Sunday, January 3, 2010

A Tale of Two Movies


1) Avatar


I thought Avatar was awesome. Yes, it's a dumb, heavy-handed, propagandistic story ("The only way to prevent terror is with terror!" I wonder what political message that has), but it is well told. However, I would like to make a companion movie about the mineral "unobtainium." Why is it worth $20 milllion an ounce? It must do something pretty special like cure cancer or enable space travel. Perhaps it factors into an extremely efficient power source that maintains the global economy. My companion movie would show the people back on earth who hear they will never be cured of their terminal illness, who hear they must stay stranded on planet earth to die rather than colonize another planet, or who lose their jobs and their futures because the blue folks wouldn't leave their tree. Now, I don't agree with the company's taking the mineral by force, but I do get tired of myopic, self-righteous morons decrying big business and profit without remembering the benefits these businesses provide.


2) Up In the Air


This is the best movie I've seen in a long time and perhaps ranks among my top ten (right up there with "Robot Monster"). Although not a Christian movie, it affirms Christian values and explains some benefits of human relationship and permanance. Contradicting the post-moderns, it implies that humans share innate, absolute needs and manages to do so without being cheesy or having a forced ending. I'll not analyze this one. Just go see it. And read the Velveteen Rabbit before you do.

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