Dear Hollywood...
I think I've figured out why certain movies with very interesting premises don't work. Please pay attention, it's very simple.
Do not mix God and aliens.
I saw Knowing yesterday and it started out quite well. Disturbed little girl hears voices, writes down a whole bunch of numbers on a piece of paper, 50 years later Nicholas Cage figures out that those numbers were predictions of massive catastrophes that resulted in huge loss of life and they all came true. He then struggles to defy the three remaining predictions and protect his son from the creepy pasty white dudes in the black suits who seem to be stalking them.
The movie is all well and good until the end...when we discover that the creepy pasty white dudes are aliens who have chosen the son and the granddaughter of the original disturbed girl to be the next Adam and Eve on another planet since this one is going to be destroyed by solar flares.
Ja?
Learning all of this, btw, shakes Nicholas Cage out of his spiritual funk and he once again embraces the religious notions of eternal life and heaven and all that jazz.
Again, ja?
I have no issue with movies that follow a character as they find God or spiritual enlightenment. I have no problem with alien movies. I have a little bit of a problem with movies that completely destroy the world, but only because it's depressing and I don't feel the need to be reminded how precarious and subject to the whims of the universe this little dystopia called Earth is.
But when one film tries to combine the two it's jarring and leaves me feeling very unsettled. There is something very Earthbound about the notion of God - which is ridiculous, considering He is the creator of the universe, but true for me nonetheless. There is something decidedly NOT Earthbound about aliens.
I didn't like Signs for the same reason. Mel Gibson's spiritual crisis is solved because is daughter was awkwardly psychic and knew how to vanquish the alien invaders? Thanks, M Knight, but I'll pass.
Perhaps I should be more open minded and it's my attitude that's contributing to the gulf between religion and science. I can appreciate that, it may be true.
But...I don't really care. The movie was still stupid and disappointing as are others that try to blend the two idea.
Do not mix God and aliens.
I saw Knowing yesterday and it started out quite well. Disturbed little girl hears voices, writes down a whole bunch of numbers on a piece of paper, 50 years later Nicholas Cage figures out that those numbers were predictions of massive catastrophes that resulted in huge loss of life and they all came true. He then struggles to defy the three remaining predictions and protect his son from the creepy pasty white dudes in the black suits who seem to be stalking them.
The movie is all well and good until the end...when we discover that the creepy pasty white dudes are aliens who have chosen the son and the granddaughter of the original disturbed girl to be the next Adam and Eve on another planet since this one is going to be destroyed by solar flares.
Ja?
Learning all of this, btw, shakes Nicholas Cage out of his spiritual funk and he once again embraces the religious notions of eternal life and heaven and all that jazz.
Again, ja?
I have no issue with movies that follow a character as they find God or spiritual enlightenment. I have no problem with alien movies. I have a little bit of a problem with movies that completely destroy the world, but only because it's depressing and I don't feel the need to be reminded how precarious and subject to the whims of the universe this little dystopia called Earth is.
But when one film tries to combine the two it's jarring and leaves me feeling very unsettled. There is something very Earthbound about the notion of God - which is ridiculous, considering He is the creator of the universe, but true for me nonetheless. There is something decidedly NOT Earthbound about aliens.
I didn't like Signs for the same reason. Mel Gibson's spiritual crisis is solved because is daughter was awkwardly psychic and knew how to vanquish the alien invaders? Thanks, M Knight, but I'll pass.
Perhaps I should be more open minded and it's my attitude that's contributing to the gulf between religion and science. I can appreciate that, it may be true.
But...I don't really care. The movie was still stupid and disappointing as are others that try to blend the two idea.