NOBODY ever doubted that crucifixion was bloody and painful, but Mel Gibson takes two hours to make sure that every blow, every lash, every gob of spittle booms into shocked heads in surround sound.

It's hugely important that a film maker is tackling the last hours of Christ, one of mankind's definitive stories, and Passion should be welcomed for its ambition alone.

Yet it falls very short in giving a real sense of who Jesus was, what His teachings were and why the baying, rabid hordes of Jews wanted him dead.

His life is glossed over in flashbacks that would confuse anyone unfamiliar with the Bible, while Gibson's take on events leading to the resurrection have offended religious leaders to varying degrees.

Charges of anti-semitism are overly strong. Gibson's mistake is to paint the Jews in primary colours: mostly ignorant, fearful and cruel; while those touched by Jesus are compassionate and human.

Far more hateful are the Roman torturers who flog Christ relentlessly in a mercilessly graphic scene - the metal barbs of the flail sticking in His ribs haunt the mind, as does the mocking laughter of thug soldiers.

Perhaps this is what it was really like. Certainly this is Gibson's BIG statement. It does provoke anyone watching it to ask basic questions of Christ and of themselves.

Director and co-writer Gibson's other work - Braveheart, Mad Max and Signs - has carried religious undercurrents, but here it's a tidal wave.

After 90 minutes of watching Christ get thrashed, kicked and whipped from one end of town to the other, and then up a hill, I was, dare I say it, and perhaps like the Roman soldiers and even Christ Himself, looking forward to the end.

The saturation violence is shocking and necessary to a degree (Christian iconography rarely suggests the horror of the event), but ultimately it's boring and verging on exploitative porn.

As a film Passion lacks tension but is well shot and capably led by Caviezel.

The use of two defunct languages, Aramaic and Latin, is both admirable and unintrusive, blending well with authentically dusty robes and streets.

The film is charged with power, mostly derived from violence offset against sentimental scenes, underscored with a dirge-like, reedy soundtrack, but in the final judgement its substance fails its subject.

Mono rating: four out of ten.