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The Wolverine: Eternity is a Curse if You Have No Meaning

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After seeing the previous abysmal Wolverine movie, I almost didn’t go to this one. I am just so tired of these superhero sequels that are boring trash. The first ones are often very good, Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Spiderman, and the sequels tend to be typical Hollywood stupidity: Bigger more ludicrous action sequences and many many more villains, too many villains. Yeah, that’s the ticket!

Well, not The Wolverine. This one is far better than the first, not just in terms of interesting action but in terms of character and personal drama. The premise is that the Wolverine is hiding out in the forest, grumbling about how he doesn’t want to be the Wolverine, I think because it only ended with him killing his beloved. Okay, makes for a reluctant hero, I guess, which is more interesting. But anyway a Japanese chick in a sexy Japanese school girl’s outfit and a samurai sword tracks him down to bring him to a billionaire Japanese businessman, Yashida, who is dying. Turns out, Wolverine, whose real name is Logan, saved Yashida when Logan was a WWII POW in a Japanese camp near Nagasaki, and Yashida was a guard. It was the fateful bombing of Nagasaki with “Little Boy,” the atomic bomb.

So Yashida has spent his company’s millions developing a way to free Logan from his immortality, make him able to die as he would like. To be able to love, marry, have kids, grow old and die with his loved ones by his side. This is what makes the theme interesting. Because Yashida knows that somehow Logan feels that his immortality is miserable, that “eternity can be a curse.” Logan is described as a Ronin, a samurai without a master, and he’s “destined to live forever with no reason to live.” Yashida says, “You seek what all soldiers do, an honorable death, and an end to your pain.” His pain being evidently his loneliness because as another says, everyone he knows dies, not just through murder, but naturally, as he lives on well past them.

So the Wolverine’s journey is one of discovering meaning and purpose after facing the despair of loneliness and meaninglessness of immortality. This is a quite rich theme to explore and is what makes the movie rise above with transcendence. Logan is a man with gifts to help others but who is a selfish man wanting to be left alone. He has lost the only thing that gave him hope, his beloved Jean from a past movie.

So he is like the Existentialist Superhero who has faced the angst of looking into the Abyss and realizing that life has no meaning because everything dies and is gone and forgotten. So the very thing that all of us would consider the most desire blessing, to live forever, is actually a curse if it is not shared in community, if it is not used to save others.

Here is what I find fascinating about the movie…

SPOILER ALERT: The ultimate villain of the movie is not the mutant Viper, a sexy poisonous mutant who seeks to kill Wolverine, but the very man whom Logan saved, Yashida. Yashida is old and dying and wants take what Wolverine does not want, his immortality so he can live forever to pursue his selfish goal of power. This is akin to the Garden of Eden, where God banishes the primeval couple because if they were to eat of the Tree of Life and live forever in their evil state, there is no end to the amount of destruction that would result.

Two selfish loner men, one who is good and one who is bad fighting over eternal life. When they are locked in a battle at the end of the movie, Yashida tells Logan that Logan has decided that “life without end can have no meaning,” but Yashida has concluded that “It’s the only life that can have meaning.”

Here’s the tricky part. Usually, you put the philosophy that is destructive into the mouth of the villain and we see where that belief ends in terms of consequences. In this case, it might be that those show seek to find eternal life are destructive. But sometimes, the villain is partly right and the hero has to learn from the villain what has been twisted. So in this case, Logan actually learns that he is wrong, and that his eternal life does have meaning if it finds purpose and redemption in serving others instead of solitary selfishness, like the villain would prefer.

This reminds me of a very powerful argument for the meaning of life being found in there being an afterlife. If there is no eternal life, if we all are food for worms, if all we have is what happens in this life, then this life truly has no meaning or purpose, and we are all fools wasting our time. No matter what we think or do, no matter what meaning we try to create or find, there is none transcendent of living itself, and all our “meaning” or “purpose” is a self delusion, created by us to make us feel better.

But only if there is a transcendent eternal life can this life have objective true meaning. Things in this life can only have real meaning if they are rooted in something transcendent to this life. If there is no afterlife, then even eating, drinking and being merry is a waste of time because in the end you are nothing, less than zero, and not even a blip of existence on the timeline of eternity. This life has no real objective meaning whatsoever if there is no eternal life.

A side note I find interesting is that Yashida is a reflection of a very real mentality in some of the older Japanese generation that was saved from total destruction by the West, which they continued to hate even after they lost the War. These few Imperialists still believe in their racist superiority and if in power, would do all over again what they attempted in 1941. It shows you that saving evil people doesn’t necessarily change them into good people. Another insightful moral truth.

R.I.P.D.: Evil Must be Punished or There is No Justice

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Men in Black with evil souls instead of aliens. Or Ghostbusters 2013. Ryan Reynolds plays Nick, a cop who finds himself killed in the line of duty and winds up on R.I.P.D. the Rest in Peace Department of “heaven” or whatever it is. They need his skills to help catch renegade evil souls called, Deados, who have escaped the big sucking wind tunnel to the afterworld, in order to hide out on earth in disguise among the living. What Nick, and his veteran partner, Roy, played by Jeff Bridges as a rascally western style sheriff, soon discover is that the evil souls have their own planned apocalypse, and can I say, it ain’t bringing heaven to earth.

Nick discovers he has about a hundred years to help the RIPD, or “take his chances with judgment,” of which he is not too sure he will do well. So he jumps at the chance. The partners have to hunt down the dark souls, whose presence is revealed by their decaying effect on their living quarters. Electricity flutters, and homes fall apart or are covered with grossness and slime. Their own spiritual decay is manifested in them looking ugly and monstrous, but they are able to disguise themselves as normal humans. Their true natures come out when offered Asian or Indian spicy food (I don’t get that one, but you gotta have some rules for the world you create).

