A One Mann’s Movies review of “The King of Kings” (2025).
With “King of Kings”, don’t you think there is too much religion creeping into the Easter holidays? After all, it is all about making yourself sick on chocolate isn’t it?
Actually, no. I’m not a believer, but I respect all of those who do believe in whichever God they most associate with. And if I was a Christian, I would be getting pretty annoyed at how the UK’s national broadcasters are rather turning their back on the religious aspects of their schedules. When I was growing up, you would never have Good Friday without a showing of “The Robe” or “The Greatest Story Ever Told” during the afternoon on BBC1. Now, this religious content is quietly tucked away on BBC2 to fill up the morning schedule (I have just enjoyed watching “King of Kings” – the 1961 epic with Jeffrey Hunter (Captain Pike in “Star Trek TOS”) – and as I write this, “The Robe” – with Richard Burton- is now on).
Never one to duck a religious challenge, Angel Studios have charged to the rescue and released into cinemas “King of Kings”, a new telling of an age-old story about some bloke called Jesus. An appropriate film review post, I think, for this Good Friday.
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
“The King of Kings” Plot:
After a tumultuous reading of “A Christmas Carol”, due to the interruptions of his King-Arthur-fanatic young son Walter (Roman Griffin Davis), Charles Dickens (Kenneth Branagh), encouraged by his wife Catherine (Uma Thurman), educates Walter by telling him a story about a different King… the King of Kings.
Certification:
UK: PG; US: PG. (From the BBFC web site: “Mild threat, violence, injury detail”)
Talent:
Starring: Kenneth Branagh, Uma Thurman, Pierce Brosnan, Oscar Isaac, Mark Hamill, Forest Whitaker, Jim Cummings, Ben Kingsley, Roman Griffin Davis.
Directed by: Seong-ho Jang.
Written by: Seong-ho Jang, Rob Edwards, Jamie Thomason & Hoseok Sung.
Running Time: 1h 43m.
“The King of Kings” Summary:
Positives:
- A telling of the famous story, well-pitched for a junior audience.
- Some impressive animation of the biblical scenes set to a great score.
- A terrific end title song.
Negatives:
- The Charles Dickens thing feels like an unnecessary gimmick.
Review of “The King of Kings”:
An educational entertainment for older children.
We basically cover the life of Jesus from birth through to crucification and then (spoiler!) resurrection. As such, we get the Christmas story (I’m sure the Reverend Andy Godfrey was cross that the wise men turned up there!); Jesus’s upbringing; the creation of the Disciples; various miracles; the Sermon on the Mount; etc. All of this is an excellent primer for children of five and up on the ‘Greatest Story Ever Told’. But we do then get to Judas’s betrayal, Jesus’s capture and the crucifixion. While this is not ‘Mel Gibson-gory’, it is suitably upsetting that we are probably talking about kids being 7 and up, so that the right discussions can be had afterwards.
I was impressed though that the language throughout all of this hadn’t stuffily stuck with the original bible text. It had been reverently de-“thou”d it to make it more accessible to children. For example, on the cross, Jesus doesn’t say “Forgive them Father for they know not what they do”; instead he says “Forgive them Father for they don’t know what they’re doing”. This tinkering might incur the wrath of America’s far-right Christian zealots, but it feels absolutely the right thing to do.
Angel’s first animation.
This is the first animation feature from Angel Studios, who have produced some great religious film and TV output that appeals to believers and (like me) non-believers. An example of a film of theirs that I loved from last year was “Cabrini“. The animation style here is often fairly basic, although there are some impressive awe-inducing moments, where, for example, Jesus is silhouetted against a sunset. My friend Scott Forbes in his excellent video review of the film describes the animation style as akin to “Star Wars: Clone Wars” and that is pretty accurate. The biblical scenes seem a lot more impressive than the Victorian (Charles Dickens) set scenes, probably because there is just so much more foreign detail for your eyes to seek out.
A great voice cast.
Just look at some of the names they got for this – Kenneth Branagh, Uma Thurman, Pierce Brosnan, Oscar Isaac, Mark Hamill, Forest Whitaker, Ben Kingsley! It’s one of those films where I wish I had access to IMDB while it was on, because the identity of the speakers was driving me mad! It was a case of multiple “D’Oh! Yes!”-es when the end titles came up. Oscar Isaac is the perfect choice for Jesus: calm, clear, authoritative.
Less DIckens, More Bible.
The film really comes alive (no pun intended) during the Bible scenes and it made me think that the Charles Dickens wraparound was a needless gimmick. We spend an inordinate amount of time at the beginning of the film in the theatre and in the interchances between the Dickenses. However, what is good is that we see the reaction to various bits of the story on young Walter’s face, and it’s good that his Dad gets to playback what’s happening, for younger viewers, and to answer his questions. My thought though is that the film could have been equally successful with a “Time Bandits” style set-up: a bedtime story read by the Dad after the kid asks “What’s Easter about Dad?”. It’s not as if there aren’t a lot more Bible stories in the Jesus canon that couldn’t have been wrapped into the running time.
(Edit: with thanks to the good Reverend Andy Godfrey: The reason for the Dickens angle – which I missed at the start of the film – is that Charles Dickens did write a children’s book called “The Year of our Lord”. Andy says that in the introduction he says he wanted his children to “understand who Jesus was and is”.)
Great music; great song.
The music, by South Korean composer Kim Tae-seong, is epic and really adds to the film’s atmosphere. But particularly notable for me was the first song in the end titles, “Live Like That” by Kristin Chenoweth, which I think is good enough to get an Oscar song nomination.
Summary Thoughts on “The King of Kings”
I’ve seen a comment on the Cineworld Facebook site for this film saying “Nice fairy story”, which is very disrespectful…. I bet they wouldn’t be saying that if this was a Muslim film in similar vein. I’ve no idea what really happened in Gaililee two thousand years ago, but if I had a functioning DeLorean and a source of plutonium, that is the date I would dial in to try to witness. Because *something* clearly happened that has resonated through time to this day.
“The King of Kings” is a valliant attempt by Angel Studios to bring the story to a new generation and, whether you believe in God or not, at least this gives young people the opportunity to consider the option and perhaps explore further. I think it could have been done better, but it’s certainly a different type of film to take your young ‘uns to over the Easter holidays compared to “A Minecraft Movie“.
Where to Watch it (Powered by Justwatch)
Trailer for “The King of Kings”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDhet3EVRac.
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