Overrated and overhyped

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

I went to see this movie because it was the highest rated movie playing in the nearby theater. The movie itself was extremely hard to sit through. The plot was weak, incredibly slow, and the characters were unrealistic in the worst way.

This movie is not some great wonder of cinema that needs to be seen by everyone. This movie falls flat on so many levels. Nothing happens for the first 1 hr 15 min of the movie. And the movie is only 2 hours long. I mean, seriously.... nothing happens. The buildup is so slow it is uninteresting. And then it escalates rather quickly towards the end into the most anticlimactic finish imaginable. And if you know anything about Christianity and the Church you would know that a man in Ethan Hawke's character's position would never go the route that he did with such little justification SO QUICKLY. It is not feasible. It takes much more to "turn" someone (so to speak). I'm surprised Paul Schrader, who grew up in a Church of the same denomination and attained a theology degree (BA) in college, would attempt to paint things in such a weakly constructed light.And I'm not even a Christian. But I grew up in the Church and I know enough about it to know that this is not realistic.This movie seems more like liberal propaganda meant to undermine the meaning of Christianity. A person in Ethan Hawke's character's position is not so easily befuddled by the science discussed in this movie. And that is where the true light of this movie shines... on a science that Christians don't care about because they are not wrapped up in it and misinformed about it like mainstream liberals. But since they view it as their own religion they think that it is as strong as Christianity to a Christian. The term to describe this movie the best would be "boring". There are 5 interesting moments in this movie, and the first one doesnt occur for almost an hour. It should not take an hour to develop the character to the extent that Ethan Hawke's character was developed. The ending is RADICALISM. Horrible. 5/10.

Complete waste of time! 3 out 10 is being generous.

There are some film that comes to my mind when i watch this film: Winter Light, The Devil Probably, The Diary of a Country Priest, Sacrifice, and Nostalghia. Paul Schrader has said that this film have the same root and feel with the directors whose films i just mentioned. but then, i also find a connection to his previous film Taxi Driver, both Toller and Travis Bickle had a different perception towards the world they were living.Toller was a troubled man to say the least, he was haunted by his past, present, and also his future. his son was killed and then his marriage crumbled, he has a cancer now, and he is worried about the future of the planet. he was also experiencing doubt about everything that he was preaching, and he wrote his doubt on a diary as a form of prayer hoping to find answer someday. it's hard not to hear the voice of god, the voice of certainty when you need it the most, to float on a space and time not knowing what to do, Toller was also highly depressed, he was either had a little common sense or too much sense to live in the world or the REAL world as Reverend Joel Jeffers called it. Toller has no place in the world where he could find peace, it's his curse, he sees no way out.Paul Schrader's strength has always been in his character, it's always complex and merciless, but as much as he cared about the foreground, he is also cared about the background, the setting, First Reformed is the name of a "tourist" church owned by a company or an organization named Abundant Life, it's more like a company rather than a belief society, one of the referend was laughing at a funny stuff that Martin Luther was doing, etc. this setting helped to create a character so dark and secluded that it could only existed in Paul's universe.