Dead American

The Watchmen

So I saw The Watchmen tralier in front of Iron Man a couple months ago.  Looked very cool, but I had never read the comic book.  I was a collector then, twenty years ago, but I was more interested in GI Joe and Transformers and maybe Batman or Superman then.  So before the movie comes out, I decided to read it.

The premise is this: what if superheroes really existed and ran around in weird costumes?  Alan Moore’s answer is a little disturbing.  In his mock universe, they would have to be insane or sexually repressed.  The really powerful ones would be corrupted by that power, develop some god-complex.  Moore also speculates on a different history: the US would have won Vietnam, completely subjected the world in its domination (even the Soviet Union), all because the Superman-type character is American.

In The Watchmen, the superheroes are all original to the story (no DC or Marvel universe characters), but they are familiar enough that you can relate them to certain types.

They’ve made a few of the darker comics from the 80’s on (300, Sin City, the Crow, etc … I would love to see them do Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns … but that’s not gonna happen), so it makes sense this one is next.  If they stay true to the comic story, and chances are with 300′s director they will, don’t go expecting a superhero story.  This is designed as the ultimate anti-superhero story.  Go expecting something more along the lines of V for Vendetta or Children of Men and you won’t be disappointed.

While pretty dark, and definitely not Christian, I really liked it.  I appreciated the original take on the superhero mythology.  I also liked the pessimistic view of human nature expressing itself even through those attempting to be heroes and “save the world.”  Very appropos for the Obama “hope” presidency in my view, although they wrote it with the Regan administration and 80’s Cold War mindset as a focus … and the liberal Hollywood would more want to relate it to the Bush administration.  The story sees humanity and even our heroes as fatally flawed, at the very least, if not even more problematic than the bad guys, and that’s half the truth, at least.

The next review shows the other half, too.

Fireproof

So Eric and Heather went to see this movie a couple weeks ago and really blessed us by offering to watch the kids while we went to see it.  It took a couple weeks to get there, but Becca and I saw it last night.

This is from the same people who did Facing the Giants.  While not a great movie on its own, Facing the Giants had heart, and it was pretty amazing that a fellowship came together and just made a watchable movie with a great message.

Based on the success of Facing the Giants, they made another one.  Somehow they got Kirk Cameron on board and went forward.

As a movie, it was pretty good.  Definitely better than the first one … they actually pulled a couple scenes together nicely.  The first few minutes of the story, during the setup, were a little tortuous, but it got a lot better quickly.

The story was a great idea.  A couple good themes ran throughout.  They even had some moments of good comedic timing and acting along with some of the drama that went a little overboard here and there.  The salvation scenes were good, not too forced, and a lot of heart and genuine reality in them.  The two action scenes had some good tension, as well.

Don’t get me wrong.  This movie doesn’t touch Oscar worthy.  The script could have used some work, and some of the actors were definitely not professionals.  I’d rather watch an agenda driven average movie about the true redemptive power of Christ, however, than a great agenda driven movie about gay cowboys.

Oh, and the “forced” nature of the spiritual scenes are way less contrived to me than the “forced” liberal and secular humanist drivel I have to endure in most movies from Hollywood.  We’re just so used to getting force fed that crap that it seems more forced when actual truth is openly expressed.

I can honestly recommend this movie … although it is more of a chick flick. 

The Happening

Finally saw the new M. Night movie last night after house church.  While I enjoyed it, I put it more in the category of The Village.  Good to watch once, but not something I’d probably get excited about seeing again.  I love the way M. Night makes movies, but the character development and acting weren’t as strong as in some of his others.  The ending, usually one of Night’s strong points, really left something to be desired.

This one was a little more violent than his others.  Some of it was creepy and a little disturbing, but overall not as redemptive.  Again … why don’t these movies take the time to really work on the script? 

I need to watch Lady of the Water again.  I really liked that one.

Peace.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 8th, 2008 at 10:11 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.