God's Not Dead: A Light in Darkness (2018) Reviews

• Not great, but way better than 1 and 2

  jherr-65-4106502018-08-03

  Compared with the first two movies this one is way better in terms of story, acting and overall tone. Instead of having overtly atheist two-dimensional straw men as in the first two films, all of the characters both religious and non are drawn with some depth. And instead of the religious characters being unambiguously good and everyone being evil, both character types are given to actions both good and bad. I can't say that this is a "good movie" in comparison to big budget titles, but within it's trilogy and within the genre it's a cut above the rest. Full transparency; I am an atheist, but not a fallen Christian. I watch these movies to get a sense of what this segment of the Christian community is saying about people like me. And where in the first two movies I was laughing at the naive portrayals, this one was much more balanced. In summary, It's pretty much a Hallmark movie, but with more overt religiousity. If you're into that, give it a go.

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• It just don't happen that way

  bkoganbing2018-04-03

  David A.R. White who is probably the premier actor in Christian films takes center stage in the third God's Not Dead film. In the previous two he was in support. As Reverend David Hill his church is located on the grounds of the university campus and also houses the campus ministry. I'm not sure I could find enough space to tell all that was wrong with this one. In my city a landmark building like that, no way would it be torn down not with the active preservationists that are here. Even after it being firebombed because some don't like the message it was giving out it would have been repaired and preserved, eminent domain or no eminent domain. Firebombed it is by a disgruntled youth played by Mike C. Manning and the fire and explosion cost the life of visiting pastor from Africa, Benjamin Onyango. The battle lines are set between White and University President Ted McGinley and the campus divides. The confrontation also brings about a reconciliation of sorts between White and older brother John Corbett. He's one of those secular humanist lawyers, but when you need one good to have one in the family. Shane Harper returns from the first God's Not Dead film. He's changed careers and now is a youth pastor working with White. Harper describes himself as a liberal type himself, he does Habitat For Humanity type work, he says he battles for civil rights. I wonder if that includes LGBTQ rights. No gays or campus gay organization in sight on this large university. This one surely has a fairy tale ending though which you have to see to believe. I wish it were all that simple. And as for young Manning I will say that the killing was not his intent. If you watch enough Law And Order you've heard the phrase 'intent follows the bullet'. What happens to Manning is just plain off the wall. If this were New York County ain't no way Jack McCoy would have countenanced it in a New York minute. Things just don't work out in the real world compared to what we see in God's Not Dead: A Light In The Darkness.

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• As a Christian, this movie is bad.

  AllidoisxWynne2019-01-31

  Okay, to all of my fellow Christians out there reading this, it is OK to not like Christian movies. Yes, their message is good, but it doesn't mean its presented well. God taught us to be loving, accepting, and forgiving... But I'm sorry, these movies are atrocious. The setups are unreal, over the top, and in all honesty made to scare christians. They show that everyone hates our religion and is actively trying to destoy it, which there are some that do believe that, but chances are you're not gonna have to encounter that. So much money is put to a franchise that builds off of propaganda that makes every little thing in someones life extremely important and dramatic. A lot of pureflix films are as cheesy as Blumhouse horror films at times. Really look at the way its shot, take away the stilted acting, the way it's directed shows how terrible they are. Shots where we're supposed to feel emotional makes us laugh because they're so over the top and cringey. I know the actors are trying their best, and the younger actors aren't too terrible, but these movies aren't low rated because of everyone hating on Christianity. They're hated because they're actually poorly and cheaply made films.

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• Another great comedy

  ycr172018-12-23

  Awesome movie as always, it is always so funny to see these situations because of the inaccuracies, how christian church is targeted when is one of the churchs with most approval in this society lol.

• Strange Film and Message

  DKosty1232018-09-10

  This film starts rather oddly. The first sequence makes sense but then there is a flashback to 12 hours earlier which accomplishes nothing unless the goal is to make this movie longer. It is the most useless flashback in the history of films and could easily be on the cutting room floor. Then this one gets way off the God's Not Dead theme. It's main message is to say that a church is more than a building. Well, not really, because belief in God and prayer to God does not require a church building. The church is a symbol of religion but the only reason churches ever started with buildings in history was because the buildings of the middle ages and before were built for shelter and protection in earlier times. Then as we progress to the modern era, the churches were symbols of worshipping. It is the churches that try to preach the gospel for believers and provide shelter and comfort. This movie gets it backwards, the people (members of the church) are the church, not the building. The film is extremely dark. It is interesting that there is a faith pitch at the end of the credits. The film is so off that sticking around after the credits I can not imagine. (I noticed the message on the DVD). Granted this film tries to strike an anti-government message with the big bad government using eminent domain to tear down the Pastors church after the big fire. Even this message comes up short as usually when a church burns down, if it is to get rebuilt, it is the church members who make it happen, not the Minister and definitely not the government. Seperation of church and state prevents that. In real life, I saw a Lutheran Church burn down. After it burned, they found out their book keeper of many years had stolen over $300,000 from the church. Thanks to the efforts of their members, they built a new church today despite all the odds. Even though the Government used the church before the fire for election voting, they were not involved in the rebuilding. It was the faith and devotion of the church members that got the church rebuilt, not the minister.

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