I mostly liked it, maybe partly because I wasn't expecting much from it. So I'm not one of the haters.
There are two major problems I have with it though.
SPOILERS
First, the Legion that the protagonists were fighting were totally underwhelming. So easily 'killed' or deterred with fairly ordinary weapons? There's a big buildup for the second major assault, with the loud scary horn blowing, and Michael saying stuff that makes it seem like the One Who Is Coming will be some really badass foe, and it turns out to just be Gabriel, who is a tough fighter but nowhere near as large or powerful as the buildup leads you to expect. When you get right down to it, a lot of the movie ends up being little more than an advertisement for a video game, a kind of shoot the zombies, when it could have been much more than that.
Second, the Legion were supposedly doing God's will, yet they seemed very demonic. As if they were doing Satan's will. Why would a benevolent God send beings that would rejoice at a baby's burning (what the little old lady, Gladys, says)? With the stuff that Michael was saying and the music that was blaring, I was expecting Satan himself to make an appearance at some point. Makes you wonder whether the story started out one way, but then during rewrites they got confused and changed it in a way that wasn't really consistent with the original idea.
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Neoblackdragon
11 years ago
Your second point is the objective of the story. God isn't all that nice. He's been a very tolerant parent but is now fed up. He wiped out a previous crop with a flood and now he sends his legion.
The point is that good and evil isn't so black and white. God is the bad guy in this film but Michael objective is to show that there is hope for humanity.
To me your trying to make it consistent with your interpretation of god and not the films.
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eolloe
11 years ago
It's not 'my interpretation' of God. It's a longstanding traditional view of God. You can't take an iconic figure like God and expect people to suddenly dump all of their previous understandings of the character and accept your new way of understanding. I don't care whether you're talking about Ghenghis Khan or Henry VIII or Vlad The Impaler or Santa Claus. If your whole story depends on some radical re-envisioning of a classic character, you'll have to do a lot of work to convince the audience to follow you.
In traditional mythology (or religion) of the Judeo-Christian God, the angels who meted out God's justice weren't demonic in appearance and behavior. Yet the creatures meting out God's justice in Legion were textbook cases of demonic in appearance and behavior.
And just look at the frickin TITLE, for crying out loud. LEGION:
And He asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many.
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Pope_Sidious
11 years ago
You mean, the Judeo-Christian God who endorsed genocide, slavery, oppression of women, the Judeo-Christian God who arrogantly demands people worship him (despite giving them no reason to even believe in his existence) or else he's going to torture them forever, the whiny, spoiled God who created humanity to fuel his ego trip and despite being able (by virtue of being omnipotent) to stop wars, diseases, death etc., he does not so - you mean that "evil tyrant" is not the longstanding traditional view of this "God"?
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11 years ago
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Pope_Sidious
11 years ago
I believe in God's existence just like I believe in Darth Vader's existence when I discuss Star Wars.
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11 years ago
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Pope_Sidious
11 years ago
Yes, I was talking about how evil God is just like I would talk about how evil Lex Luthor is. Is there a problem with that? I do not need to believe in God to talk about the concept, just like I don't need to believe in the horoscope to laugh at how people base their lives on the alignment of planets. But if you're a Christian, go ahead - I find that Christians (the annoying fundie kind, anyway) think they know about my beliefs even better than I do.
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11 years ago
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Hurricane_G-Man
10 years ago
Atheists don't have a book that is the foundation of there beliefs, can the same be said for Christians? It's hard to say what an Atheist believes because Atheism only tells you want they don't believe in.
"I don't have an opinion. The word "opinion" implies the possibility I'm wrong."
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meedeegee
10 years ago
"You mean, the Judeo-Christian God who endorsed ..."
Apparently you have been reading some book other than the Bible, or you have read it with preconceived notions and applied verse meanings incorrectly, or you simply misunderstood it (which can be easy to do depending on the translation).
See the 10 commandments given to Moses from YHWH, and the two greater of the commandments as noted by Jesus when asked (Matthew 22:36-40). Now tell me where 'God' endorses what you stated?
The rest of the "laws" that proceeded from the old testament were laws written by men who were appointed as priests (Levites) and judges, they were not from YHWH, and many of those laws distinctly go against the commandments. The New Testament in many places mentions that certain laws were brought in because of the hardening of men's hearts.
So don't blame YHWH or Jesus for man's corrupt or evil doings.
If any man says that he is doing the will of God, but that which does goes against what Jesus said in Matthew 22:36-40, then that man is a liar.
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chilone
9 years ago
Your myopic view of God is consistent with one that knows nothing about him BUT to play devil's advocate (pun intended), if the one and only holy God did want to "pull the wings off of cosmic flies" what would you do about it? Every knee WILL bow. Don't like it? Go start your own universe.
I don't love her.. She kicked me in the face!!
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