My Review of Joseph: King of Dreams · 5:16pm Jun 23rd, 2022
Rating Scale:
12/10—a complete masterpiece; flawless and outstanding
11/10—Excellent, near-perfect film
10/10—the standard rating; awesome film with a couple of flaws
9/10—a wonderful film with several flaws
8/10–a great film with numerous flaws but not enough to ruin it
7/10—a fun and entertaining movie; not great but still enjoyable
6/10—a slightly above average film; it is something I might watch again
5/10—mediocre movie; not awful but not great either
4/10—a below average film; it could have been much better
3/10—a bad film; poorly written and poorly executed
2/10—a very bad movie; the few good things in the movie overshadowed by the bad things
1/10—a terrible movie; a total waste of time
0/10—a worthless piece of abomination; should have never been made
Greetings, everyone! This is Mr. J back with another Bible movie to review for today! This afternoon, I will be reviewing DreamWorks' Joseph: King of Dreams from 2000! This is yet another animated adventure film I grew up watching although I didn't watch it as often as I watched The Prince of Egypt. Since I had not seen it in a long time, I decided to re-watch it earlier this year to see if it's as good as I remember. After re-watching this animated film, I strongly believe...that it is pretty great! I sincerely enjoyed the way they wrote the story, how well-voiced the characters were, and the character development they all went through. Despite my positive feelings for this, there are a lot of flaws that do need to be taken note of.
This is an animated adaption of the Biblical story of a man named Joseph from the book of Genesis. As it is laid out in the source material, Joseph was Jacob's favorite son out of all his 12 children. This provoked Joseph's brothers to jealousy and eventually sold him to slavery in the land of Egypt. From then on, Joseph experienced both blessings and curses which all led him to Pharaoh's palace to interpret his dreams. Thus, he went from brother to slave to dream interpreter to governor.
Again, the story was most definitely intriguing and had a lot of emotional and profound moments of character growth. From what I remember reading in the Bible, it showed us Joseph's journey in great detail especially his long-awaited interaction with his brothers when he was the governor of Egypt during the seven years of famine. Unlike how the Bible portrayed Joseph though, this movie portrays him as someone who has anger and grudge against his brethren for what they did to him years ago and wanted to rashly use his power to punish them to get revenge. From a character perspective, it was a little more realistic. It wasn't until he learned that his brothers had changed their lives over the years and learned true brotherly love that he was moved to tears and forgave them.
Basically, this film was aiming to teach the audience about the power of forgiveness and realizing that the worst times can eventually lead to blessings in the same way God led Joseph from a life of hardship to salvation and to save his family from the famine. Now forgiveness isn't so easy to master and to utilize, but it will be worth it; it's much better to forgive than to live of life full of misery and anger. Oh, great, I'm getting preachy now! Are we at church?!
The voice acting was pretty good too. I really liked Ben Affleck as Joseph and Mark Hamill as Judah. It's basically Batman and Joker in a brotherly battle. Funny, isn't it? The animation isn't as good as the animation of The Prince of Egypt, but it is still passable.
Like I said, this film has a lot of flaws. The story felt very fast-paced and rushed in some areas; I mean, I would have liked it if, let's say, the birth of Joseph and how he grew up wasn't done through a song and a montage. It felt like a lazy way to describe what he was like as a teenager and how his brothers grew to hate him. I would have preferred if it was more fleshed out with a steady pace, not rushed through. The seductive nature of Potiphar's wife, the chemistry between Joseph and Asenath, and all the songs felt lackluster as well. The only brothers that had any sort of distinct personality were Judah and Simeon; the rest were just there for the plot and had little dialogue and character. And I didn't like how Joseph was quick to interpret dreams in a matter of seconds like he always knew what the dreams meant the moment he first heard them explained from the people who had those dreams. That just felt weird to me in my opinion.
Overall, this was a great film albeit with numerous flaws. I will rate this an 8/10!
Peace!
Joseph also was blessed with amazing organizing skills
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(You should see his sock drawer.)
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Bad joke
In my opinion, the very best of the film’s songs was “Better Than I”. Not only was it the most Oscar-worthy of the soundtrack, but its message, melodies, and lyrics were heartfelt beyond compare.
That being said, when I was reviewing the movie years ago, I found it to be as solid as I remembered it being.