Hands up if you thought X men Apocalypse was very cliched. (My hand is up)
Hands up if you thought the end was anticlimatic. (Again, my hand is up)
Hands up if you are tired of all these super hero films where the bad guys keep promising to destroy the world but always, always fall short just at the nick of time. (My 2 hands are up)
Hands up, if you as a christian, felt uncomfortable during the narrative of the film.(My hands are up)
Let me explain.
I love the Xmen stories. Like love, love, love. Hugh Jackman- that man never grows old, does he? And I had a crush on James Marsden for like 2 years after he played Cyclops. Or was it 3?
The Days of Future Past movie? A-mah-zing. I watched it twice in the theatres. The sheer intelligence of the story line was just great. The story was ready to start again, and I was sure I was going to love whatever they were going to do with the saga.
Until I watched the trailer for Xmen Apocalypse- and there was going to be a mutant, with all so powerful capabilities, that had been erroneously labelled as God by men through the ages. So that noone got it twisted, they mentioned all the culturally popular deities through the ages ‘Yahweh, Buddha, Allah’…
I was internally cringeing when the trailer was done. But it got me thinking…
Intentional propaganda or just an interesting story line?
Its hard for me to believe that a franchise that big will delve into the topic of ‘Does God really exist’ without some intentionality in the message they are trying to pass across. It didnt help that I knew Stan Lee was/is agnostic.
Anyway, I said I wasnt going to watch the movie.
I eventually did. I was at the movies that memorial day weekend and there was nothing else to watch and I’ve had this long standing love relationship with the franchise and… Anyway, I sha watched it.
If I thought there was just going to be a cursory reference to God, I was way wrong. Most of the movie was the producers/writers’ ‘interpretation and deliberate twisting’ of the Book of Revelations. I say deliberate because I’ve watched a lot of books adapted into films and they never go so far as portray the book’s protagonist as the film’s antagonist.
I didnt enjoy the movie. But no one else in the theatre seemed to. There was no spontanous applause or squeals or anything. Everyone was just quiet.
Was I disappointed in the film as a whole? Yes. The same way I have been disappointed in many films, recently? Yes. Was I offended that they implied that God was an evil mutant? Yes. Did it bring up thoughts about ‘Is the Bible true?’ Yes. Did it bring up thoughts of ‘What if God is not real?’ Yes.
The second most important question I asked myself was ‘How many people watched Xmen Apocalypse and had the same thoughts/feelings that I had?’ Well the latter I dont know but Wikipedia says the film grossed $535.6 million. So that’s definitely a lot of people that saw the film.
The question I am still asking myself is ‘If the most important idealogy dissemination tool in our age is probably through movies/television, when last did I see a movie with themes pointing people to God, instead of away from Him?’
I can readily mention some:
- The Lord of the Rings/ Hobbit books were based on J.R. R Tolkien’s believe in God and the fight of good vs evil.
- The CS Lewis’ ‘Chronicles of Narnia’ were very clearly about Jesus and good vs evil (Tolkien and Lewis were friends!)
- Wall E was written by Andrew Stanton, reportedly to project the love of Christ.
(I’m sure there are many more others but these are the ones I am well aware of.)
I’m not here to attack the writer/producers of the film. Everyone has a right to share whatever they believe in. And I’m not of the opinion that faith in God should not be questioned- it is probably we human beings that get squirmy about the question that ‘What if everything you have based your life on is a lie’.
‘If God be real, then let us find Him’ is the statement someone I really admire made when He was not yet a believer.(Later, he found out that it is God who actually finds us first)
But I am firmly of the opinion that no one should be naive or ignorant.
- You are more influenced by what you watch than you know
- If there is an attack, on what you believe, you should know what is really happening.
When you and I are the aim of propaganda, even disguised in ‘special effects’ and ‘great one liners’, we should be aware. And choose to act. Or not act.
But at least let us make a choice.
Not cluelessly allow things slip past the gates of our minds and hearts while we are naively sitting there, eating salted popcorn and drinking coke.
photocredit: google images
Breakpoint! 