Unfortunately, Nick, himself is not a clean soul, as he was involved in taking a little from the coffers of captured criminal gold when he was alive. But he does it only to be able to bless his wonderful loving wife, who means the world to him. Living on a cop’s salary is a temptation to skim.

So, if they can capture the souls and bring them back into a purgatory like holding cell in the sky, then they will eventually be brought to judgment.

Nick’s journey is one of being able to let go of his wife, and redeeming himself since he was taken at too young an age and would be unable to clear his name to her because he wants to right his wrong. But as his partner reminds him, no one dies at a good time, it’s always an inconvenience for our plans.

The bad guys’ plan is based in something called the “Staff of Jericho,” which has ancient roots in the Old Testament times, but it is not really explained so it becomes a mere plot device similar to Ghostbusters. But the point is that it is an ancient pagan religious device that does evil through the spiritual world. In this sense, the picture painted by this movie is a kind of Christian worldview against paganism.

But it’s really more of a Christian worldview subverted by cosmic humanism.

This movie was a mixture of good laughs, warm romance, humanist redemption and SFX. I love the premise. It’s very clever. Because it is an unavoidably spiritual premise, there is unyielding talk of hell and eternal punishment for “bad people.” This is one of those narrative and ethical “proofs for the existence of God.” You cannot tell satisfying stories and you cannot have a moral or ethical universe that does not include real punishment and reward. C.S. Lewis argued that the notion of punishment, far from being the “unfair behavior of a cruel god,” who “casts people into hell,” the notion of punishment is what actually gives meaning and dignity to the human on both a societal level and by extension a spiritual one. If you do not punish a being, then you are denying them the essential dignity to choose good or evil. You are saying that they cannot but do what they do, whether through psychological or internal chemical manipulation or whatever. To punish is not to be cruel at all (if done justly of course), but to affirm that the being could have done otherwise and had the inherent dignity and capability to do so. To freely choose to do good or evil is the thing that dignifies humanity. If we are but victims of our social groups or scientific natural causes, then we are mere puppets to be socially engineered by the elites. And guess who those elites would be? You got it. The privileged ones who believe in those views: The scientific materialists, naturalists, socialists and other totalitarian utopian left wing radicals (to whom the only “evil” is a God who judges – and his followers).

But if there is a God who punishes or judges, then that means he made us with the inherent dignity and power to do right. Our choice not to do right does not make us diseased or sick, but evil. A God who does not punish or judge evil is the most cruel and unjust being possible because billions of innocent victims are denied justice and recompense in favor of the criminal evildoers getting away with it.

Thus the saying, “Compassion to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent.” In justice, if you do not punish evildoers, you are punishing the victims (which includes the family and loved ones of those victims). No, worse, you are torturing them by allowing the evildoer to escape justice which intensifies and magnifies the loss of the loved ones for the rest of their lives. It’s like torturing the victims.

Ah, if there was only a way in which our spiritual crimes could be paid for AND we are forgiven, only then can justice and peace embrace. Now, who could be that perfect mediator to fulfill both justice and grace? Who can save us from this body of death? Thanks be to…

Do I digress?

And that is where this movie falls apart. Since the only taboo in some studio movies is GOD, the filmmakers ditch the only logical and reasonable reality of a personal God who judges and replace him with a “universe that judges in its ultimate wisdom.” The universe in this movie is a godless one. It is a pantheistic view that makes the entire universe as if it is the supreme being. Which is ultimately unsatisfying from a story perspective, because now you have a personal story of personal beings who are interacting not with an ultimate person, but with an impersonal abstract force or accumulation of natural laws. BORING. They could have easily used the generic term “God” which would still mean whatever most people wanted it to mean anyway, but it would have been a more satisfying story with a personal connection. Depersonalizing the deity is suicide for storytelling and theology. Impersonal forces do not “judge,” only personal beings do, because “judgment” is an ethical notion between personal beings.

Another half and half movie. Half good stuff about judgment for our deeds on earth, half terrible stuff about a godless pantheistic universe.

And another thing in this movie: What happens when a bad soul doesn’t want to go back in supernatural handcuffs to the “holding cell” to await his judgment? Well, then the RIPD has guns with special bullets that annihilate the soul, destroy them forever. Do not go to Hell, do not collect one hundred dollars, just straight into oblivion of non-existence.

So I got to thinking. The souls who have escaped are all obviously evil, as evidenced by their manifestation. So, if they are going to go to judgment anyway, what would you rather want (as an evil soul), eternal torment or non-existence? And it seemed to me that I would rather cease to exist than suffer forever under punishment. So from the perspective of a spiritual criminal, getting blown away by the RIPD might actually be preferable to judgment.

But from “the universe in its ultimate wisdom” perspective (Ahem, God’s perspective), it seems to me that annihilation would be the ultimate devaluation of human worth because the lack of existence makes the human worth nothing, while continuity of existence, even in judgment, maintains that the human is in the image of God and therefore has eternal value. Kind of an extension of what I was saying about punishment above.

OR would the devaluation of the human into nothing be the ultimate judgment? I can see why some might see it that way. But then again, would God devalue his own image in a human being? I kinda doubt it.

But whatever the case, we do have the promise from God that “He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury” (Romans 2:6–8).

And if you want to see if anyone can actually attain this “righteousness,” go here.

