Journey to Bethlehem

Scene stealing megalomanic King Herod (Antonio Banderas) hams up marvellously in this enjoyable if totally forgettable pre-Nativity Christmas story. He presides over the kingdom of Judah towards which three magi are heading when they espy a bright star in the sky portending an event of great importance. Meantime, the well educated Mary (Fiona Paloma) is regaling against an arranged marriage with a man she's never even met! Anyway, times being what they are, she has to acquiesce and meets the fairly easy on the eye Joseph (Milo Manheim). It's not exactly hate a first sight, but one night she get's another - more celestial - visitor who leaves her with quite a belly ache. She tells her folks, then her would-be husband and is soon, unsurprisingly, on her own... Quite why Gabriel couldn't just have told everyone at once? Anyway, the increasingly paranoid Herod gets wind of this impending miracle and uses the three kings and his son Antipater (Joel Smallbone) to track down and destroy the potential usurper. That fact that we still celebrate Christmas eliminates any sense of jeopardy so this is essentially just a light-hearted piece of musical theatre that uses the two slightly soporific stars to tell us a story of when Mary met Joseph. The songs are standard fayre with plenty of perfect choreography, some earnest lyrics about love and loyalty (and a fun song from Banderas about absolute power) before Omid Djalili's visiting Melchior tries to explain what myrrh is for. It's wordy, cheesy but joyous seasonal stuff that I was rather surprised to find got a cinema release in the UK. You shouldn't hate it.

LIKES:

The Time: -It's not a very long movie, in fact the whole thing runs about 90 minutes at most.

-So if you are going for a movie that won't break an afternoon or evening, nor make your dates/family who don't want to be there have to wait.

-And yet, the timing does enough to lay out the story and give you the miracle that you need.

The Plot: -If you know the Bible, you'll love that they hit the moments that matter. This journey gives you the most important and soul hitting pieces of Jesus' birth.

-For those like me who need a lesson, the Spark notes essentially give you some other pieces that get lost in the general story, and help add even more miracles to such an event than I realized.

-The movie doesn't try to change too many things up, sticks to the morals and the hopes of the Christmas season, and keeps to what the Bible teaches without taking away too much.

The Effects: -Visual wise, it's a movie that for what I expect is a more limited budget to others, utilized it well.

-Setting feels very Biblical Era, with deserts and the dwellings of old all nicely built and designed, and the costumes reflect very much the fashion they used.

-When the visual effects come into play, the lights and movie magic work greatly, a blend of practical with computer that enhances and adds that in your face Christian movie feel.

-It's the sound effects that really work for me. Not so much the goat, horse and sounds of people walking, but more so the audio crafting.

-Bethlehem really maximizes the sound quality for theater, the voices able to radiate majestic levels, while also getting ready for the musical numbers that are the lifeblood of this movie, outside the message.

The Acting: -Is fine. The movie feels on the caliber of most of these movies with lower budgets, good, but a bit theatrical and Hallmark like.

-Banderas as the king has good projection, majestic quality and an attitude, but he just isn't utilized the best and has more things to offer if they had used him better -Manheim is one of the stars and this performance was a step up from his Disney days. Charming, talented with singing and dancing, but still a bit overdramatic that you either love or don't love.

-Segers is fine in his role, the wiseman with logic, this king has a great baritone, serves as a great comedy test with the other characters, and delivers the lines with a very magnanimous presence that works.

• Fiona Palomo as Mary deserves a shout out, her delivery of lines elegant, her voice very peaceful, beautiful, and smooth, and her ferocity matched well with her sincerity believable given the ordeal she goes through.

-She is the star of the show, and I absolutely loved how well she played this part and just how much range she has in her acting abilities.

The Singing: -A musical is all about the songs, and this movie is ready with a soundtrack that is ready to unleash the theatrical vibes.

-The Journey to Bethlehem is more song than actual talking, a variety of song types to match the personalities of the character and the energy of the moment.

