Happy New Year!
Last year, for the first time, I compiled two lists of my most-viewed blog posts from the year that had just ended: one list covered the top ten posts from this blog’s entire archive, while the other covered the top ten posts that had been written in 2015.
Now it’s time for the 2016 lists. And here they are:
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The 10 most-viewed posts in 2016, regardless of when they were written:
1. History and tradition in movie depictions of the cross (April 2013)
This one’s a perennial, and there were a few new films to add to the list this year.
2. Review: God’s Not Dead 2 (dir. Harold Cronk, 2016) (March 2016)
Mine was one of the first reviews posted at Rotten Tomatoes.
3. The death, resurrection, and second death of Lazarus (June 2013)
I still have no idea why this post has been so popular the last two years.
4. Review: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (dir. Zack Snyder, 2016) (March 2016)
My review of this disappointing film got a lot more comments than I expected.
5. First look: The Young Messiah, based on Anne Rice’s Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt. (And yes, the film has a new title.) (September 2015)
There was a lot of renewed interest in this post when the film came out in March.
6. X-Men: Apocalypse and the legend of Nimrod’s arrows (May 2016)
I’m always happy to note the overlap between Bible movies and superhero movies.
7. X-Men: Apocalypse buzz: Is God the villain? Is Nightcrawler no longer a Catholic? Here’s why I’m not worried… yet. (July 2015)
There was a lot of renewed interest in this post when the film came out in May.
8. Pride & Prejudice: two versions! (November 2005)
Bizarrely, interest in this decade-old post — which concerns the Joe Wright adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel that starred Keira Knightley — surged for a while around the time that Pride and Prejudice and Zombies came out in February.
9. How the movie Heaven Is for Real contradicts the book (April 2014)
This analysis of the changes that the film made to the true story was my #1 post by far in 2014 and 2015, and as you can see, interest didn’t completely die off in 2016.
10. Full of Grace, a movie about the Virgin Mary set one decade after the gospels, is coming to theatres early next year (September 2015)
This film came to DVD in 2016. I have seen it but, alas, have not reviewed it yet.
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The 10 most-viewed posts that were actually written in 2016:
1. Review: God’s Not Dead 2 (dir. Harold Cronk, 2016) (March 2016)
See the top 10 list above.
2. Review: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (dir. Zack Snyder, 2016) (March 2016)
See the top 10 list above.
3. X-Men: Apocalypse and the legend of Nimrod’s arrows (May 2016)
See the top 10 list above.
4. Review: X-Men: Apocalypse (dir. Bryan Singer, 2016) (May 2016)
Wouldn’t want to leave out my actual review of the film!
5. Risen: a scene guide (with clips and scriptural references) (February 2016)
I enjoyed charting how this film combines elements from the gospels and the book of Acts — and how it sometimes tweaks what the scriptures say.
6. Watch: Jesus gives Judah Ben-Hur a drink of water in a new “epic faith” trailer for the upcoming Ben-Hur remake (March 2016)
This post compares the drink-of-water scene in three different versions of Ben-Hur.
7. Mel Gibson reportedly cuts profanity from his World War II movie Hacksaw Ridge to make it more Christian-friendly (August 2016)
There was a lot of interest in this film in the three months before it came out.
8. Interview: Pastor Chris Whaley (The Masked Saint, 2016) (January 2016)
A surprisingly fun interview with the man behind an offbeat “faith-based” film.
9. Listen: Trisha Yearwood sings ‘Broken’ from The Passion (February 2016)
Would you believe I still haven’t watched this musical TV special?
10. Review: Hail, Caesar! (dir. Joel & Ethan Coen, 2016) (February 2016)
This was the first of several “Bible movies” this year, and quite possibly the best.
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And there ya go! It will be interesting to see how next year’s lists turn out.
