God's Not Dead: A Light in Darkness

Okay, to all of my fellow Christians out there reading this, it is OK to not like Christian movies. Yes, their message is good, but it doesn't mean its presented well. God taught us to be loving, accepting, and forgiving...

But I'm sorry, these movies are atrocious. The setups are unreal, over the top, and in all honesty made to scare christians. They show that everyone hates our religion and is actively trying to destoy it, which there are some that do believe that, but chances are you're not gonna have to encounter that. So much money is put to a franchise that builds off of propaganda that makes every little thing in someones life extremely important and dramatic. A lot of pureflix films are as cheesy as Blumhouse horror films at times. Really look at the way its shot, take away the stilted acting, the way it's directed shows how terrible they are. Shots where we're supposed to feel emotional makes us laugh because they're so over the top and cringey. I know the actors are trying their best, and the younger actors aren't too terrible, but these movies aren't low rated because of everyone hating on Christianity. They're hated because they're actually poorly and cheaply made films.

Michael Manson did a great job as a 1st time director.

The first few movies in the "God's Not Dead" franchise were so corny. The antagonists in the first few movies were stereotype atheists and borderline cartoon characters. GND3 actually seemingly had real characters that had real relatable issues and doubts about their faith. It actually tackles the problems with Christian victimology without being too heavy handed. v

The problem with this movie is the that it has too many unnecessary scenes. There are boring stretches of time that could have been cut out.

Even though it has some serious slow parts I give it points for attempting to tackle a different point of view than the originals.

Well worth going to see - but a little slow and more predictable than the previous movies for me. I imagine the hope is that the end was unpredictable for non-Christians who may have attended because of the previous 2. My daughter was moved so a 6/10 just because of that.

Despite all the odds, this film actually came out decent. Of course it is still heavy-handed with its ideas that the country disproportionately hates Christians and Christianity, there is still an underlying message of "We as a nation are not talking to each other as we should. We are screaming and not listening to other peoples' views". The movie does undercut its own message by featuring news pundits who espouse the typical "Liberals don't listen to Christians" but this is supplemented by several scenes where actual conversations, however brief, are had between these so-called liberals (read: atheists) and Christians. What the film does best is open itself up to be called out for hypocrisy with its typical "Christians are being persecuted" and, instead of chanting the mantra to itself throughout the film, actually turns to face the accusations and defend its stance. The Lawyer (played by David Corbett) and Reverend Dave (played by David A.R. White) are the main example of this phenomenon, and David A.R. White's earnest convictions are matched by Corbett's charming, needling lawyer character. This is the first time that the film series ever actually takes the time to establish a dialogue between these two forces that the film itself claims are tearing this country apart, and that sort of self-awareness in a film genre that seems eager to play the victim card can not be understated.

I would not recommend this film as anything but for the curious, and I would dissuade everyone from watching this until they've seen the first two in order to truly appreciate the level of growth that this series experienced in its writing and storytelling.

With a new director the series now walks in a better new path. While the first two movie had stereotypical characters, especially regarding the government and atheists are abandoned. This time there are no "good or bad" sides since everyone had an argument to present. This film attempts to deal with the extent of faith which could mean that the studio itself could be apologizing for the first two movies. But the movie can still be shortened by removing a few aspects that drag on and it still cherry picks legal events to present its thesis. The movie is rough around the edges but it stands above its predecessors and thus worth to watch.