-My personal favorites are Marry Mary, I'm the King, and the Three Wisemen, all with the show tune themes, but drawing inspiration from different shows to deliver.

-The theater was rocking to the sounds of the instruments, and the technology with their singing just comes out with that added effect that had me smiling and dancing in my seat.

-This is going to be the favorite for most people going, again outside of the religious element, and I think that it has that flair that this could have been a theatrical show.

The Three Wise Men: -My personal favorite liberty was the portrayal of the three kings.

-From the moment they set foot on screen, these guys act as the three stooges to a degree, with a lot of comedic relief to help mix up the more somber tones of the movie.

-A tad too silly at times, these little intermissions have some seriously fun writing, don't overstep in being too in your face, and have some of the best versatility in terms of how they talk to characters.

-These guys may not be what the movie is about, but this little twist has fun features that are certain to find favoritism from the audience, so long as these liberties don't insult you.

DISLIKES:

Preachy: -This caliber of movie usually has this motif, and it's too be expected.

-However, I've seen plenty of movies about religion that can get around the tropes and the presentation that feels like talking to a pastor.

'Journey to Bethlehem's lines are a tad too in your face, go too far out of their way to make the point, and are often a bit simple for the majesty of the movie.

-As important as the words are, they feel out of place in these actors, and needed better planning to not get so Hallmark like.

-Again, this is not going to do much to deter the big fans, but in terms of movie, the lines of the songs prove they can be creative with wording.

More Suspense: -I can't tell you just how harrowing this ordeal was in terms of an adventure, so I'm not going to for accuracy to the Bible.

-Yet with all the creative liberties taken, they really couldn't make this feel a bit more daring, distracting, and with a bit more bite given the build up of Herod's character?

-The movie just would have packed more punches had some better transitions been taken to show the time limit of the bad guy's patience or even the taxation on the son's mind.

-It just felt too much Hallmark fashion, which for feel good rules, but for engaging elements drops.

Too Many Songs: -Hard to fault a musical for being musical, but... this movie doesn't quite have the timing down compared to a live theater show.

-Certainly due to time constraints, the movie falls in the habit of finding all the avenues to sing and dance, rather than finding the opportune moments to maximize it.

-Almost like Mamma Mia, breaking out into song and dance at every opportunity is uplifting and good fun, but in doing so loses the character and story to instead lead my mind to, what's the next song going to sound like.

-A little more balance, or again more time, might have mitigated this, but two songs in general and how they begun made my laugh when they weren't supposed to.

Character Usage: -Probably my least favorite part of the movie, the character usage is wonky and difficult to determine where the balance could be.

-So many characters were introduced and integrated, many having this shadow of having more involvement than what I got in the movie.

-Mary's family, Joseph's family, and even the Wise Men at times felt like an afterthought lost agin to song and dance and the quick montages of traveling during the course of the 9 months.

-The biggest drawbacks are Herod and his son. Two characters who certainly seemed to have a lot of potential until the story was filled with so many characters they became very fickle, boring, and moping.

-That was the biggest shame to me, that such powerful figures and actors were not utilized more.

Lacking Splendor?

-I hate to ever say this story lacks splendor, because it is quite indeed fantastic.

-Yet, this telling just didn't have the bite and budget to make it the best theater movie of the year.

-Perhaps better as a miniseries, or maybe just needing more time, Journey to Bethlehem was just another victim of too much editing in my opinion and needed to have more story element to support the musical elements they chose.

The VERDICT:

This movie is certainly a very fun holiday movie that might have been sprung a few weeks too early in my opinion. Journey to Bethlehem almost feels like Kidz Bop, meets Disney, meets A Musical, with the Bible baked into the foundation of the story. It's cute, it's a great intro, and it gives you enough and the creative liberties are more fun than insulting depending on how devout you are. I found the setting and effects wonderful to enjoy, the musical numbers themselves campy and bright, and the acting solid for what they were asked to do. Yet despite all this, the movie feels a little too intro and focused on music than actually being a musical with a good story. Alongside limited character usage, lacking suspense, a preachy dialogue and dare I say too many songs, the movie just needed more time and planning to accomplish the goal set out for it. I didn't hate it all, and I feel this movie's message supersedes any of my dislikes, but all in all, this movie is going to best be watched as a church group or at church than anything else. My scores for this film are:

Adventure/Family/Musical: 7.5 Movie Overall: 6.0.