The Conjuring: Got Demons? A Little of Jesus Goes a Long Way

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Demon horror. Supposedly true story based on an incident in the 1970s about the most horrifying experience of two paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine Warren. The Perron family with five girls enter their new farmhouse out in the rural area (of course) only to discover it is haunted by evil entities. They hire the famous Warrens to figure it out and so the confrontation occurs. That’s pretty much it. Pretty much the usual haunted house story with creaking boards, slamming doors, birds flying into windows, dogs seeing spirits, cold areas, rotten smells, and the usual exorcism scene. But I’m not being negative. These things must all be there and the filmmakers do very well in telling this rich “true” story. It’s a good solid horror film with good creepy moments and good character development, with solid performances by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, as well as Lili Taylor.

It’s a kind of origin story for all those Ghosthunters we have nowadays with their fancy electronic equipment and pseudo-scientific means of detecting ghosts and whatnot. But in the 70s, they were just starting out, so we see them setting up an analog reel to reel recorders and flash still cameras with thermostats to catch any change in temperature. And of course, a super 8mm camera. It was a clever homage to today’s more developed scene.

I went to this film with high hopes because I had read it was written by Christians who seemed to express in an interview how much Jesus was the answer to addressing demonic entities, unlike 90% of these supernatural horror movies that only have religion to show how powerless it is against supernatural evil. Okay, maybe 80%.

Well, I can’t say I was entirely satisfied, but kind of pleased. I’m conflicted. This is a mixture of good and bad elements.

The Warrens are depicted not so much as Christian believers as pragmatic users of religion. They believe demons are real, and they have connections with Roman Catholic church for exorcisms and blessings, but they appear to fight evil entities, they do not seem to call upon God in faith. They don’t pray or exhibit anything that illustrates they are true believers. This is a fine distinction, but stay with me.

Now, I don’t pretend to be an expert in fighting demonic spirits and don’t want to be. But it seems to me that as I read in the Bible, demons are mostly cast out in the name/power of Jesus Christ by his faithful followers (Acts 16:16-18), but sometimes even unbelievers can do so by appealing to Jesus (Matt 7:21-23). It’s usually pretty simple, and usually a verbal casting out, as opposed to exorcism, except for more difficult cases that may require prayer and fasting (Mark 9:14-29). But those who are not followers of Messiah can be possessed or even beat up when they try to exorcise demons (Acts 19:13-20).

In the movies, I realize religious relics like crosses and religious rites like exorcisms are much more filmic and visual, but I have always had a problem with the Roman Catholic rite as presented in these films. And it’s used in The Conjuring as well.

Here’s my beef: It seems to create a picture of sympathetic magic, whereby a demon’s power is subdued by proper ritual engagement. You’ve all seen it, and its in The Conjuring as well: They read off a bunch of Latin ritual texts as if saying magic words are where the power lies, rather than the actual appeal to the living God over that spiritual being. It makes it appear that the victory is in some ritual action than in the faith of the believer. That would be magic.

In this movie, the mother is possessed by a demon that wants to get her to kill her daughter. When they start reading off the magical words in Latin, and sprinkle holy water on the mother, it brings out the demonic presence and we see all the typical (not bad, and not stupid, but definitely typical) demonic special effects that take you out of the story and make it only a movie. You know, the special demonic pupils, the face that looks like Linda Blair possessed, and the ability to do levitation and move everything in the house. Unfortunately, the moment that happens, I no longer believe the story and just know I am watching a movie with special effects.

But in this story, they overcome the demon ultimately by saying something like “I command you to go back to hell” and then speaking to the mom underneath by saying, “Don’t let it take you over, remember your love for your children.” In other words, no appeal to Jesus Christ.

So the picture it paints is more one of self-salvation than faith.

Nowhere is anyone depicted as being in relation to God. Religion is a weapon, but not a relational reality. God seems to be more of a tool. We can fight demons and win if we use the right magical weapons. It is good that they show the religious means of battling this demon and they do make reference in the movie to suggesting the girls be baptized in order to protect them, and these are all technically allusions to faith, but without any content. The problem I had was that these were all in context, rituals of sympathetic magic, rather than pictures of faith in context. God is a tool more than a person.

But then again, since it is coming from Hollywood, it’s better than the usual, which is to ignore God altogether.

I should probably be more positive about this positive portrayal of the Christian religion here, but I think the reason I am not all gaga about it is because not once in the entire story did I ever hear the name Jesus Christ appealed to. If you know me, you know I don’t like most Christian movies, so I am not calling for that kind of artificial tripe. What I mean is that in truth, the only way to battle demonic entities is going to be by faith and the power of Jesus Christ, specifically, not in “God” generically. In real life spiritual warfare like this, from what I understand, it is the blood of Jesus Christ that is appealed to that overcomes demons (Heck, even Arnold got it right in The End of Days when he won through faith over human strength).

In this movie, they do say, “In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,” at the beginning of the exorcism, and that weakens my argument somewhat, but I would argue back that it is spoken like magical words. I don’t know what is being said in Latin, (so that is meaningless to us if we do not understand what is being said.) The Warrens use crucifixes around the house, but only because it pisses the demons off to have religious icons. Again, magical tools, not spiritual faith.

At the end of the film they have a super that says, “The devil exists. God exists. Our destiny hinges on which one we follow.” Not bad. Kudos.

But I still got the sense from this film that it was more about magic than faith.

Okay, here’s another strike against my negativity: The story depicts one of the original evils as being rooted in a witch from the Salem trial! Of course, in the Hollywood delusionary universe, witches don’t exist except as lies created by Christians in order to persecute. Well, here, we see that is a lie itself. Witchery is real and it is evil. Sorry, all you pagans. I know you’ll be the next in line to sue me for discrimination — And call me evil.

