RISEN

This one earns its four stars. RISEN takes a genuinely fresh angle on the most important event in history: a hardened Roman soldier, ordered to find Christ's missing body, instead finds his own unbelief crumbling under the weight of the evidence. The suspense is real, the acting is strong, and the production values are excellent throughout.

The caution here is mild. There's war violence and killing — a soldier's death heard rather than seen, the brutal mechanics of crucifixion, some blood — along with upper male nudity and a scene of drinking and drunkenness. None of it is gratuitous, but it's enough to keep younger children away.

This is exactly the kind of film worth bringing a skeptical friend to. Watch it, then talk about it.

Clavius is the Roman military tribune who made sure Jesus was crucified properly — and who now must guard His tomb. When the guards fall asleep and the body vanishes, Pontius Pilate orders Clavius to find it, fast, before the missing corpse turns a crucified rebel into a fulfilled prophecy. Clavius digs through the dead, bribes the desperate, and interrogates a woman named Mary Magdalene, who tells him something he isn't prepared to hear: the tomb is empty because Jesus is alive.

Four stars means this is filmmaking that delivers on every level it attempts. The suspense holds, the performances are strong, and the production carries real epic weight — this plays like a worthy companion to Mel Gibson's THE PASSION, following the story past the cross into the empty tomb. A hardened non-believer's slow turn toward belief gives the familiar Easter story real dramatic tension, since we experience the evidence the way Clavius does, piece by piece. Some elements late in the film could have been trimmed, but that's a minor complaint against an otherwise very well-made movie.

RISEN is unapologetically, powerfully Christian. It shows Jesus risen from the dead, ascending to Heaven, and commissioning His disciples to take the Gospel into all the world. The Lord's Prayer is recited. Two miracles occur onscreen. Even a character who prays to false gods undergoes a real transformation of heart. This is a movie built to proclaim, not merely depict, the Resurrection — and it does so with conviction and craft.

As with any film dramatizing the Gospels, some details are invented for the sake of story: a Roman watch was historically four rotating guards, not the small team the film focuses on, and Mary Magdalene's traditional portrayal as a former prostitute isn't substantiated in Scripture. These are dramatic liberties, not distortions of the Gospel's substance, and the film's central claim — that Christ physically rose — is delivered with full biblical seriousness.

What lingers after the credits is Clavius's journey from demanding proof to receiving faith. Scripture speaks directly to that longing: "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed" (John 20:29). This film hands doubters a Clavius to walk beside on the way to belief.

RISEN takes the most contested claim in history and dramatizes it through the eyes of a man paid to disprove it — and lets the evidence do the work. It's well-made, well-acted, and worth your time, with enough war violence and blood to keep it out of reach of young children. Our verdict stands: worth the trip — teens and up. Bring a skeptical friend; this one was made for exactly that conversation.