The Young Messiah Jesus Superhero Origin Story

Of all the things I thought I’d say, I never thought one of them would be “biblical movie based on the novel by Anne Rice.” But, here we sit with The Young Messiah, which is a biblical movie based on the novel by Anne Rice. Yes, the woman who brought us a whole host of vampire books also wrote a couple about Jesus as a child, the first of which, titled Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, has been adapted into a film. You know what? That’s not a bad idea for a movie. After all, there isn’t very much written about Jesus’ childhood in the Bible, so we’ve theoretically got a lot of territory to explore here. What the novel and the filmmakers came up with, however, is akin to little more than a bland superhero origin story. There’s a young boy, he begins to have the ability to use supernatural powers, and he must keep his identity hidden in order to protect his loved ones from persecution. Gee, doesn’t that sound familiar? But because we’re talking about Jesus, you’re not going to get any complex character or even any interesting motivations out of it. Adam Greaves-Neal has a very difficult task in this movie. He’s just a kid, and he’s been picked to portray Jesus. I doubt any child would be up for the task. Greaves-Neal most certainly isn’t. For most of the running time, we see him with a look of mild confusion on his face. Few lines of dialogue are delivered with any confidence behind them. There are actually three main children in the movie, and sadly he’s technically the best of the bunch; when the other two open their mouths, it’s painful. Most of the adults don’t offer much when it comes to dramatic depth, but at least we aren’t suffering when they’re on-screen. Sean Bean is the most watchable, but even he looks bored more often than not. Too boring to be anything other than fluff, The Young Messiah has a potentially promising premise, but doesn’t do anything with it. We know how it’s going to turn out, its protagonist isn’t made to be an interesting character, and it’s too uneventful to be anything more than an insomnia cure. It’s filled with bad-to-mediocre acting, low production values, and a story that simply isn’t worth telling. The Young Messiah is Jesus’ childhood filtered through the lens of the blandest superhero origin story ever. Bottom Line: Boring as sin, it turns out that even Jesus can’t make a generic origin story interesting. Recommendation: The Young Messiah‘s premise is one that’s better to imagine than see. [rating=1.5]