Son of God re-edits the second-half of the award-winning The Bible miniseries into a 138 minute theatrical film. Where the miniseries was narrated like a documentary, the film is now presented from the perspective of John, who recounts the story of Jesus.

For those unfamiliar with the story of Jesus, the film takes place in a time when the Jewish nation was under Roman rule, and a charismatic young Jew named Jesus has been making his way across the land, professing his teachings to all who will listen. The fact that he welcomes sinners into his ranks has upset the chief priests and elders as this goes against all of their own laws. And things get even more tense as Jesus performs miracles, and his followers start calling him Messiah, the King of the Jews and the Son of God.

As Jesus makes his way towards the temple in Jerusalem, the high priests are concerned that Jesus and his followers are going to start a riot, causing Roman prefect Pontius Pilate to shut down the temple for Passover. So they set out to charge him with blasphemy and get him executed before he can do more harm.

This film version removes around 90 minutes of material from the original miniseries. After a short recap of the events of the Old Testament, we see Jesus’ birth, and then the story picks up as Jesus is already beginning to gather his disciples. The film eliminates all of the material concerning Mary’s pregnancy, King Herod’s search for the baby Jesus, Jesus’ early life with Mary, his meeting with John the Baptist, early ministry, and being tempted by the devil. The film also ends earlier than the miniseries, eliminating most of the material regarding the hunting down of Jesus’ disciples after his crucifixion. Various scenes have been reordered to give more of a narrative flow, and of the scenes of Jesus working his miracles have also been removed.

The performances are really good, especially by lead Diogo Morgado. Overall, I think the film works quite well. The story feels a lot tighter than the original miniseries, and provides a dramatic, emotional adaptation that stays true to the source material. My only complaint is around the scenes that depict the miracles and teachings of Jesus. Here the film pretty much feels like it has a checklist of stories it wants to cover, and pulls these scenes literally, word-for-word from the bible. These scenes when Jesus stops to tell a parable just felt out of place and broke the momentum of the film. It felt like the film was giving a Bible teaching rather than trying to tell the overall story. The film really works well was when it is telling the dramatic story and not trying to teach.

The Blu-ray presentation looks and sounds great. However, the aspect ratio of the film differs from the miniseries. The 1.78:1 aspect ratio of the miniseries has been matted to a 2.35:1 ratio, eliminating the top and bottom of the original frame used for the miniseries. I’m not sure why they felt the need to change the ratio, but I feel like anything was missing.

Along with a Digital HD copy of the film, the bonus material includes a pair of behind-the-scenes featurettes—one in English and the other in Spanish, some raw behind-the-scenes footage of the Passion sequence, an ad for a charity, and a theatrical trailer. Some of the featurette material was been recycled from the bonus material on The Bible release, but it was still interesting to watch.

What’s Included:

Film: (2:18:13)

Blu-ray:
• 1080p / Widescreen 2.35:1
• Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, English Descriptive Audio 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1
• Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French

DVD:

• 480p / Widescreen 2.35:1
• Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1, English Descriptive Audio 5.1, Spanish Surround Dolby Digital 2.0, French Surround Dolby Digital 2.0
• Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French
• Closed Captioned

Digital Copy (Redemption Deadline 6/3/2017):

• UltraViolet DigitalHD Copy redeemable via Flixster, Google Play or Vudu

Extras (Blu-ray and DVD):

• Son of God: Reborn (28:33)
  The creators talk about going from the miniseries to the movie, and the cast, creators and religious leaders provide their thoughts on the production in general and the story it depicts. Includes a lot of behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with producers Mark Burnett, Roma Downey, and Richard Bedser, director Christopher Spencer, theological & creative consultant Bob Beltz, actress Dr. Della Reese-Lett, Lakewood Church Pastor Joel Osteen, Archbishop of Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Saddleback Church Pastor Rick Warren, NHCLC President Rev. Dr. Samuel Rodriguez, Fellowship Church Pastor Charles Jenkins, Archbishop of Los Angeles Most Reverend Jose H. Gomez, and stars Diogo Morgado (“Jesus”), Joe Wredden (“Judas”), Darwin Shaw (“Peter”), Sebastian Knapp (“John”) and Matthew Gravelle (“Thomas”), Composer Hans Zimmer and Soloist Lisa Gerrard.
  Some of this material has been recycled from the featurettes on The Bible Blu-ray.
• From the Set: The Passion (7:19)
  Behind-the-scenes footage from the shooting of the Passion sequence.
• Son of God: Un Reino sin Fronteras (22:58)
  A behind-the-scenes look at the film narrated in Spanish. Most of the material used for this had been recycled from the featurettes on The Bible Blu-ray and the Reborn featurette on this disc.
• Faith Into Practice: Introduce Children to a Relationship with Jesus Christ (5:16)
  Roma Downey and Mark Burnett talk about Compassion International, followed by an advertisement for the program.
• Theatrical Trailer (2:27)

Final Thoughts:

Son of God is an entertaining, dramatic, and emotional adaptation that stays true to the story of Jesus as depicted in The Bible, with an excellent performance by Lead Diogo Morgado. I found this version of the production a bit more satisfying than the original in the The Bible miniseries—it eliminated a lot of unnecessary material, and just got to the core story. However, it should be noted that the presentation of the film is a matted version of the original miniseries, eliminating the top and bottom of the frame. The film is worth a look, but for folks who already own The Bible, it is very similar to just watching episodes 7-9 of the series.