Ben-Hur (2016) Film Review

If there's one film that can truly rival Ghostbusters for being the controversial remake/reboot to come out this summer, it's Ben-Hur. While most forget that it was itself a remake of silent versions from 1907 and 1925, the 1959 iteration starring Charlton Heston is widely renowned as being an outright classic (winning 11 of the 12 Academy Awards it was nominated for); deemed untouchable for giving the much-dreaded Hollywood treatment of being retold in the same vein as fellow landmark productions like Psycho. But evidently MGM and Paramount Pictures found something interesting in screenwriter Keith R. Clarke (The Way Back) and his script, and pressed ahead on bringing about the classic story once again; hiring Turkish director Timur Bekmambetov (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) to take the reins and to hope that the film can reach the finish line in extraordinary fashion - not taking into account the expectedly high levels of outrage from the general film community for even trying to redo the Heston classic. And with trailers failing to win them over, and an opening weekend in America that only made about 10% of the film's budget, could this film actually be the failure that it was expected to be? 

During the days that Jesus Christ (here played by Rodrigo Santoro), there lived two men who were like best friends: Judah Ben-Hur (Jack Houston), a descendant of a royal family that resides in Jerusalem, and his adopted Roman brother Messala (Toby Kebbell). Following a horse racing accident which nearly claims Judah's life, Messala opts to join the Roman legion and fight on behalf of the Empire; deeming it a more welcoming family than the one that adopted him. Years later, and Messala returns a decorated officer and trusts his brother to inform him of any planned attacks on the visiting Pontius Pilate (Pilou Asbæk), which ultimately occurs when a recovering zealot residing in secret at the Ben-Hur home. Taking the blame in an attempt of keeping the rest of his family – which includes his dear mother (Ayelet Zurer), sister (Sofia Black D'Elia) and wife (Nazanin Boniadi) - safe, Ben-Hur is taken to be a slave in the galleys. When an attack five years later leads to the ship's destruction, and in turn into the hands of Sheik Ilderim (Morgan Freeman), Ben-Hur is granted the revenge he so craves on his dear brother as part of the prestigious and dangerous chariot racing...

With the film sitting at just over 2 hours long and with a number of flashforwards in time, Ben-Hur may not be reaching the same lengths as that its popular version is (3 hours) but it still feels a long-winded and dull tale. While it's understandable as to why the filmmakers would want to worm in an early glimpse at the infamous chariot racing – it is, after all, one of the most famous sequences in cinema – it feels like the longest wait until we get anything close to what they promise for, and when it finally makes its appearance it turns into an incoherent mess (more on that later). We sit through long and tedious discussions about family, betrayal and acceptance before anything remotely interesting happens, and even then we can hardly see what they want to showcase. With an off-putting pace and some cheesy dialogue, it makes this story of family barely tolerable.

The biggest insult comes in with the visuals and the direction. While director Bekmambetov has done fine enough in the past with the likes of Wanted, here he's deemed rather for bringing alive the classic tale of two brothers; bringing about unclear visuals of chariot races and a POV image that feels more vomit-inducing than the entirety of Hardcore Henry (impressive for a 12A). Add some severe shaky camera work and some interesting character placements for certain shots – tied together with some makeshift editing that made it into the final product – and it just looks wrong for a Biblical epic. As for the visual effects, one would assume that the $100m budget went solely towards the actors, set design and costumes, as it's quite possibly some of the worst major effects work seen all year; completely throwing you out of the element by looking at just how drab and gloomy it looks.

 In the titular role of Ben-Hur is Jack Houston, who gives off a fine performance when he doesn't make his voice turn into a Batman knock-off. It's hardly anything special, and hardly a scratch on Heston's award-winning work, but it's good enough to keep watching him crawl through this mess. Toby Kebbell, meanwhile, chews his way through the scenery in a hammy performance that makes you wonder whether after this, Warcraft: The Beginning and Fantastic Four, he should get a new agent, but at least he gets on well with Houston. Morgan Freeman as Ben-Hur's mentor seems to be giving off a performance on auto-pilot – perhaps all his energy is going towards trying to make his wig look realistic – while Messala's version of a mentor (Pilou Asbæk) is barely an influence other being a key part of the Jesus crucifixion storyline. Rodrigo Santoro is your typical Jesus type, so he's technically good enough for the role; Nazanin Boniadi may have more of a presence compared to older versions of her character but still adds little to the overall story; Sofia Black D'Elia and Ayelet Zurer have little purpose; and any remaining co-stars are hardly noteworthy in any sense, way or fashion.

Ben-Hur was never going to be as good as any of its predecessors, but that didn't mean it had to be as bad as it actually ended up becoming. With visuals that make one feel queasy and overstated religious commentary that even the most hardcore Christian would find unbearable, this latest attempt at redoing a classic has fallen flat before it could even do a lap around the race course; a dire and uninspired remake in a time where they're being criticised enough for being lacklustre. 3/10.