{"id":11753,"date":"2025-04-23T00:44:33","date_gmt":"2025-04-23T04:44:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=11753"},"modified":"2025-05-17T16:51:26","modified_gmt":"2025-05-17T20:51:26","slug":"the-king-of-kings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/04\/23\/the-king-of-kings\/","title":{"rendered":"The King of Kings"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The King of Kings<\/strong> (2025)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Angel\/Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 104 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (thematic material, violent content, some scary moments)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Seong-Ho Jang\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Seong-Ho Jang\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Kim Tae-Seong\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Woo-Hyung Kim\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: April 11, 2025 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Kenneth Branagh, Uma Thurman, Mark Hamill, Pierce Brosnan, Roman Griffin Davis, Forest Whitaker, Ben Kingsley, Oscar Isaac, Ava Sanger, Dee Bradley Baker, James Arnold Taylor, Jim Cummings, Fred Tatasciore, Vanessa Marshall, Mick Wingert.<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0I honestly didn\u2019t expect I\u2019d like The King of Kings<\/strong>, the first animated feature from faith-based Angel Studios, as much as I did. I put off seeing it for a week. I walked into the theater on Good Friday expecting something they might put on for kids at Sunday school around Easter. My expectations weren\u2019t high making it easier for them to be exceeded which they were. It\u2019s actually a pretty good family movie.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In case you couldn\u2019t tell by the title, The King of Kings<\/strong> tells the story of Jesus from birth to death to rebirth. It\u2019s a story that\u2019s been told countless other times, but this one comes with a bit of a twist. The tale is narrated by Charles Dickens (Branagh, Henry V). I thought it was strange too until somebody told me the Christmas Carol author wrote a book about the life of Christ (The Life of Our Lord) for his children. In the film, Dickens relates the story to his son Walter (Davis, Jojo Rabbit) after the rambunctious lad disrupts a reading of A Christmas Carol before a live audience. The boy is obsessed with King Arthur so Charles, at the urging of his wife Catherine (Thurman, Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2), tells him about a king greater than Arthur, the \u201cking of kings\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u00a0If you\u2019re taking the time to read this review, it\u2019s a safe bet you know the story of Christ (Isaac, Dune: Part One). You know He was born to Mary and Joseph in a stable in the little town of Bethlehem. An extraordinary child, He had an ordinary upbringing. When He came of age, He set out to begin his journey as the Messiah, the Saviour of the world. He recruited twelve apostles who went with Him everywhere. People started listening to Jesus which worried those in power. He performed miracles which only made it worse. He was finally arrested, tortured and crucified. Three days later, He was resurrected.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Little Walter, bored at first, listens raptly. He becomes so invested, he begins to imagine himself as an eyewitness to the major events of Christ\u2019s life. Along with his cat Willa, he travels with Christ and the apostles. It\u2019s an emotional journey for the boy as he comes to know and accept the love of Christ.<\/p>\n

\u00a0For an animated movie not from Disney, The King of Kings<\/strong> has an impressive line-up of voice talent. It includes Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) as King Herod, Pierce Brosnan (James Bond) as Pontius Pilate, Ben Kingsley (Gandhi) as High Priest Calaphas and Forest Whitaker (Bird) as the apostle Peter. The whole cast does a fine job. Isaac is especially good as Jesus, a kind and gentle man always dispensing words of wisdom.<\/p>\n

\u00a0While The King of Kings<\/strong> does cover what Jesus went through at the end, it is nowhere near as graphic as The Passion of the Christ. It still depicts enough to give you an idea of the pain and suffering He endured. Remember, this is a movie for children. Writer-director Seong-Ho Jang, a visual effects guy making his first film, keeps that in mind with the inclusion of humor at appropriate times. Walter is an imaginative boy with a penchant for getting into mischief. His antics at his dad\u2019s performance are amusing. Jang effectively uses this as a hook to get the little ones interested. It\u2019s a trick, but not a mean or dishonest one.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The animation, a blend of 3D CGI and illustration-like graphics, is nothing special or innovative. It looks fairly generic. It doesn\u2019t hurt The King of Kings<\/strong>, but it doesn\u2019t make it stand out either. It\u2019s assembly-line stuff.<\/p>\n

\u00a0As per usual with Angel, The King of Kings<\/strong> closes with a plea for money as the end credits roll. This time, it\u2019s a bunch of little kids singing the movie\u2019s praises before asking viewers to scan a QR code so people who can\u2019t afford movie tickets will have a chance to see it. It sounds altruistic, but I have to wonder what the studio\u2019s cut is. What percent of all monies collected goes to the suits at Angel? I still say it\u2019s shameless.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I like The King of Kings<\/strong>. A South Korean production, it\u2019s definitely well intentioned. It\u2019s funny, sad and moving. It\u2019s not too preachy. It\u2019s more like an extended Sunday school class replete with moving illustrations. The after-church crowd and their children will enjoy it. But is it worth the price of admission for more than one? I\u2019d say yes, but only if you go to a bargain matinee and sneak in your own snacks.\"\"<\/p>\n

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The King of Kings (2025)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Angel\/Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 104 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (thematic material, violent content, some scary moments)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Seong-Ho Jang\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Seong-Ho Jang\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Kim Tae-Seong\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Woo-Hyung Kim\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: April 11, 2025 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Kenneth Branagh, Uma Thurman, Mark Hamill, Pierce Brosnan, Roman Griffin Davis, Forest Whitaker, Ben Kingsley, Oscar Isaac, Ava […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11760,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-animation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/The-King-of-Kings-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11753"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11761,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11753\/revisions\/11761"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}