Review of I Can Only Imagine

I grew up watching Christian cinema like the Veggie Tales Movies, McGee and Me, Adventures in Odyssey, and, one of my favorites, "Left Behind" (2000). As I matured as a person and a filmgoer, I realized more and more that these films that I was raised on, just because they perpetuated the same morals and worldview I had, were not inherently good films. They were filled with hokey over-the-top acting, and almost all of their messages could be boiled down to one topic: the world is a sinful place, and as Christians, we need to be on our guard. Now, this message in it of itself is not a bad message. It's a good message to preach, but unfortunately that's how the films came off: preachy. This film, while still a little didactic and sure of itself, is two steps ahead of the films I grew up watching. It's not perfect by a long shot, but it's better than most of the Christian films I've seen, and that right there gives me a lot of hope for Christian cinema. This film knows who its audience is, and it panders to them, but not as much as I've seen other Christian films do. As I said at the top of this review: this is a better Christian film than I'm used to seeing. That being said, this is not the pinnacle of Christian filmmaking. We can do better, and we should do better.