After people see Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ," it's likely that people's opinions of the movie will be just as differing as they were during the talk of the film before it was even released.

But there is one thing all people should agree on: It's nearly impossible to forget this movie.

But while the images of "The Passion" are undeniably unforgettable, there is a whole range of issues that still permeate the movie and take away from the experience.

As the movie's producer/director/co-writer, there are some very distinctive touches from Gibson that permeate the movie's opening scenes in the Garden of Gethsemane.

The shadowy and creepy environment put on screen truly brings the place of Jesus' arrest to life and makes it seem much more menacing than most portrayals as Caleb Deschanel's cinematography is astounding.

That scene also provides the most spoken words for Jim Caviziel as Jesus and reveals an actor who very much looks, sounds (even in Hebrew and Aramaic, but the subtitles seem normal in this setting) and feels quite appropriate as Jesus.

During the course of Jesus' prayer in the garden, the movie's oddest problem starts to emerge as a semi-human, physical representation of Satan taunts Jesus. While there is an obvious symbolism here, putting it in physical terms is confusing and breaks up the flow of the movie.

There also appears to be a group of demon-possessed children chasing Judas and some kind of wolf-creature snarls at a disciple in the garden after Jesus is arrested. It was obvious that Gibson could have never done a translation that would have satisfied everyone (though the movie's words do well in not conveying a sense of anti-Semitism), but these out-of-text inclusions really bog it down.

The core of the movie then comes down to the trials and crucifixion of Jesus. From the moment of his arrest to his death, Jesus is constantly tortured. The violence intensifies with the movie's first brutal images of the whipping of Jesus. Gibson never shies away from the brutality of the all-senses-gripping experience as blood flies and flesh is torn all with sickening noises that lasts for almost 10 minutes.

Despite that preparation and introduction to violence, when the crown of thorns is put onto Jesus' head and when the nails are driven into Jesus, there is still plenty of wincing.

It's clear that Gibson was hoping to show the humanity and suffering of Jesus through these images, and on that end he has succeeded, though quite gruesomely. In "The Passion" there's blood being shed when Jesus is whipped, there's pools of blood after the torture and blood dripping from Jesus on the cross.

Gibson overstresses the humanity of Jesus through violence and suffering rather than love, but those scenes of love are the movie's highlights. Flashbacks to the Last Supper and Jesus saving Mary Magdelene (Monica Bellucci) from death reveal the heart and emotion of Jesus that most of the film lacks.

The movie's finest scene is a flashback to Jesus' youth as he shares a light-hearted moment with his mother. Gibson wasn't trying to make a movie about the entire life of Jesus, but these scenes indicate he could have done one quite well.

Though it spends only five seconds on the Easter story and is overly-violent, "The Passion" is a quite fitting film for the Lent season. It's a movie that forces people to recognize their own humanity, reflect on suffering and creates a very uneasy and tense feeling. What it does beyond that is open to interpretation.,”Matthew T. Olson”

“