Overview
All new college students are probably nervous on their first day, but on top of that Josh Wheaton gets slammed by his philosophy teacher for refusing to say that God is dead. He is challenged to prove the existence of God, and he gets twenty minutes in the next three classes to do so. If he doesn't he will fail the class, and his future as a lawyer goes down the drain.
Negative
No language. As for violence a person gets hit by a car and does a flip into the air and then dies on the street (No blood or gore). Another person gets violently hit in the face a few times. Other scenes have some intensity that might be scarier for younger viewers, and the themes are too difficult for most young ones to understand. One person finds out that she has cancer and begins dying.
Positive
The film puts forward some arguments for the existence of God, even if many claims that they aren't that strong, it's good to see a movie using reason to try to prove that God exists. There are a few character arcs that I was impressed with, the main characters, Josh Wheaton and his teacher, Jeffery Radisson, stand out. It also shows the vehemence that radical Muslims have against Christianity and how they treat family members that convert to it.
Conclusion
God's Not Dead makes a stand against the rampant atheism that has taken hold of our nation. That is a good thing, but it doesn't mean that it isn't without its problems. There are so many characters that this movie really should have been The Lord of the Rings length if it wanted to wrap it all up. The movie sort of stops in the middle. Yes, Josh "proved" that God's not dead, but the story sort of ditched the character development in favor of having the characters just sort of swept away as the Newsboys play/sing the title song. Josh's girlfriend just sort of vanished, but that doesn't make any sense. As she put it, "excuse me for having the next fifty years of our lives planned out." You don't make that kind of planning and then just throw it away. She even went to a college she didn't like to be with Josh, and then she left as soon as Josh did something she didn't like. The audience is left wondering what happened to her, and that's not a good thing when that question isn't answered by the time the credits roll. That would've been excusable if it was just one. An unfortunate mistake, but it wasn't the only one. The pastor Mina talks to about her boyfriend says who cares about him when God loves you so much more. And yet she obviously cared, otherwise she wouldn't have talked to her pastor. Ayisha is thrown out of her home after being beaten by her father for being a Christians, and in a heartbreaking scene we saw how her father was affected by it, and yet everything good as soon as Ayisha hears the music, except for her father, at least we assume so because he never shows up again. When a movie ends with a song and doesn't finish the character arcs, it's no wonder that it gets criticized and receives negative reviews from practically everyone. God's not dead, but if we keep making films that don't end then Christian film will be.
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