Ben-Hur

BEN-HUR

Director : Timur Bekmambetov

Year : 2016

Genre : Action

Rating : **1/2

Much like the chariot horses it's eponymous hero races, this CGI laden big screen re imagining of Lew Wallace's timeless novel 'Ben-Hur' takes a fair amount of time to get into it's stride. Stumbling at first and struggling to find the correct pace, the film certainly makes a few missteps in both character development and emotional investment before it finally finds its legs but once it does, it actually becomes quite a lot of fun - utterly incomparable to William Wyler's widely celebrated 1959 Best Picture winner but still fun nonetheless. 'Broadwalk Empire's Jack Huston does a pretty good job as he dons the blood-stained robes of Judah Ben-Hur, the young Jewish prince who seeks murderous revenge against his estranged and jealous adopted brother Messala (a Roman officer played with quiet yet malicious relish by 'Fant4stic's Toby Kebbell) who killed his family and sentenced him to a life of nightmarish slavery. Director Timur Bekmambetov, best known for his wildly entertaining 2013 action fantasy 'Abraham Lincoln : Vampire Hunter', certainly ups the visual ante and action deficit of previous cinematic adaptations of this most enduring of Biblical epics and while not all of the snazzy special effects entirely convince, there is enough eye-popping splendour, seen most notably in the aforementioned chariot scenes, to fully entertain and enthrall.