Hillsong: Let Hope Rise Review

Hillsong: Let Hope Rise is a documentary about Hillsong Church’s band, Hillsong United, and their journey to writing their Empires album.  This movie was supposed to come out in the fall of 2015, but was pushed back to this year because the company that was originally going to release it in the US dropped the movie, so they had to find someone to release it.

Now that it is released, it is a visual masterpiece.  Every single shot of this movie looks beautiful, and that honestly surprised me.  I expected the footage to look a little bit crappier because it is a documentary, it’s a documentary about a church band, and it’s directed and created by someone who is not a Christian film maker, so I assumed he would not do his absolute best.

I am ecstatic I was wrong.  This documentary lets you know the heart behind the music and the ideas and time and work that went into creating the music.  One of the songs they talk about writing in the film was finished just before their deadline (watch the movie to know the exact amount, no spoilers).

I personally have two gripes against this film.  The first is that there were a couple of points fairly early on in the film where they seemed as though they would go in one direction with the story they were going to tell, but then they just kind of left it there.  I don’t want to spoil anything, but you’ll know it when you see it.   The second thing I have against this movie is that I wish I had seen it in a packed theater.  The film opens up stating it is a worship experience and it is encouraged to participate in the worship throughout.  I was in a theater with roughly 10-15 people.  No one participated other than me and a few of my friends who kind of stayed sitting and sang along quietly.  However, I saw stories all over social media about packed theaters where everyone was participating in the worship throughout the movie.

Aside from those two gripes, as someone who loves Hillsong, I loved this movie!  I give it a rating of 9.5 out of 10 simply because it needs to be experienced with a large group.

Review by Jacob VanEngen, Austin Clemen  & Caelan Markstrom