Others may disagree, but I see the liberties taken to fill in gaps are reasonable and necessary. The movie presents a vision of the possible life and expletive of Joseph and Mary and the 3 wise men and, likely, the evolution of a soul when presented with the gift of God through Jesus Christ. Perfect? No. Well done? Absolutely!

Three wise men as stooges or comedic interludes? Nope, not even barely! They show the son of Herod (a prototypical seeker) learning from the 3 wise men in his transformation.

The movie shows what did happen and what might have happened in the gaps that exist in scripture. The characters are well-developed and the viewer is able to see the world from many different angles.

Frankly, if anyone criticizes the depiction of Mary because she doesn't fit into their "mental picture" of who Mary was and is, then shame on you because this Mary is much more realistic and approachable than any other depiction of Mary that I've ever seen or heard.

I've watched this film more times than I can count because it is helping me through medications for physical Illnesses that I have. I know the film isn't perfect, but WOAH! The characters and their passion for God and truth is clear and obvious.

Take what you will, but know this: God is in this story!

What if you re-imagined life before Jesus. And then attempted to sanitize the idea that Mary was an ambitious post-teen who had aspirations to be a teacher but accepts the task of being a surrogate to Mom to God. Typing this out loud I laugh to myself how silly it may sound. And perhaps that's what the moviemakers thought too. So they inject it with non-memorable songs. But they're so semi-polished to the budget from a studio that pumps its money into Marvel stuff and reserves some dough to throw at faith based flicks like this. Yes, it's clearly a religious movie. I mean, it IS about Jesus. But it doesn't necessarily slap you across the face with it. They astutely let you have some fun with it. With some pratfalls and silly humor, they did something smart and NOT take it all that seriously.

However, it still stops short of being all that interesting. Antonio Banderas plays King Herod with great evil fun. He knows what movie he wants to be in and commits to some bizarre behavior that taps into madness.

Look, the stakes are very low in this flick. They dump all the ugliness and violence of those days and gives you an abridge overview of the "Greatest Story Ever Told" Take this statement for what its worth.

If not for the stunning Fiona Palomo who plays Mary, it's hard to say the flick is all that watchable. It seemed a little bit...cheap. Obviously this is a budgeted piece that whiffs at Hallmark Holiday level flicks. There is nothing particularly dramatic. Fiona plays Mary sweet and innocent. With wide-eyes and wholesome quality, it's really hard to NOT like this movie.

It's a good flick to fill boredom during the holidays but I didn't find it all that re-watchable.

I don't mind musicals, but they aren't necessarily my favorite genre of film. I saw the trailer for this movie and thought it looked corny, however, a friend wanted to see it so I thought I'd give it a chance. I have to admit I was blown away. Yes they do take artistic license with some of the nativity story, but the most important aspects are featured so I don't think anyone would say it was heretical. What really captured my attention though was the musical performances. The singers were amazing. The musical score was top notch. As I was watching it other artists and productions came to mind to compare it with. One of the early songs Antonio Banderas sang reminded me of the Imagine Dragon song Believe (it wasn't exactly like it, just gave me that strong hard edge vibe that fit the horrid King well). A song that Mary sang reminded me a little of the film The Greatest Showman. I even got Evita and Yentl vibes. The quality of the performances were that good. If you like musicals you should like this one. And, it doesn't stop there. The cinematography was done well and the production value was high quality. Great costumes, make-up, and set design. I couldn't find how much their budget was, but if it was low you sure couldn't tell it. I hope people give it a chance. The more people who go the longer it will stay in theaters. I might even go again if it doesn't leave theater's too quickly. It's a good family friendly movie, just right for this time of year.