My friend Karl and I were talking last night and he asked me what I thought about the Golden Compass (which opened today in theaters) and the furor it's been creating among religious people who aren't going to see it and atheists who (apparently) celebrate the strongly anti-religious movie coming out at Christmas time. Here were our thoughts:
Overall, the movie's interesting, but nothing to be afraid of. (I'm personally going to see it just for the armored bear; how cool would that be?) As a priest here put it, "People are worried because in the end of the series, people kill God. That happened. God's children did kill Him. He came back." The small-g god in the movie is not one that Christians would be familiar with anyway.
The problem with making such a blatantly anti-Christian movie is that it's not going to provide much discussion between believers and non-believers. Instead, the story is going to make people who already agree with its ideas continue to agree, and people who disagree will be left umoved.
The most powerful bit of witness that will come out of it will be the chance to show real-world seekers that real-world Christians aren't like the overbearing Magisterium in the film. We have the chance here to humbly love and serve God's world and let curious people come up to us and ask why we do that.
Christianity Today's review The New York Times' review
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
1.02.2007
The Rookie Reviews: Night at the Museum
PLEASE NOTE: This review contains plot spoilers for the movie "Night at the Museum."
I was in college when the first "Lord of the Rings" movie came out, and my sister wanted to see it. Each Christmas break, when the movie started and I arrived back at home, we'd go to see it. This year, I flew home as a surprise for the family, and one of my first questions was, "What's our Christmas movie going to be this year?"
There were a few movies we wanted to see with specific people, and one I'm still saving to see with the mission trip crew (We are Marshall; we stayed at a church in the town where the story happened and movie was filmed) so we settled on "Night at the Museum" a movie I'd just seen the ad for in the Minneapolis airport.
Movies that come out during the holidays sometimes get overlooked. And that's sad, especially with a treasure like "Museum."
Here's the outline: A guy with a thousand good ideas, none of which quite ever work, has to find a steady job to keep from being evicted from his apartment and have to move, with his young son, yet again. Told that his resume is too unique (aka useless) to land him a job, he does find one slim possibility: night guard at the Museum of Natural History.
Which, he learns, has a secret. You'll see this part in the previews, so it doesn't spoil anything to say that all the exhibits, big and small, come to life during the night, so the watchman's real job is to corral them and make sure they don't escape.
What do you do when you're in possession of a secret like this? You try and restore your son's confidence in you, help a gorgeous grad student who's stuck on a thesis, and make peace between warring dioramas, of course!
This is a film that could have taken itself way too seriously, but didn't. It's a fun story, with mostly good messages about responsibility, family, cooperation and the value of history. Check this out with family or youth group-- I think you'll enjoy it!
I was in college when the first "Lord of the Rings" movie came out, and my sister wanted to see it. Each Christmas break, when the movie started and I arrived back at home, we'd go to see it. This year, I flew home as a surprise for the family, and one of my first questions was, "What's our Christmas movie going to be this year?"
There were a few movies we wanted to see with specific people, and one I'm still saving to see with the mission trip crew (We are Marshall; we stayed at a church in the town where the story happened and movie was filmed) so we settled on "Night at the Museum" a movie I'd just seen the ad for in the Minneapolis airport.
Movies that come out during the holidays sometimes get overlooked. And that's sad, especially with a treasure like "Museum."
Here's the outline: A guy with a thousand good ideas, none of which quite ever work, has to find a steady job to keep from being evicted from his apartment and have to move, with his young son, yet again. Told that his resume is too unique (aka useless) to land him a job, he does find one slim possibility: night guard at the Museum of Natural History.
Which, he learns, has a secret. You'll see this part in the previews, so it doesn't spoil anything to say that all the exhibits, big and small, come to life during the night, so the watchman's real job is to corral them and make sure they don't escape.
What do you do when you're in possession of a secret like this? You try and restore your son's confidence in you, help a gorgeous grad student who's stuck on a thesis, and make peace between warring dioramas, of course!
This is a film that could have taken itself way too seriously, but didn't. It's a fun story, with mostly good messages about responsibility, family, cooperation and the value of history. Check this out with family or youth group-- I think you'll enjoy it!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
