![\"jesus-vr-a\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/227\/2016\/09\/jesus-vr-a.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe first reviews of Jesus VR: The Story of Christ<\/a><\/i> \u2014 the \u201cvirtual reality\u201d movie being previewed in Venice this week \u2014 are here. And they\u2019re not very positive.<\/p>\n Peter Bradshaw<\/a> at The Guardian<\/i> is fairly scathing:<\/p>\n The acting? Dire. The direction? Awful. The adaptation? Conservative and pedestrian. In conventional terms, everything about this new retelling of the Jesus story \u2013 showing here in Venice in an abbreviated 40-minute cut \u2013 is ropey. It is all too clearly influenced by Mel Gibson\u2019s The Passion of the Christ: the film has the same executive producer, Enzo Sisti and the same religious adviser, Fr William Fulco. But technologically it\u2019s a different story. It\u2019s the first feature film to be presented in complete wraparound 360-degree virtual reality. And it\u2019s a startling, bizarre, often weirdly hilarious experience. With your bulky headset on \u2013 it began to overheat during the crucifixion scene, alarmingly \u2013 you have the urge to giggle. Not necessarily mocking. You just feel skittish. . . .<\/p>\n As the wise men presented their gifts to the baby Jesus during the nativity scene, I spin round to be confronted with a large, placidly chewing cow. During the John the Baptist scene, I tuned out to watch some people at the far edge of the water, busily and continuously doing \u2013 what? I couldn\u2019t quite see. And during the sermon of the Good Samaritan I found myself watching two actors pretending to fix a cart at the edge of the crowd.<\/p>\n The film works reasonably well in the crucifixion scene, which is conceived on intimate terms with just a small gathering of centurions, believers, etc (though where were Mary and Mary Magdalene?) and there is a reasonably bold Christ\u2019s-eye view shot. Very Mel. Weirdly, there are no close-ups of Jesus, who is kept in respectful medium- and long-shot. But unimportant villagers will get right up in your personal space.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Twelve years ago I wrote an entire essay<\/a> on the use of point-of-view shots in Jesus films, so I am intrigued by the thought of a 360\u00b0<\/i> point-of-view shot \u2014 where the viewer is put in the same position<\/i> as Jesus but is free to move their head around and therefore decide which direction<\/i> Jesus is looking. (If the point-of-view shot comes when Jesus is on the cross, do you see his legs and arms stretched out against the cross if you look down or to the side? Is the viewer free to turn around 180\u00b0 and look at the wooden beams behind Jesus\u2019 head? If so, then that would be weird.)<\/p>\n Anyway, David Sexton<\/a> of the Evening Standard<\/i> also isn\u2019t very impressed:<\/p>\n What we were watching \u2014 the first ever screening of Jesus VR, a US-backed film due out in full at Christmas \u2014 was merely dire. Selected scenes from the Gospels were amateurishly acted out as if in a village Passion Play, all stripy robes and beards among stony ruins.<\/p>\n The whole you\u2019re-really-there effect is provided by the fact that you can at whim look 360-degrees around and up and down. But why, when it is the story of Jesus, would you want to look anywhere but at him? And what an impudent, voyeuristic impulse to want to feel you were actually there anyway! And how inherently inartistic it is not to have what you see edited and composed for you by a film director!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Agence France Presse<\/a> has a report, as well:<\/p>\n VENICE \u2013 Even having Jesus as its central character could not save a virtual reality biblical epic from the bile of slightly nauseous critics at the Venice film festival. . . .<\/p>\n Shot on location in Matera, the Italian village where Mel Gibson\u2019s violent drama \u201cPassion of the Christ\u201d (2014) was filmed, the experience takes you through the defining moment\u2019s of Christ\u2019s life: his birth in a stable crib, his baptism, the last supper with his apostles and his death by crucifixion.<\/p>\n Except that the technology is still in the teething stages.<\/p>\n So rather than having the sense they are walking alongside Christ, the viewer\u2019s perspective is that of being a spectator standing or sitting near the blandly-portrayed prophet.<\/p>\n \u201cI was hoping you\u2019d have a sense of Jesus as a kind of mystical apparition, something a bit more than a low-quality actor in a robe,\u201d said one disappointed critic. . . .<\/p>\n With the quality of the images no higher than that of a magnified cell-phone screen, even Christ\u2019s agonising death on the cross failed to engage the preview audience.<\/p>\n As it was, viewers found themselves distractedly wondering why they appeared to be sitting on the hut\u2019s cooking fire as Jesus washed feet, or turning round to stare at the extras in case they did something.<\/p>\n \u201cThe technology is still in the early stages,\u201d Barder admitted, though he defended the subject choice, saying the majority of people canvassed (in the US) had said Jesus\u2019s life was the period they would most want to be able to visit.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n If more reviews come out of the Venice film festival, I will add them to this post.<\/p>\n September 5 update:<\/b> The Hollywood Reporter<\/a><\/i> has its own story on the preview:<\/p>\n Many viewers reported issues throughout the screening with sound and picture quality, but alternative headsets were on hand to allow for swap-outs. Because the chairs were so close together, spectators often bumped into each other when spinning around, which awkwardly took them out of the VR experience and back into the screening room.<\/p>\n Interest was strong, as long lines out the door were seen at each screening as people on the Lido waited to get a taste of the technology. Reactions to the film in Venice were less than enthusiastic, however. . . .<\/p>\n The producers explained that because they shot in 360 degrees, many of the crew were hidden in plain sight, with everyone from the first [assistant director] to the sound guy wearing costumes. \u201cWe saved a lot of money on extras,\u201d joked Sisti.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Reporter<\/i> also passes along this video of the screening room:<\/p>\n World's first VR film festival screening room in action. As isolating as you'd expect. #Venice2016<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/I2aUwuEwhF<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Ariston Anderson (@Aristonla) September 1, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n