So, in many ways, the Christian religion is portrayed positively and I applaud them for that. But it is certainly ironic that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named in Hollywood is not Voldemort, but Jesus Christ (except as a cuss word). You just can’t use those two little words positively. Even when you make a movie that takes demonic spirits as real, God forbid you ever mention the one most relevant name to that reality. It’s the one name that actually has the power to crush evil spirits and therefore is the one name that must not be uttered by Hollywood, Government, Education, Science, Leftism, the Democratic Party (unless they are likening their candidate to him) and demons.

Hmmm, those ladies doth protest too much methinks.

Here I go, violating the Separation of Church and Hollywood: Evil spirits, I cast you out in the name and power of JESUS CHRIST and his blood shed on the cross for the atonement of sins.

Identity Thief: A Parable About Restorative Justice, not Humanistic “Understanding”

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Slapstick Comedy. Jason Bateman plays Sandy Patterson, a guy with an androgynous name, whose identity is stolen by Diana played by Melissa McCarthy in another state. When he goes on a trip to try to bring her back to his home state to clear his name, a wild road trip ensues that challenges Sandy and Diana to find out who they each really are.

This is a wildly implausible scenario with wildly implausible scenes and wildly implausible characters, but give it a break, it’s a comedy! So if you don’t demand that it must by hyper-realistic, you just might appreciate some of the morality tale that this is.

Sandy is set up as losing his reputation, his job, and possibly his future if he doesn’t go down to Florida and bring this woman back to his state, and get her to turn herself in. Diana is an obese woman who is a party animal and lives her life through other identities while trying to get anyone to love her. A ludicrous plot device is added to up the stakes and pace: Diana has killers after her because her thieving has gotten her in trouble with some crime kingpin. Like I said, everything about this story is wildly implausible, but it is a parable and that is the point of it, NOT realism. It is a very heartfelt buddy story that is an incarnation of the parable to Love Thy Neighbor, nay, to Love Thy Enemies.

The humor of it all lies in Diana’s obesity as an irony against her wild girl physical comedy. She is a one woman comedy machine when it comes to this character role. And Jason Bateman is my personal favorite straight man in all of movie comedydom. So I loved this couple that had wonderful chemistry in their journey toward self discovery.

SPOILER ALERT: Diana’s revelation is that she is an orphan who never knew her name (metaphor for identity) and that is why she was restless and lived through other people’s identities, trying to be loved or to find a family she never had. Now this could all be the typical humanistic, “we have to understand the criminal and realize that they’re just hurt people who hurt people.” But it is not, because this sensitive psychological appreciation of her pain is balanced by the moral choice she makes to take responsibility for her actions at the end. Thus, proving the dictum that we are not responsible for what happens to us, but we are responsible for how we respond to what happens to us.

But there is more to it than that, there is reconciliation and restoration.

Sandy, starts out detesting Diana, but eventually learns to care for her and they help each other out in various ways until the end. And Sandy’s problem is his lack of confidence that made him a chump all his life. Confidence that Diana has in overabundance. And his moral journey is also quite nice, as he turns and uses Diana’s skills to try to illegally burn his old boss who screwed him in the beginning. But ultimately, he pays for this as well. And then he also learns that Diana needs family and he brings her into his family instead of protecting himself, which redeems them both with hope and love.

But the ending shows these characters both swap redemptions as they both sacrifice their own selves at the end to save the other. This is a story that affirms personal responsibility and consequences for our actions, but is about more than justice, it is about mercy, and about reconciliation, which is restorative justice.

Pacific Rim: Global Warming Causes Godzilla

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Japanese Godzilla movie Hollywood style. Huge monsters created by SUV exhaust, oil pipelines, second hand smoke, and our failure to protect the California Delta Smelt.

The world is being attacked by huge monsters (called Kaiju), not from outer space, but from underneath the sea in the ocean’s crust. So the nations bind together to create huge robots (called Jaegers) to equal their size and fight back. These robots are driven by two pilots whose minds are synchronized in a neural net connection so that they can act as one. The problem is, the giants are getting too big and are kicking robot A., so they decide to drop the robot program and put all their energies into building huge walls to keep out the Kaiju. Obviously stupid decision when the walls are busted like nothing. So they gather a few of the remaining “old school” robots to fight back.

Okay, I don’t care for Japanese Humongous Fighting Monster Movies. But I must admit, I enjoyed this one as a popcorn spectacle. I think Del Toro did a good job of creating a sense of the size of the monsters and the fighting was kinda cool. Yes, this movie is filled with all the cliché formula elements: The hero, Raleigh, is a “top gun” with an attitude who doesn’t follow orders (Hey, when have we ever seen that?), a love interest of a girl who is a combat pilot with just as good fighting skills as the hero so they are equals, two goofy scientist types to provide comic relief and a scientific discovery of how to beat the monsters, and another top gun who hates the hero until the hero saves him! Oh, and also a fascinating bad guy who holds the key to helping them out (played by the inimitable Ron Perlman). But so what. THAT IS WHAT THESE MOVIES HAVE BECAUSE IT WORKS. If you accept that they are primarily about the spectacle, then just sit back and enjoy the spectacle.

But that is not to say that it does not have some character development or thematic intentions.

The whole element of the pilots needing to “mind meld” with each other and therefore enter into their brains and memories sets up a pretty cool thematic element of how hard it is to let someone into your pain and hurt, and how we must let people in or we will ultimately fail in our humanity. There is even a line by one of the characters, “It’s hard to let someone in to really trust them.” After Raleigh loses his brother (his copilot, since siblings are prime cases for synchronized minds), he of course gives up and has to learn again how to let someone in again, and YES, it has to be a girl pilot, because we want ROMANCE! (An interesting side note is that Del Toro deliberately avoids the romantic subplot implications at the end when the hero and girl DO NOT KISS. It is a kiss scene for sure, but they just lean their foreheads out of happiness that they are alive.

