**What is this crap??**

I was quite curious to see this film given that the 1959 version is one of my favorite films, and a film that, much more than a piece of entertainment, is a historical document, a culturally relevant piece, worthy of preservation and memory. When I finished watching it, I was seriously thinking that this could only be a joke or a parody. The 1959 film will remain the definitive version, and if anyone wants something more up-to-date, I can recommend the 2010 TV miniseries.

The film, directed by Timur Bekmambetov, is a piece of garbage. I won't waste my time talking about the script because almost everyone knows the story. What I can, however, say is that this film failed to honor the original material, nor its very noble predecessors in cinema, just for the almost vile way in which it chewed up and hid the original story. If the idea was to give us a new, more action-focused version, it failed to the fullest extent. Gave us a handful of nothing.

Despite the weakness of the material received, Jack Huston deserves a positive note for the way he committed himself and for the way he ensures the leading role. He's not a good actor, but he's the best this movie has to offer. Tobby Kebbell wasn't able to do the same because the actor couldn't stop his character from becoming a soap opera villain. There is more than one character who does not deserve relevance, starting with Ester, and her father Simonides, who is quickly removed from the plot. This couldn't be more incorrect. Morgan Freeman is the most prestigious actor in this project, but that didn't stop him from being absolutely unhappy and from being apathetic and uninterested. Rodrigo Santoro, who gave life to Jesus, is a ham.

Technically, the film has some points in its favor, namely the good settings, which even try, in some moments and situations, to emulate the 1959 film: I felt this obviously when I saw the Hur house, or the circus where the race took place. The circus even has the same fish! All the difference is in realism: the older film spared no effort in creating large-scale sets, and hiring thousands of extras, to grandiose and monumental effect. This film tried to do the same, using only CGI and the infamous green screen. If that worked in some moments, in others it gave the film the appearance of a video game. Even the chariot race, the highlight of the film, is so busy that we can't appreciate everything properly. It sounds like an excerpt from “Fast and Furious”. The cinematography is not happy, either, due to the absence of light and the haphazard way in which it seems to have been directed. The montage and editing is irregular, amateurish. The costumes are ugly, and even out of keeping with the period, most notably Freeman's dreadlocks. The soundtrack is forgettable.