This movie really shocked me. It was not a good movie. It was a pretty bad movie. But...
This movie is really tough to talk about without spoilers, so there WILL BE SPOILERS below. Just warning you now. They won't be right away and I'll warn you before we start in with stuff not in the trailers or in the beginning of the movie.
To start off, we haven't seen the first two movies. There was some confusion about characters at first, probably answered by watching the first two. This one, God's Not Dead: A Light in Darkness, follows a pastor who is struggling to keep his church going on a college campus. He brings in his brother for some legal help, and together, they try to stop the church from closing.
Without spoilers, I will say that this movie surprised me. There will be very few people that like this movie. And I can't say that I liked it, either. As a movie, it was pretty bad. Some of the acting was pretty awful. Some of the lines were terrible. It didn't have a lot of production value. There were actually a couple of scenes that made me laugh, but they were too rare. The only character that I really liked was John Corbett (and he's probably the best actor, too).
So why would I give it a positive score? Why wouldn't most people like this movie when I gave it a positive number? It's hard to say without spoilers (and below I'm going to give those spoilers, so be ready... just not yet). The people most likely to see this movie are seeing it because it's in a series of really Christian movies. They focus on how God is with us and He can overcome anything. Many people aren't really into that kind of story, so they won't watch it. Those that do will take issue with the obstacles that the believers have to overcome. This isn't just a 'YAY GOD!' movie. But that's why it's a good one to watch and why I gave it a positive score. It doesn't sugar coat life as a Christian. It doesn't pull any punches.
But it also starts with one story and finishes with another. Which is why it's hard to really talk about without spoilers. So my non-spoiler suggestion is that if you want a pretty good depiction of the struggles of a Christian in today's world with a pretty good message about unity, you should see this movie. Or just read my spoiler-review below.
So here's my discussion WITH spoilers. Right after this.
SPOILERS BELOW!!!
Ok, so the movie opens with the pastor in jail for not releasing his sermon transcripts. I'm assuming this had something to do with a previous movie in the series, but I'm not sure. But it's a rough start. It paints the school and government as anti-religion and anti-common sense. This is the movie I expected. One-sided and showing how these wonderful Christians are treated so poorly in our world. And it continues... The pastor is pretty much the perfect man. He's loving and caring and generous. He's not racist at all, he thinks of others at all times and is just perfection. He's at his church when a window breaks and the alarm goes off! He sees someone in a hoodie and chases after him but he gets away. His friend says to call the police while he checks inside. But there's a gas leak! BOOM! Fire erupts from the church and the pastor selflessly rushes in to save his friend! He asks God for help and he gets the strength to carry his friend outside! But his wounds are too severe and he dies. His final words are in Swahili (he's from Africa). He learns at his funeral that he said, "God is good all the time. All the time, God is good."
We also find out that this girl is struggling with her faith. Her friends aren't supportive at all. They just don't understand her. She has a supportive boyfriend, except when it comes to her faith. She can't handle him, so she breaks up with him. He slides downhill and in a drunken moment of rage... he lashes out at the church. Throwing a brick through their window.
This is all in the first twenty minutes of the movie. It shows Christians as the best and non-believers as just the worst. They are persecuted and treated terribly. The church is destroyed and they want to rebuild it, but the college wants them gone. They do underhanded things to get it demolished and removed from campus, so the pastor turns to his brother (Corbett) as an attorney for social justice. He says it's about eminent domain, but he reluctantly agrees to help. He gets a three-week injunction and the fight begins.
But then it all changes... The pastor goes on TV and tells people about their problem to get public support. At first, I rolled my eyes expecting them to just be supportive, but... their main enemy is some sort of dean at the school and the church's supporters THROW A BRICK through his window at his home!! They show that Christians can do stupid stuff, too. Then, the pastor gets a text that the kid threw the brick through the church window... and he gets mad and PUNCHES HIM! The kid gets arrested for MURDER! He wasn't just this benevolent awesome person all the time. He had flaws... serious ones.
So he goes and talks to a different pastor about his troubles and says that he is just so persecuted and he doesn't understand... to a black pastor. He quickly gets corrected, "You could build a church with all the bricks thrown through MY windows!" It was a great moment of realization for the pastor. He's been fighting so hard for this building, but he's forgotten about his CHURCH.
I won't spoil the third act, but the movie really went in a good direction that surprised me. Christians were flawed. Non-Christians could be good people. Everyone makes mistakes. Christians should be the Light In Darkness. I was really impressed by the message of unity and inclusion. They admitted that the church has made mistakes. In the preview the girl struggling says, "The whole world knows what the church is against, but it's getting harder and harder to know what it's for." THAT is the message of the movie. That the church is flawed and how they're doing things... the WAY the religious are fighting is FLAWED. That they ADD to the divisiveness and create exclusion.
The message of the movie is that our flaws can be overcome. Our flaws AS CHRISTIANS can be overcome. This is a message TO CHRISTIANS that they're pushing people away instead of inviting them in. That we should be together through love and not through the hate and derision. It's a pretty good message, I think. No one is flawless. We're all human. The message of Jesus was to rise above our pettiness. Christians and non-Christians alike should agree with that message.
So you see why this is a tough movie. The ones that might agree wouldn't watch in the first place. Many of the ones that will flock to the movie will be scolded on how they're treating others. So the few, like me, that find themselves in the middle will like the movie. If we can get through the first act. But go and stay for the whole thing! I think you'll be pleasantly surprised! If you have MoviePass, it will only cost you time. And it's worth the time, I think.