Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

like many other religious films, it could be easy criticized. for the Christian public , it is not the most inspired adaptation of the life of Saint Ierarch Polycarp because he is presented only as one from the first martyrs of Church. but it is obvious to be only a sketch. not bad because the young Anna is the inspired character for present the work, the faith, the words of a great saint from the East. at large view, it is a good work. relevant parts from biography are presented. the atmosphere, in many scenes against the clichés, is represented in right manner, the cast does a decent job. as each sketch, it suggest more than present. and that fact, the air of adaptations without great ambitions, the feeling - the target is precise - the Christians for who the life of Saint Polycarp is well known, the film representing a remind's support are pieces who transforms the film in interesting project.

If you are looking for stunning visual effects and dramatic action sequences, this may not be the film for you. However, if you, like me, are looking for moving, challenging Christian films with a strong message and deep, engaging characters, you couldn't find better. The CGI is imperfect, as may be expected considering the budget they had to work with, but does come across as cheesy or phony looking-- just a little fuzzy. The acting is excellent and the script could not be better. The characters are engaging and the set is fantastic. I only hope the Henlines make more films soon because they are masters of historical fiction.

I think it was a well done story from the perspective of Anna. However, the writers went out of their way to ignore the fact that Ploycarp was a bishop. Like it or not, he was a prominent figure of authority in the early Christian community. The writers took extraordinary efforts to ignore this reality. Instead Polycarp was depicted as some generic martyr when he was an institutional standard bearer, a bishop of the Church. How sad. This movie would have been enriched by telling the full story, not deliberately leaving it out. Polycarp was first a bishop, and only later a martyr. The first half was ignored. How disappointing. The writers and directors should read the texts and histories, especially the Roman martyrology!

Poorly written and boring Christian propaganda disguised as a history movie. The acting is mostly in the amateur league and the production value very low. The beginning tries to create some impression of a higher production value, but that does not last beyond the first impression.Entertainment value goes near zero and I stopped watching after 2/3. Only had it running on the side, otherwise would have stopped earlier. The dialogs are sometimes okay, but at other times very poor. As soon as "the bad guys" aka Romans speak you see how no effort was made to make it interesting or believable.