One can't deny that "The Passion of the Christ" was a bulldozer of endless publicity, and endless debate, and controversy, and uproar and anger and discussion, and feuds and so on and so on. Regardless of which blockbuster that was pawned on the American audience, "The Passion of the Christ" was a highly hyped and much publicized film, because it deals with religion.

Religion takes brothers and sisters and family and divides them, it angers people, motivates them, inspires them, and causes them to commit heinous acts in the name of it, thus were the Crusades, thus was the search for the holy grail, and thus is the war we are experiencing now, religious wars. Religion, regardless of how you cut it is important.

Religious films aren't just films, they expose a part of the human soul called religion, something many people live by and swear by. "The Passion of the Christ" has shown that come hell or high tide religion still matters amidst the pornography, gore, and utter disregard for human life we see everyday in the news.

For the record I'm Catholic, born and raised. I'm not devoutly Catholic but I believe there is a god and Satan, I believe in heaven and hell, I believe in good and evil, and I have morals. While watching the countless debates about the numerous backlash and discussions about this, I knew this film wouldn't just spark criticism, it would divide movie critics around the country down the middle, the reviews would be based on the critics' views and thoughts and would not just be simple criticism on a film.

So here's my two cents, "The Passion of the Christ" is riveting and powerful but not everything people said it was. Everyone knows the story of Jesus Christ, and for those who don't, here's the gist: Jesus Christ was born from the Virgin Mary, raised as the son of god and had twelve disciples, he was a messiah and was crucified for his beliefs.

People who ordered Jesus Christ's crucifixion were humans, humans fear what they do not understand and kill whatever they think is a threat, Jesus Christ experienced the worst of what humanity had to offer and they offered him not but betrayal, murder, hatred, and sheer sadomasochism towards his death and torture. He was supposed to die for our sins, it was inevitable which is why his mother does not stop the torture inflicted upon him, nor does she help him when he's forced to carry his cross.

"The Passion of the Christ" (translated in nearly five languages) is powerful, it's horribly tragic, and it's more sad than anything writers can invoke from the imagination. I assumed people were exaggerating when they spoke of the movie describing themselves being moved to tears but I found myself moved to tears during certain scenes.

There are many scenes in the film that audiences, particularly religious audiences will find hard to watch and will inevitably be moved. There are scenes in particular in which Judas (Lucia Lionello), after betraying Jesus is haunted and tormented by demonic children while Satan looks on in amusement, until he finally hangs himself. The most gruesome sequence in the film is that of when Jesus Christ is being whipped and tortured by the Romans in the town square and endures the beatings. He is whipped by jagged bullwhips that when lashed against his skin don't create red thin lines as you've seen in the films, they take out chunks of his back and meat, at one point the whip gets stuck in Jesus' back.

Though gruesome, there's no scene more gruesome and heartbreaking as when Jesus is whimpering like a child while he's being tortured, the Roman guards seem to take a pleasure out of his torture, cackling aloud, smiling as his blood is sprayed along their faces, one of the guards even laughing giddily as Jesus' blood pours on his face which would describe why the film would be called "The Passion of the Christ", Jesus bore a passion within him to endure his cause and torture inflicted upon him so that he may show people that his devotion to god was true.

When people asked for him to demonstrate his power, he did not show boat, he nearly looked away and ignored them. He was a radical and by being a radical he suffered torture by the Jewish who condemned because they felt threatened by his power and growing number of disciples. This is not anti-Semitic nor does it pit the blame on one race; it shows both the Romans and the Jewish people condemning Jesus Christ for his practices for inflicting views that would grant him power.

But Jesus Christ was a pure soul, one who was supposed to absorb human suffering and human hatred in all its forms, we do get a sense of who and what Jesus was in his life. We watch him creating a table with wood like his father did, we watch him caring for his disciples, and we watch him impart wisdom onto his disciples one of which stuck with me: "Show as much love for your enemies as you do the people you love, for if you only show that to your loved ones, where is the reward?" That's truly profound thinking, and show why he's been such a thriving figure in history and mythology.

Among the film are excellent performances especially by that of James Caviezel whom I always liked as an actor, gives a heartfelt and excellent performance as Jesus Christ, Monica Belluci is excellent as Mary Magdelene, Maia Morgenstern as Mary, and Rosalinda Celentano is truly terrifying as Satan, a tempter and quiet onlooker to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Satan bears no true form but is merely a combination of both man and woman features, however he's truly a scary and intimidating presence in the film.

Mel Gibson, a great storyteller and even better director shows how much he sacrificed to tell the story he wanted to, and though there are some inaccuracies and embellishments, he does tells a great story, one that deserves to be watched. We need not condemn Gibson for telling a story he wanted to tell and spreading his devotion to his religious beliefs. Martin Scorcese was under a lot of fire in 1988 when he released "The Last Temptation of Christ", and he's still a prominent prolific director, Gibson will undoubtedly end up with the same results.

Though much of the time is spent on the last hours of Jesus Christ and the torture he received, it would have been interesting to discover the love he spread as well. Clocking in at nearly two hours and ten minutes, if they would have added twenty more minutes and focused on why the Jewish ministry felt so threatened by him, it would have been more reason for the audience to discover why Jesus was so hated. We focus solely on the torture of Christ, but "The Passion" makes the gross assumption that the viewing audience has already read the bible or have some knowledge of the bible's texts, but that's not always true. The film focuses mainly on the torture of Christ, but why?

Why do we need to see so much gratuitous violence and horrible torture scenes to get the fact that Jesus suffered? The scenes are almost too hard to watch; I found myself having to look away at some of the scenes which border simply on senseless. It's true that the film's plot isn't supposed to be thick with texture, but there's barely any plot noticeable during my viewing of this. Jesus is captured, Jesus is tortured (emphasis on tortured), Jesus is crucified, Jesus dies, the end. Where's the character development and engrossing storylines from the bible that people love so much? I couldn't find any trace of it here whatsoever, and I would have appreciated more.

If you've already condemned this film before seeing it, I suggest you watch it, especially if you're religious and devoutly Catholic, Christian, or Jewish. This does not condemn one race nor does it point fingers, it simply tells the story of a messiah who died for humanity's sins.

• When this Latin and Aramaic language film was announced, Mel Gibson stated that his intent was to release it without subtitles, letting the performances speak for themselves. However, subtitles were added later. Also, he stated that regardless of the cost of the project, that this would be "good for the soul".
• During the scourging scene, James Caviezel accidentally got whipped twice. The first time knocked the wind out of him, and the second time hurt so much it caused him wrench his hand quickly from his shackles, scraping his wrist badly.
• James Caviezel experienced a shoulder separation when the 150lb cross dropped on his shoulder. The scene is still in the movie.