There is a thematic conflict between obedience and respect as Raleigh must face the consequences of his own rule breaking that leads to his heartbreak in his life.

And of course, individualism versus being a team player. The hero has much to offer with his skills, but he must learn to work as a team and ultimately to offer himself as a sacrifice or he will never be the full human he needs to be.

SPOILER ALERT: Anyway, my “agenda gripe” for the day is that we ultimately learn that the aliens are colonizers who have been waiting to take over the planet and kill us so they can move onto another planet. The problem was that in the days of the dinosaurs, we are told, the planet was not able to sustain their life forms. But then the crazy scientist says that thanks to our ozone and carbon output, we made terra firma livable for them.

This is a common thematic element of sci-fi movies, and it follows the formula from the olden days. The monstrous terror is the consequences of our own hubris. (Remember Frankenstein?) Okay, fair enough. We create the monsters that hurt us, so we must change. It’s a sociological and political statement. Just like all the monsters in the olden days were caused by atomic radiation, thus causing the terror of end of the world destruction that lay over our heads like the sword of Damocles.

Just know that every single movie about every global end of the world scenario will always now be about global warming and the accusation that humans are causing the catastrophe by our use of energy and our carbon output. Even though these anti-science flat earth like claims are demonstrably not true in our real world, every movie, every TV show and all entertainment will always make the claim. (Already happening: 2012, Day After Tomorrow, After Earth, Oblivion, probably Elysium too). And the ignorant that make up the masses will be believing it and accepting it as an assumed truth because they’ve been told it over and over. You are being propagandized through the media and entertainment. That is how propaganda works. You repeat the slogan over and over in all forms of media and entertainment and suppress all skepticism: “We are causing the end of the world through our carbon output,” “We are causing the end of the world through our carbon output,” “We are causing the end of the world through our carbon output.” And hey, wouldn’t you know it, people are thinking, “We are causing the end of the world through our carbon output.” Gee, I wonder why they think that? It ain’t cause of the facts, folks. It’s because you’ve been propagandized.

This is the new puritanical religion of environmentalism. It projects guilt for “sins” and demands repentance or the end of the world. It has a vast institution of power called Big Government that controls a multi-billion dollar empire of propaganda and control, High priests of “scientists” who damn you if you question their dogma. And it has its fanatical terrorists called Big Green who engage in inquisitions that end up killing people by withholding help in the name of their religion (the DDT scandal, genetically modified foods for the poor, and energy sources for blacks in the third world and on and on). And anyone who denies it is an “other,” a heathen, a polluter who wants to pollute the earth or being paid by Big Oil. In the movie, a guy says that some believe “The Kaiju were sent from heaven to punish us” (for our carbon output).

I would have to say though, that there is a very interesting truth embodied in this story that I am not sure the filmmakers intended because it does not fit their typical left wing paradigm. The solution in this movie (as in all these End-of-the-World scenarios) to overcome the villain, and save the world is NUCLEAR BOMBS. It kinda has to be since we have nothing bigger. But if you see where I am going… The Bad Guy Boogieman of yesteryear is now the hero solution, literally AND metaphorically, which should really tick off the environmentalist flat-earthers. Because of course, Enviromentalists successfully suppressed the expansion of nuclear power with their radical activism. But now, nuclear power is THE CLEANEST source of power we have, with virtually ZERO CARBON OUTPUT. Uh oh. That doesn’t bode well for religious science-denying dogma.

And on the other side, Nuclear weapons are the only ultimate source of being able to stop global human evil of the Kaiju kind (Islamism, Communism). Why? Because evil only respects power and force. And the bigger power and more totalitarian a monster gets (Iran, N. Korea), the only thing that will stop them is the threat of nuclear weapons. You know, those things that the current administration is trying to do away with. So, who are the real Monsters?

One word: I am not being paid by Big Oil, but if any of them would like to help fund my work, I would gladly consider offers.

Despicable Me 2: Gru Supports Proposition 8 Traditional Marriage

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Mediocre sequel to the brilliant original. Okay, it was hard to equal the original with its amazing storytelling and wonderful characters. And this one, I can’t say was captivating. Bad guy wants to destroy the world, blah blah blah.

But the reason to see it is for the most adorable cute little girl of any animated movie ever: Agnes and her excitable love shake, as well as the cuddly little minions.

One of the things I found surprising in this movie is that its theme is VERY traditional marriage at its core. As Gru, the villain turned good guy, has adopted the three little girls from the first picture, he loves them as a single parent and does the best he can for them.

But we see that it just isn’t enough, because the little girls like Agnes dream of having a mommy and what a mommy can give children. She writes a little poem about what a mommy brings and it breaks Gru’s heart that he can’t give that to her.

This of course leads to the humorous love interest between Gru and the young good girl agent, Lucy, who is a groupie of Gru’s tactics and brilliance, and willing to date him if he would only overcome his fear of rejection.

And of course, it all leads to marriage, as any good romantic and/or comedy should end in.

This marriage is depicted as clearly being the solution that the children needed for a full balanced life to grow up under.

Very simple and clear: Children need a mother and father, period.

However, the final musical piece at the end of the movie is the minions singing and dancing to YMCA, the classic hit that became a banner song for the gay movement.

So the best I can figure is that they must have realized that in order to make the story work they had to incorporate traditional marriage for the storyline. But being Hollywood storytellers, they were either instructed by the gay mafia, or from their own left-wing guilt, gave a nod to the gay community with the song as if to say, “We’re sorry we had to tell a story supporting traditional mother and father, but we still support gays!”

