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.
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.
Jesus VR, The Story of Christ is billed as the first feature-length flick made for a virtual reality platform allowing viewers to be present at both birth and crucifixion in a 90-minute re-enactment of the key events of the New Testament. Headsets strapped on, critics at the world’s oldest film festival were given a taste of the film, which was shot in 360-degree 4K video so viewers can see everything going on around them from all angles.
Shot on location in Matera, the Italian village where Mel Gibson’s violent drama Passion of the Christ (2014) was filmed, the experience takes you through the defining moment’s of Christ’s life: his birth in a stable crib, his baptism, the last supper with his apostles and his death by crucifixion. Except that the technology is still in the teething stages.
So rather than having the sense they are walking alongside Christ, the viewer’s perspective is that of being a spectator standing or sitting near the blandly-portrayed prophet.
“I was hoping you’d have a sense of Jesus as a kind of mystical apparition, something a bit more than a low-quality actor in a robe,” said one disappointed critic. “A startling, bizarre, often weirdly hilarious experience,” was the verdict of Britain’s Guardian newspaper.
