Before you start reading this review, you'd best grab some popcorn. This may be my longest review to date.

I should mention right off the bat that I am a Christian. I've also watched a lot of Christian films (an incomplete list of all of them can be found here ). Out of all them, the first two God's Not Dead films are the absolute worst. They're both poorly made, obviously terrible propaganda. Within the next day or two, I'll have my review of the second film posted, but for now, I'll discuss the many problems with the first movie, chief among them being the acting and story.

Acting: As far as the actual quality of the acting goes, it ranges from passable to awful. The worst offender by far is Shane Harper as Josh Wheaton. Putting aside the problems with the character himself (which will be discussed with the story), they clearly grabbed this guy off the street because the filmmakers think he's the perfect representative to attract all of the Millennials to the film (not that it worked, since nobody my age was at the screening for the first movie). The best actor in the movie is easily Kevin Sorbo as Professor Radisson, who does a great job at playing the character you are meant to hate.

Story: Before we get to the main plot, it must be said that this movie is stuffed with a total of seven subplots (yes I counted). That's way too many subplots for this movie, which not only makes the main plot feel underdeveloped, but the subplots themselves are also underdeveloped. Anyways, let's break each one of them down:

Dean Cain's mother: I bring this one up first since there are only two scenes devoted to it. All that really happens is that she has dementia, and she spouts off some nonsense. This character could've been written out entirely, namely because this has no impact on Dean Cain's character, whatsoever.

Ayisha: She's an Iraqi-American (I think) girl who is a closeted Christian. Her father (who is described as a "very traditional" Muslim, by the way) discovers this fact and kicks her out of the house, which is the end of the subplot. Guess she's homeless now.

Martin Yip and his father: The whole point of Martin is to have a character who wants to learn more about Jesus. That's it. It should also be noted that he and his father actually speak different dialects of Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin, respectively). I'd congratulate the writers for not doing their research, but I'm willing to bet they didn't care.

Radisson and his wife: The only point here is to make you hate Radisson even more (he does do a good job of it, though) by having him and his friends ridicule his wife. She's also the brother of Dean Cain's character.

Amy: She's an online blogger who is very liberal (you can tell by the subtle bumper stickers). She interviews two of the Robertsons (of Duck Dynasty fame) and later finds out she has cancer. Dean Cain is her boyfriend who breaks up with her because of her cancer. There's a scene in which she gives a terrible crying performance. Lastly, she meets with the Newsboys and they pray over her. The only point of this character is to give liberals one big eff you.

Josh and his girlfriend: The only thing that happens here is that she breaks up with him because of his complete stupidity regarding his debates with Radisson. She also mostly speaks in very clunky and poorly written exposition. She also mentions that his parents (no doubt very faithful Christians themselves) want him to stop this nonsense.

Pastor Dave and his friend: All that happens here is that their car keeps breaking down, preventing them from going to DisneyLand. The point of this is two-fold. One, because the writers think this is funny (it wasn't, not that my audience agreed). Two, so that they can be in town to convert Radisson as he lays dying. Right after he dies, the friend says something about there being a cause for celebration (not because Radisson died, mind you). He has the worst sense of timing and respect ever.

The main point of most of these subplots is quite simple: to show that Christians are good, and that non-Christians are bad (and in the case of Amy, bad things will also happen to you). Propaganda, pure and simple. Now let's move on the main plot.

It starts with Josh Wheaton refusing to write the words "God is dead" as instructed by Radisson. He then challenges Josh to use the next three weeks of class to prove God's existence. Should Josh fail, he will flunk the class, along with 30 percent of his final grade. A few things to note here:

One: Everybody else writes the words and signs their names. This is to show that Josh is the only Christian in the class. This is basically impossible, since this takes place in Arkansas, which has an 86 percent Christian population. In a room of 80 students, most, if not all of them, are some sort of Christian. I guess we are meant to believe that Josh is the only good Christian in that case (whatever that means).

Two: What Radisson is doing is a blatant violation of Josh's rights. Josh could have very easily reported him to the university's administrators and had him fired. Of course, if he did that there would be no movie.

Three: Radisson could've just failed Josh right there and then, sparing him from this complete waste of time.

Anyways, Josh spends the next three weeks of school focusing entirely on these debates. And I do mean entirely, as it is heavily implied at one point that Josh is spending no time on any of his other classes. This leads me to my last point regarding these debates and what a fruitless effort they are. No matter the outcome of these debates, Josh will suffer in regards to his other classes. Allow me to simplify:

Josh loses:
-Bye, bye 30% of final grade
-He'll have to catch up on his other classes and compensate that loss
-Speaking from experience, that's incredibly hard to do.

Josh wins:
-Gains nothing except maybe God's praise, which, sorry to say, is worthless
-Will have to catch up on three weeks of his other classes, which is all but impossible

I won't go into the specifics of the arguments made during the debates themselves, as I'll save that for when I eventually review this movie on my Youtube channel (which you can find here ). I will say this, however: Even if every single argument was perfectly sound (which they definitely aren't), they still wouldn't prove the existence of God. After all, an argument is supposed to be backed up by evidence. Naturally, Josh never does this.

At the end of the second debate, we learn that Radisson lost his mother to cancer. At the end of the last debate, Josh gets Radisson to break and confess that he hates God. Two things to note here:

One: This would mean that Radisson is not actually an atheist, but a misotheist, someone who believes in God but hates Him greatly. Either the filmmakers knew the difference but chose to willingly misinform their audience, or they actually thought the two terms meant the same thing (either is equally likely).
Two: What the audience is meant to believe is that people only become atheists as a result of tragedy. I shouldn't have to tell you that this isn't true at all.

Later that night, Radisson is doing some contemplating in his office when he pulls out an old letter from his mother, which basically tells him to never give up on God. Why he would still have that is beyond me.

He decides to make his way to the Newsboys concert after noticing one their flyers. He gets run over on the way there, leading to the aforementioned conversion at the hands of Pastor Dave.

On the subject of the Newsboys, every character from the subplots is here, including Ayisha, Amy (with the Newsboys in the back), and Josh of course. It's here we get one of the dumbest moments of the film: Willie Robertson appears on a display asking everyone in the audience to text all the people they know the words "God's not dead". The film fades to black with a message asking the audience to do the same. Even the movie demonstrates that this does less than nothing, with the Chinese father ignoring the text and Dean Cain throwing his phone in the back seat upon seeing it. We are then shown a series of real life case summaries. This is meant to convince the audience that the "persecution" that Josh faced happens all the time around the country, even though none of the cases bear any resemblance to the issues that Josh dealt with.

The film has other problems, of course. Even putting aside the story and the acting, it's just not an interesting film to watch. That might be because Harold Cronk just isn't very good at directing scenes or his actors (but they're bad in spite of him anyway). There are other minor problems too, though that will have to be saved for when I review the movie on my channel. Besides, this review is long enough as it is, so it's time for my summary.

TL;DR: Absolutely hateful and untrue propaganda that's badly directed and acted and seeks to paint everyone who isn't a Christian as an awful person who should suffer. At least Kevin Sorbo turns in a really good performance. 3/10 (A TERRIBLE Movie)