The Lone Ranger: The Noble Savage Vs. Greedy Capitalist

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Comic book action movie of the beloved hero of yesteryear and his trusty sidekick the Lone Ranger. Yes, you read that right. Tonto is really the lead in this movie, as played by Johnny Depp, who does tend to steal movies with his sly cool presence. In true Hollywood fashion, this movie subverts the old storyline with a Politically Correct version to make appeal to the false conscience of the American public.

The movie is WAY TOO LONG at 2 hours and 20 minutes. It should have been cut by 20 minutes. And it could have saved almost all that 20 minutes by deleting a “modern” day hook that bookends the movie. We see a young kid in 1933 in some carnival freak show watching a wild west exhibit where Tonto is now very old and on display as a “Noble Savage.” Tonto then proceeds to tell the kid the story of how John Reid, started “as a man of law,” but ended as “a man of justice” as the Lone Ranger. At least that’s how the filmmakers see it. Completely worthless waste of time, this book end. And it ends with the kid asking Tonto if it is really true, the story he told. Tonto says in “It’s up to you, Kemosabe.” Legends are not about the facts, they are supposed to be about the truth.

Anyway, the actual movie is not as terrible. It is a popcorn fun action comic book movie after all, so you don’t make your expectations high. The final action sequence was lots of fun and even brought back emotional memories when they played the William Tell Overture, saved for that climactic ending. They play the characters against their original types, Tonto is the stronger personality and the Lone Ranger is a goofy bumbling prosecuting attorney who provides the humor against Depp’s straight man.

The character arc of this story is all about the Lone Ranger being a man of the law, who seeks to do everything the right way and according to due process. No matter how bad the criminal, he believes every man has the right to his day in court. A particular phrase of his “Bible,” John Locke’s Treatise on Government is quoted at the beginning, which captures his worldview: Men must “quit the laws of nature and assume the laws of man,” in order to maintain civilization. Tonto, however, as his ally foil believes that “justice is what a man must take for himself.” He believes in working outside the law, the way of nature so to speak.

So the theme of this movie is about Law vs. Nature, and which of these views can lead to justice. One of the recurring thematic memes in this movie is “Nature out of balance,” and how to achieve that balance again.

The white man is the evil menace because as Tonto says, “Indians are like coyotes (nature). They kill and leave nothing to waste. What does the white man kill for?” In the movie, the white man kills for power and money. So, in short, the white man believes the Indian to be savage, and civilization to be achieved through lawful means and “progress,” but what we see in this story is that the white man is the savage, progress is exploitative, and that the Lone Ranger ultimately comes to believe that if men like those in power represent the law, then he’d rather be an outlaw. He gives up his belief in due process to stay an outlaw at the end because “there comes a time when good men must wear a mask.”

This heart change is reflected when the Lone Ranger finally has the chance to kill the outlaw who killed his brother (and ate his heart, if that wasn’t bad enough). Reid does not shoot him in cold blood. Instead he seeks to take him in to face a trial, because Reid considers himself “not a savage” to kill outside of the law. But Tonto tells him, “No. You are not a man.” (Again, the laws of man versus the laws of nature) And after all that energy to do the right thing, it backfires on Reid because the law and the outlaws are all in the hands of the greedy capitalist, and so the outlaw gets away and the Lone Ranger becomes captive to the bad guys. So, later when Reid has the chance to shoot the unarmed outlaw, he finally does, only to find his gun is out of bullets, and he has to fight him physically. But we see the hero is changed. He has given up on lawful means of pursuing justice. And when he is offered a new gold watch as a reward by the new greedy capitalists in charge, thinking they can buy him just like they buy others, he rejects it and decides to keep on his mask to stay an outlaw.

But it seems in the movie that everyone is in the hands of the greedy capitalist and there are no good capitalists. The “engine of western civilization,” the railroad, is the goal of the greedy capitalist, as the ultimate bad guy of all bad guys. He is the one who exploits nature carelessly with the expansion of railroads as the emblem of progress. The cliché ugly outlaw thugs are hired by the greedy capitalist to do his bidding, the military (led by a cliché General Custer look alike) are controlled by the greedy capitalist to kill Indians. All the evil and abuse that occurs in this movie all seems to come back to the greedy capitalist businessman as the ultimate villain.

Well, there are plenty of those in our world. If you can find the balance of nature within yourself to understand that not all progress is evil, not all capitalists are greedy exploiters and not all white men are evil, you can enjoy this film for what it is with its faults: A ridiculous action comic book movie that is politically correct, but fun at times.

Inhale: How Far Would You Go to Save Someone You Love?

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Medical conspiracy thriller about organ donation on Netflix Streaming. This is a little gem of a movie about Paul Stanton (played superbly by Dermot Mulroony) and his wife Diane (Diane Kruger) who have a young daughter who is dying of a lung disease. Paul is a State Prosecutor who is a man of conviction. He is prosecuting a man who shot a child molester who was hitting on his son (though had not yet done anything). While the shooter’s justification was that he was protecting his son against what the registered sex offender was GOING to do, Paul is set up as a believer in legal due process against vigilante violence in the name of protecting even our children. He supports the law against our emotion, and the need to engage due process or we lose our souls. But Paul is a man of justice, because he is NOT in favor of the sleazy defendant either. He pursues justice under the law.

But Paul’s daughter’s death is imminent, and it appears she will not receive lungs as organ donation. In fact, the system is so screwed up that organs expire while in impossible transit to others higher on the list rather than the closest person in need. So in their case, following the rules results in more death. So Paul becomes desperate and finds out there is a way to avoid all the unfair rules and regulations in America that keep victims from receiving organs: Mexico has lax laws and plenty of organs from dead people because of its three times the homicide rate.

