It is funny that after the second time I saw this film I have the urge to write another blog post. The previous post was a more general look at how the concept of deity is being secularised and that the wealthy elite of our world are being turned into gods, however after seeing this film a second time I suddenly realised that not only are there a lot of references to the UFO phenomena of the 1980s, but also a lot of references to Christianity. The movie in effect turns it into a cult religion that worships aliens.
Category: Film
Jupiter Ascending – The evolution of the secular gods
Years ago, when I was in university, I had this desire to not so much review movies, but to critically analyse concepts that I picked up while watching them. I guess it had a lot to do with me studying English Literature and the realisation that I could take the same ideas and apply them to Hollywood movies. Okay, you may be wandering what one could possibly get out of Terminator II, but I have actually written a review and posted it on IMDB. However, that was back in the days before IMDB ever existed, so using my SMUG (Student Machine Users Group) account I created a basic webpage to catalogue my thoughts. Mind you, I doubt that website still exists, and even if it does it is floating somewhere deep in the web, cut off from the rest of the internet. A few years later a friend at church directed me to the website Hollywood Jesus which tries to get Christian meaning from Hollywood movies (while in many cases is not all that hard to do, it does depend on the movie: I doubt you are going to get any Christian meaning out of Debbie Does Dallas).
Pink Floyd’s The Wall – The Alienation of Success
I find it really bizarre that a film that the producers really didn’t like, and was described by one of the writers as ‘too depressing’ and by the director as ‘the longest student film ever made’ has become a cult classic, won 2 BAFTA Awards, and has received a combined user rating of 8 on IMDB. However, I probably shouldn’t consider it all that surprising since the film that we as kids voted as ‘the worst film ever made’ was Plan 9 From Outer Space (though that only receives a combined user rating of 4 on IMDB, and I personally have yet to even watch it – still, it is considered a cult classic, particularly since it has a combined user rating on Rotten Tomatoes of 66% with the premise that it is so bad it is actually really good). Anyway, I have already written a review (of Pink Floyd The Wall, not Plan 9 from Outer Space), though IMDB does not give me huge amounts of room to be able to really explore this film, so I will do it here.
Noah and the Antediluvian world
Adah bore Jabal; he was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all… Read more “Noah and the Antediluvian world”
Live, Die, Repeat – Edge of Tomorrow
This film actually has two names, and I’m not sure why they changed its name to Live, Die, Repeat so late in the piece (namely when the Blue-Ray was released) especially since I didn’t actually have a problem with the original name (though there are probably reasons that I am not aware of that prompted the change). Okay, it is a Tom Cruise movie, and while I would generally say that I basically tolerate him, he still seems to find himself in some really cool movies, such as this one.
Exodus: Gods & Kings – A critique of the latest Biblical epic
Normally I probably wouldn’t waste my time writing a post about this movie, namely because it was so boring, however I have felt inclined to make some comments on Hollywood’s latest venture into the Biblical realm. Before I had even walked into the cinema I suspected that there were going to be some historical inaccuracies – that is always the case when it comes to Hollywood’s journey into history – and I was also expecting them to use some creative license when it came to interpreting the source material, but in then end, what I got was this.
Intersteller – Another Nolan Masterpiece
I didn’t really intend on posting movie reviews on my blog namely because there are so many movies out there that I did not want to crowd them out of other things. However once in a while a film will come along that I feel that the 1000 word limit on IMDB simply does not allow me to fully explore the film at hand. Interstellar is certainly one of those films, and I feel it also makes a worthy addition to my previous post where I looked at Stephen Hawking’s book A Brief History of Time.