I do like from the movie, it would be the scenes when Josh does make his argument that God isn't dead. While they're not the most enlightening discussions about the existence in God - in fact you can probably tell that they are really holding back in how deep and specific they could've been, it still is interesting to listen to. I also can't help but enjoy the song God's not Dead by Newsboys at the end of the film. It's simply a fun catchy song for Christians like me to enjoy.
And that's my review for God's Not Dead. If you enjoy this movie because of how you might relate to any of the subplots, and/or enjoy the moments when they do talk about God, that's great. Please continue to do so. But for a film that is suppose to be about discussing God's existence, this film gives us almost nothing but overly simple stories that don't connect together very well with corny dialogue and in incredibly cheesy villain. Not one of the worst things I've ever seen (heck, I'm debating about going to see the sequel out of curiosity as to whether or not it'll be that bad), but it's one Christian film that I say you should skip.
Rating: 20%
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