God's Not Dead

Let me be honest: I am incredibly critical of independent Christian films. There are only a few that I really enjoy and am willing to watch multiple times. They're one of the reasons I became interested in film making. I hate how they sacrifice quality for positive messages and demand both. I had incredibly low expectations for God's Not Dead after reading more than one less than positive reviews (including one from a Christian reviewer) but I am happy to report I was pleasantly surprised.

Though the film focuses on several story lines the main one involves a university student, Josh Wheaton, who gets more than he bargained for after enrolling in a philosophy class that is taught by an avid and hostile atheist. On the first day of class the professor demands his students to turn in a signed paper declaring that God is dead. When Josh refuses, he is challenged to prove the opposite in a series of lectures and thus puts his academic standing in jeopardy.

God is Not Dead occasionally falls into familiar Christian film tropes so let me start with the negatives: One thing that annoyed me to no end was the name Josh Wheaton...which sounds a lot like Joss Whedon. But that is probably just the nerd fanboy in me. But seriously, sometime the drama is overdone, overacted, and the villain over-villainous. The Newsboys product placement drove me crazy. Despite all that, I found at the end, a positive message and an overall enjoyable movie.    A-