So he does what any loving father would do, go to Mexico and face life threatening danger in order to find a pair of lungs to save his daughter. Of course he has to journey though the dark belly underworld of this enterprise filled with a mixture of creepy criminals and compromising do-gooders.

The movie really shows the pressing reality of the desperation that anyone would feel when all options have been unfairly taken away from them, when it does not need to be that way. There are plenty of donors to fill the need. It’s just that the bureaucracy of the law actually impedes the good rather than provides for it. So Paul’s dedication to law is challenged and he is forced to rethink his values and convictions. This movie presents a real world moral dilemma that addresses an important issue at the heart of our ethics. What do you do when the system works against justice or goodness?

But just when Paul discovers where the organs really come from, he is faced with an even greater moral dilemma. He is put into the position of the man he was prosecuting at the beginning of the story. And he must decide: Should he do wrong in order to achieve the good on behalf of his own child? Is any price worth saving our loved ones? What is the value of human life if we deny others that value?

His decision is heroic and satisfying, but not without its pain and loss in the real world. Thus making it a rich moral fable with conviction. I recommend this movie for a heart wrenching moral journey of character and integrity.

White House Down: Obama as Action Hero Vs. Vast Right Wing Conspiracy

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Die Hard at the White House as Obama propaganda. Okay, now you know the entire movie. Well, not really, because this movie has what Die Hard did not: An invulnerable hero, played by Channing Tatum. What made the original Die Hard so good was John McClane’s weaknesses and real injuries. In this movie, Channing plays John Cale, who seems to live unscathed through a thousand poorly aimed bullets by sharpshooting criminals, deadly falls, and even a grenade. I know, I know, even the new Die Hards have become that. But I mean not even a scratch on the guy. Makes it rather unsatisfying because you never really believe he can be caught or hurt by the bad guys so your emotional investment is lost.

John Cale is a security agent for the Speaker of the House who is trying desperately to get a job with the Secret Service because his daughter worships the President as hero, and no longer feels that way about him. He’s divorced, and he’s messed up one time too many, but he figures if he can protect the one person his daughter sees as a hero then maybe he can gain her trust back. And that is the emotional power of this story of a father and daughter in the midst of a terrorist take down of the White House. It’s actually quite touching and it’s what makes this story rise a little above its otherwise excessive action movie set pieces.

But the political and moral worldview of this movie is abysmal.

If you want to understand the moral worldview of the storytellers, look at the villain. The villain’s goals and rationale are what the storytellers believe are the dangerous beliefs in this world that must be stopped. And in this movie, the real enemies that exist in this world — the Islamic regimes and Muslim terrorists killing tens of thousands of innocents around the world, with the intent of imposing Islamic Law on everyone – THOSE villains do not really exist. The very real threat of Iran is just a figment of the vast right wing conspiracy theorizing. NO, the REAL enemy is the tired old Hollywood boogeyman, the “Military Industrial Complex” and “Right Wingers” in America who believe that Iran is a threat and must be stopped from getting nuclear weapons. I kid you not. This is the ludicrous view of the world that could only come from Hollywood.

First of all, Jamie Fox plays President Sawyer, an obvious Democrat Barack Obama President, who just like Obama, makes all kinds of references to himself in connection with Abraham Lincoln. Ironic, since Lincoln was a Republican who would condemn the Chicago mafia politics of Obama, and the slavery, KKK, and Jim Crow of the Democratic Party. But truth is often not important when people try to construct symbolism of themselves. Nevertheless, Sawyer/Obama ends up fighting the bad guys, shooting a rocket launcher and helping the hero save the White House, his daughter, America, and the World. The obvious intent here is to construct a narrative mythology that connects Obama to a superhero persona worthy of obedience and genuflection.

In the beginning of the film we see President Sawyer on TV talking about how “the source of violence is poverty,” in other words, the tired old Left Wing sloganeering that poverty causes crime. Really? So, all the tens of millions of poor people, many tens of millions more than those violent ones, who don’t engage in crime, why aren’t they violent? And since the source of so much violence in the world is actually driven by the rich, where is their poverty? This is the evil foundational belief of Marxism that reduces morality to economic terms because of its desire to control the wealth of others. With Presidents like this, who needs enemies?

In contrast with this religion of Leftism, Christianity claims that the fundamental cause of violence AND poverty is actually VALUES. It is moral values that drive human beings to do good or evil, NOT economic status. Those with good moral values do not engage in crime, even if they are poor. Those with bad moral values DO commit crimes even if they are rich. See Spot run. Duh. The real truth of the matter is, folks, that the most violence has been done upon this world through this very belief that economics causes crime (See: Soviet Russia, Maoist China, Pol Pot’s Cambodia, North Korea etc etc.).

SPOILER ALERT: We soon discover that the President has a “Peace Plan” that consists of removing all American troops from the Middle East. Another absolutely immoral belief, since it would create the biggest slaughter and takeover by Islamists in the world. So when the villains first blow up the Capitol and take the White House hostage, we hear that everyone thinks they’re Arabs (Because, don’t you know, we’re all racists who have created an artificial boogeyman of Arabs as terrorists without any reason whatsoever. Just racism, yeah right.) The racist MSNBC newsman, Chris Matthews would love this movie and so do Islamists. But we ultimately learn that the bad guy is a Right Wing conspirator who tracked down a bunch of “Right wing sociopaths,” “racists,” and “White Supremecist” radicals as well as Libertarian nuts who are mad for the laws against online pirating. (One of the bad guys uses the derogatory term “Sheeple” of the hostages, which happens to be a term that right wing survivalist types use) Oh, and just to make sure, they connect the villain to religious Americans, the movie has the villain saying, “God bless us all.” I’m surprised they didn’t add a Tea Partier, a Pro-Lifer, or those “dangerous” types who don’t believe in big government.

