David and Goliath

This is so bad to there was one point at which I thought it was a comedy! People in the cast appeared to be walking aimlessly around in circles, about five horses walked past the camera on a number of occasions. Where on Earth all these people were walking to is a mystery given that they simply appeared to be circling around some ruins. The plot is basically the biblical story that takes up just a few verses in the Bible. It is however strung out for so long, so amateurishly and with such poor production quality that it becomes almost laughable.

This movie was better than some of the interpretations of David and Goliath I've seen; however, it still was a far cry from the actual biblical story. I wondered if all the producers took from the narrative was the names!

Regardless, the quality of the movie was very good. High resolution, good CG, wonderful scenery, and an okay job on the costume designs. My favorite part was when Goliath came onto the scene. The guy who played him was huge and convincing as Goliath. I like the interpretation of David as a masculine man and not a pubescent boy. One of the problems I've always had with a David portrayal is that he's portrayed as young boy with blonde hair and blue eyes. This David was masculine and manly. I mean, if we're going with the biblical narrative, David took out animals to protect his father's sheep. That's not a thin, skinny pale boy. Plus, David lived in warm climate and was a Jew. Chances are, he's at least tanned with dark hair.

But I digress.

All in all, I watched the movie fully aware there was a lot of creative tampering with the biblical narrative BUT I did like the action scenes.

The film does a great job of showing what could have happened in the life of King David. The introduction of Goliath is great, but looks like it was an afterthought. Most of the performances are well done, except the lead. His lines come off as read.

This may as well be The CW's interpretation of the Bible. David fights (and kills) Goliath's shield bearer using bad Krav Maga moves and engages Goliath in a 3-1/2 minute sword-and-fist fight before climaxing with the iconic slingshotted stone, which turns out to be a godawful CG effect that looks like it belongs in Dragonball Z. I could go on for a few more paragraphs, but that should be enough to keep you away from this garbage, unless you're watching it for the same reasons you'd watch a Neil Breen film. I'm an atheist and was still somehow offended by it.

If you're looking for an accurate Biblical portrayal of the epic story of David and Goliath, move along. Nothing to see here. This story is a re-write and they do preface the movie with the disclaimer that they took artistic and stylistic license. However, this movie is so NOT the story of David and Goliath. If you change the names of the very poorly acted characters there would be absolutely no resemblance. It removes faith from the story and portrays David as a late twenty something warrior in training instead of a sheep tending, song singing, fresh- faced young teenage boy. The acting, directing and casting, just make this movie atrocious. No redeeming value...not even with the hot girl who makes an appearance for a few moments.