outside is better

Movie Review: 2012

Sitting down almost a week ago to watch 2012 starts a string of movie reviews I hope to start doing regarding popular culture (especially Hollywood) and their fascination with all things apocalyptic.  I am trying to develop a rubric for these reviews that will be different than other more cinematic focused reviews.  My format may get tweaked, but I hope to provide a theological look at some of the new movies coming out (and some older classics that set the tone).

Brief Synopsis
Science has figured out the planet (due to the Sun and overall Universe issues) will be shifting plates and dealing with crust destabilization.  The story follows a relatively unknown scientist whose job has been to make a timeline for the cataclysm.  A deadbeat dad (who seems to be a crackpot sci-fi author) is also trying to save his broken family from impending doom.  He has written fiction regarding a world-wide event and has impressed the good of man in his writing.

How does this movie react to religion?
2012 shows the destruction of key places of almost every major religion (except islam).  What is interesting is the vatican being destroyed while the Pope is leading prayer and the cardinals are in St. Peters praying.  Several elements of Christian faith are destroyed on camera.  The only overt mentions of God actually come through street doomsdayers and characters referencing that we should have been listening.

How does human character fit in?
The larger story of the movie still follows the themes of classic liberalism, in that “we” as a culture have the ability to think our way out of any situation, no matter how bad.  In the end, humanity has developed and evolved enough to always prevail.  This is evident in the plan to build a series of ships (called “arks”) to float through the flood that will happen as a result of tidal waves.  Even though their are problems, we are intelligent enough to get out of this.  A few minor characters show the weakness of human ethic (the willingness to leave people behind, take advantage of others to support themselves..etc..), but humans are ultimately good creatures.

The ultimate evil and goodness of humanity is both barely touched on, and not in a manner outside any other action adventure movie.  Death is always a viewed in a peripheral manner.

How does this feed apocalyptic fervor?  

In the end 2012 will join the ranks of Armageddon and Deep Impact as good stories, superb special effects, but not greatly affect culture in a deep way. 


The Road Warrior Scale?
I give it a 4.  It was a decent movie, but forgettable and it really didn’t deal with the current fascination of “The End”.

New on itunes

browsing through some of itunes newest, I found this. One of the best movies of all time can now be bought on itunes here.

Rambo IV

Over Christmas my family went and saw Rocky Balboa.  Meredith and I thought it was one of the better movies of the year.  I really like alot of Stallone's earlier movies.

When I heard that a new Rambo was in the skunk works I got really excited.  But my stance on violence has changed considerably over the last several years, and this is the sort of movie that really un-seats me.

The thing that really surprises me is that the plot line of Rocky IV somehow intertwines Missionaries either hiring Rambo or pleading for his help to rescue other captive missionaries.

I know missionaries.  I thought about being one for a really long time.  It was only till I realized that alot of my desire to do overseas work was to simply run away from the problems of the American church, that I decided that I was called to the local church.

I don't know if a missionary would hire a mercenary to perform an armed rescue.  I hope they wouldn't.  I think that this movie is just adding the the violent war-monger personae that Ultra-Right wing Christianity is staring to have.  Yesterday in chapel Jim Wallis spoke about evangelicals and their role to the world.  He started off with the question "So are you people at Asbury Seminary evangelicals or are you just a bunch of conservatives?", and I think that brings up so many points in today's Christian sub-culture.

So would a missionary hire or should they hire a mercenary to rescue one of their own? Answer in the comments

More on Rambo IV Wiki and IMDB
check out the alternate plots on the wiki, it seems as though religion is playing a part in many of them.

EDIT 4.11.07

more on the "Christian" theme in the Rambo IV. This article from the Catholic News Agency has Sly calling the movie a "Christian Movie". As much as I am looking forward to it, I still have a huge problem with anything involving violence and Christianity.  This just seems to bother me.

Communal Travel

Today me and Meredith went to go see the new movie Bobby, based on the last day of Robert Kennedy's life.  I really didn't want to go see it, felt like something a little more light-hearted.  For the first 15 minutes I was amazed at the amount of actors that I was recognizing.  I don't think I have seen that many great actors together in a movie since Mar's Attacks.  I was really glad that we went, I don't think I have enjoyed a movie like that in a really long time.  There were so many different levels to the movie, and I had to make myself quit trying to remember things and just concentrate on enjoying the movie.  I kept thinking of the theological roles that ran throughout, and I want to go back with a prepared notebook on the actors and their relations so I can make some notes.  I feel like a really big geek.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT

On the way there we were sitting in the typical nasty Lexington traffic, and I couldn't help but just think how much cars separate us from other people.  While there are the one of the most defining things about our personality as Americans, they also shelter us the most for whoever we are around.  Our car is a personal sanctuary, our own home we can take wherever with us. 

Last night I was reading in the Gospel of Luke about Jesus and his family traveling to Jerusalem for passover.

The Boy Jesus in the Temple

41Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover.  42And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom.  43And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it,  44but supposing him to be in the group they went a day's journey, but then they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances, 45and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for him.  46After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.  47And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.  48And when his parents^[a] saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, "Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress." 49And he said to them,

"Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?"^[b]

 

50And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them.  51And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart.

 

52And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature^[c] and in favor with God and man.

The verse that I was reminded of when I was sitting in traffic was

44but supposing him to be in the group they went a day's journey, but then they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances,

This last section "among their relatives and acquaintances".  Christ's parents thought that He just could be traveling ahead of them, and when lost they simply asked those around if they had seen Him.  This communal nature of travel really interest's me.  Maybe it's that same part of me that loves a good road trip, or even better a mission trip with 30 of your best friends around you all the time.  Now we load our cars with everything WE need and hit the road, their is no chance for us to travel amongst others.  We could take a greyhound, but everyone thinks they are too good for that, and even on a plane seat we hope we don't have to travel next to a stranger. 

This method of communal travel suggests a more intense experience, and I can't even imagine sharing an experience like traveling to Jerusalem for passover in N.T. times with hundreds of other people.  It would seem to remind me that the salvation of Israel was not a personal salvation, but a giant one, encompassing so many people. 

Now we look at salvation as personal (even in "Bobby" Ashton Kutcher? asks a character about their "personal relationship with God"), is this because we have become obsessed with the idea of everything being about us, a way for us to segment ourselves off from others?  Do we not desire to have shared experiences any more?  I really think that alot of our church systems are designed for a more personal experience than a corporate experience.  Maybe that is why I have enjoyed a more classic liturgical mindset, because it involves so many more people? 

phew....wiping brow off.......
I really didn't think this would be that long.

thanks