But this all just reflects the same bigotry and Islamophilic prejudice that the current White House administration enforces when it scrubs all references to Islam, Muslim, Jihad and terrorist from its government documents and instead proclaims the real dangerous people to be pro-lifers, and “people who do not trust government.” Yeah, those are the REAL bad people we need to watch out for.

Okay, so this villain is taking over because he believes that there are no nukes in Iran, “But there will be,” so the President’s move will allow Iran to move forward. So the villain wants to rain nukes upon Iran in a Pre-emptive strike in the name of protecting the country.

So Iran will love this movie too! Because it shows what terrible victims they are of the big bullying imperialistic America, that we all know is trying to take over the world!

So, you get the analogy with the real world? Those in our real world who are warning that Iran will use nukes as Hitler would use nukes — because they are WORSE than Hitler’s Nazis — THOSE people are the dangerous ones, NOT the actual Islamo-nazis of Iran who will actually start with nuking Israel and move on from there. Those who say that sometimes we are forced by impossible options to stop a bully, or rather a serial mass murderer, by pre-emptively using force, those people are just warmongers and racists. Of course, in the real world, using nukes is the last option for such things. A pre-emptive strike does not require nukes. But this movie’s political posturing is actually an incitement of hatred (and violence?) against those who are arguing for the use of force to stop Iran from getting nukes. The filmmakers create a demonized image of their political opponents as dangerous violent crazy zealots to inspire the suppression of those views from the public debate.

Kinda like Chicago politics.

Kinda like the IRS.

Quartet: Growing Old Sucks $#!%!

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Is all we have to look forward to in our twilight years, the hope for a one last curtain call? This was a cute, whimsical, and serious movie all rolled into one with some wonderful characters, drawn out boring singing scenes, and a depressing ending that is supposed to be uplifting.

In this story about a retirement home for accomplished musicians, all the old folks are preparing to perform a concert for Verdi’s birthday. But trouble happens when a diva, played elegantly by the wonderful Maggie Smith, arrives and stirs up past hurts with her ex-husband who also lives there and has been trying to avoid her for the rest of his life.

I like movies that make me examine my life and make me question whether or not I am investing in what really matters. Therefore, I like movies about death and movies about people facing the end of their life. But this one didn’t deliver in the usual way. It pretty much backfired.

Here’s why:

First of all, Billy Connolly is the lovable comic relief of the ladies man who still can’t stop hitting on the young working women at the retirement home. But you get the sense that he was a desperate bid to bring some life to an otherwise drab bunch of old cranks, half wits and babblers. Now, you would think that would not be the case, because some of the characters are dramatic and others cute and eccentric, and they all had successful careers as musicians, and singers, which was supposed to have given them a life well lived. So the idea of a group of such people preparing for a concert to reprise their yesteryears would make one think it is a good high concept. Unfortunately, there were too many indulgent scenes of showing the singers and musicians practicing that it just got boring and FAST FORWARDSVILLE, baby. I think the director, Dustin Hoffman, suffered from his actor’s perspective of thinking we want to see the real life ex-musical artists he cast bathing in their younger glories and singing pretty well on screen. Not me. I want a good story.

But I don’t want to be too hard on this movie, because the main theme of a divorced couple finding forgiveness at the end of life for past infidelity had a note of grace and hopefulness, especially at the ending.

But the problem for me was that all the forgetfulness, all the declining body functions, all the cute and mindless or silly babbling people, and all the reminiscing and fantasizing about the good old days when they were somebody that surrounded the few people with their wits just made getting old look entirely undesirable and dreadful.

But isn’t that what you want, Brian? Didn’t I say that I like movies that make me examine my life, yada yada? Well, not if the hope that is presented is an illusory and fleeting recap of the humanist attempt to find meaning in what ultimately has no meaning. And that is what this movie lacked for me: Transcendence. It tries to find hope in a hopeless situation, and in so doing distracts us from our real need.

Rather than finding some hope in the midst of a sad reality in this story, I didn’t find any because apart from that forgiveness moment of husband and wife, the big context of the movie’s big theme was summed up in the ending shot after their also-boring performance of the Verdi concert. The people we saw struggling through their age issues end up with a “glorious” slo mo curtain call of happiness after their performance of a song together, giving one the impression that they ended well or that they were ending their life with a joyful curtain call so to speak.

But this is not satisfying because it is shallow and empty.

I am sorry, but the revelation of a life lived by seeking to be loved through performance, and glorying over great songs or experiences or moments of singing is precisely that flaw that needs to be redeemed, not reinforced. It is the delusion of all artists and entertainers, of which I am both, so I know of what I speak. At the end of my life, I know that I am not going to look back on my life and consider all the art I did and how great it made me feel and try to rekindle older fleeting moments of vanity and chasing after the wind. Because I know that all of it will turn to dust. I am not going to be thinking of any of that. I know I am going to be thinking did I know and walk with my Creator? Did I give my life away to others? Did I invest my life in the truth that transcends our muddled and painful existence? If there is nothing beyond this existence then all the performance is a delusion of denial to keep us from facing the truth that none of it has lasting effect. It will mock us at our death. It will not be a curtain call, it will be a Satanic horror movie where reality is the opposite of our delusions and it will damn us.

I write about this very Ecclesiastes-like theme of angst and the despair of meaninglessness in my novel, Gilgamesh Immortal, a retelling of the Gilgamesh epic retold within the context of a Biblical worldview. We must be honest with the despair of reality and the meaninglessness of a worldview without ultimate transcendence, a worldview without God, and only then can we begin to find the truth that transcends that reality to bring meaning and purpose to our hollow humanistic lives.