The Acting

This was a pure gem for Robert Downey Jr. as he masterfully filled the shoes of our metallic hero. With all the problems Downey has had in the past it’s easy to approach his performance skeptically… until the movie starts. The ease and comfort with which he fell into the role of Tony Stark (Iron Man) is nearly dizzying, as was his command of the camera and fellow actors.

Stark is a complex character who’s unbridled and energetic approach to women and engineering (a winning combination tantamount to chocolate and peanut butter) would leave both the geekiest slacker-geniuses and the smoothest lady-killers equally schooled. Downey fit the part like a glove.

Jeff Bridges and Gwyneth Paltrow also rise to the acting occasion to round out the cast of conflicted characters. Bridges was excellent and sold the corporate suited Obadiah Stane. Paltrow, looking better than ever, deftly portrayed a demure yet savvy “Pepper” Potts (Stark’s assistant) including near-perpetual nonchalance at Stark’s antics.

The Physics

Being an engineer I always have a hard spot for bad science (especially physics) in movies. By “bad” I don’t mean things like light sabers or warp drive… I mean science that violates known and common laws of physics.

Now, it’s believable that some super-armor can absorb severe impacts by missiles and bullets… but if you’re inside the suit you still will feel the full forces from your sudden changes in velocity. In Iron Man there are times when Stark’s body undergoes accelerations and decelerations that would near-liquefy his brain, yet he easily survives.

At other times Stark lands (on his feet) onto both hard and soft surfaces from incredible speeds and without leaving much of an imprint… yet in one part of the movie just gently setting down his suit feet-first onto a concrete structure caused it to collapse - under his weight, I guess - and then collapse through an additional floor of the house down into the basement.

The Undertone

My biggest gripe, being a former soldier and perpetual patriot, is the goofy take on national defense and military weaponry that the story partially took. Stark is the mastermind behind his father’s business, the powerful weapons development and manufacturing company Stark Industries. After Stark’s ordeal at the beginning of the movie he starts to rethink the morality of creating weaponry after seeing his weapons used by the bad guys to hurt innocent people.

Hollywood frequently interjects leftism into its movies, and I’ve become numb to their depiction of the US military as a shoot-first outfit. Iron Man was a little better at not doing this. But the annoying thing is that the inevitable conclusion to Stark’s moral crisis would have to have been: making good weapons for ourselves leads to bad people using them for evil so I should stop making good weapons for ourselves. As if our enemies would no longer have any weapons? As if the mere existence of the weapons coerces people to do evil things?

Now, I work for Lockheed Martin (but don’t speak for them in any way construed or misconstrued) and our fighter jets (or any of our weapon systems) don’t find their way into terrorists hands regardless of what Hollywood says. America’s defense technology is kept under such tight export controls that it’s a wonder sometimes even our staunchest allies can get hold of it.

And speaking of… did anybody besides me notice that Stark Industries was a completely un-subtle spoof of Lockheed Martin Corporation, the United States’ biggest defense contractor? Not only does the Stark Industries logo (complete with bold-italic capitals and elongated angle-point) look strikingly like Lockheed Martin’s, but they even make the same F-22 Raptor fighter jets!? [see photo]

The Movie

Despite my bellyaching I highly recommend this flick for any lover of action and acting. I thoroughly enjoyed it and anticipate a sequel, because what’s a comic book story without lots of sequels?

Now, I don’t put much faith in the so-called Academy Awards - mostly because the “Academy” is elitist Hollywood lack-of-intelligencia who feed on their own self-stimulation. For Walk the Line, I think the attention it got was deserved, and I wish I had seen it long before now. The story felt sincere and was well screen-played.

However, the biggest plus was that these famous actors did their own music! Witherspoon and Phoenix earned MAJOR street cred with me by putting their musical chops to the test. They performed wonderfully and several of their performances can be found on the movie soundtrack.

By the way, when buying music tracks I have been thoroughly pleased with Amazon’s newish MP3 service. It’s usually cheaper than iTunes… but most importantly, it’s DRM-free!

I think the movie is one of the best independent flicks I’ve seen. I watched it with my wife - we found it full of passion and sincerity. Particularly, it was refreshing to see professional musicians acting in lead roles with such engaging realism… probably so engaging precisely because they aren’t actors, and therefore their acting was much more believable, if that makes any sense.

Without giving anything away, the movie is about two amateur musicians each struggling in their own way. They by chance embark on a week-long musical collaboration that culminates with them recording their songs over a weekend. Throughout the movie each of them shares songs that find their way into the storyline (and ultimately onto their recorded CD).

Mere hours passed after watching Once before I bought the soundtrack… which was filled (pleasingly) with all the songs from the movie. For fellow musicians especially, I highly recommend this movie and its soundtrack.

From wikipedia…
Once is an Academy Award winning 2007 Irish musical film written and directed by John Carney. Set in Dublin, this naturalistic drama stars musicians Glen Hansard (of popular Irish rock band The Frames) and Markéta Irglová as struggling musicians. Collaborators prior to making the film, Hansard and/or Irglová composed and performed all but one of the original songs in the movie.

Shot for only €130,000 ($160,000), the film was very successful, earning substantial per-screen box office averages in the United States. It received extremely enthusiastic reviews and awards such as the 2008 Independent Spirit Award for best foreign film. Hansard and Irglová’s song “Falling Slowly” received a 2008 Academy Award and a 2008 Grammy nomination, and the soundtrack as a whole also received a Grammy nomination.

SUPER-QUICK SUMMARY

The Golden Compass (the movie) is a great story captured in a well-made cinematic fantasy-scape that I enjoyed, and I found it fairly benign for kids despite the emails warning of impending doom. The book series that the movie comes from, however, is not as innocent. Although aimed at kids, it’s not nearly as kid-appropriate as the movie, and decreases so from book to book (as does the quality of the storytelling).

THE MOVIE

I thought the movie itself was well worth seeing. The special effects were impressive, although I have become numb to great CGI after the Lord of the Rings film trilogy’s mastery of the device. I also thought the casting was splendid - with a very demure and poised Nicole Kidman and a very wild western Sam Elliot (who is one of my faves). The little girl playing the lead character Lyra was Dakota Blue Richards, who in her first ever movie role managed to encapsulate the Lyra character almost identically to my perception of her from reading the book prior… impressive.

For everything negative about the books you may read in this post, keep in mind that I don’t apply that to the movie. The only caution would be if seeing the movie may lure your kids into reading the books… books you may find inappropriate.

THE CONTROVERSY

Now for the controversy - I have been sent emails that warn me to not give any “support” to this movie and to warn every parent I know to keep their children far away from this movie. That’s really quite overblown. The emails also warn that there are clearly anti-church, anti-Christian themes in the books. That’s quite TRUE.

Though, let me interject here that with the thousands of people involved in the business of movies (from making to marketing to merchandising) there does not exist a blockbuster movie whose ticket revenue doesn’t support someone evil somewhere… so if you don’t want to give “support” to anything evil join an Amish community.

Anyways, this controversy is SOMEWHAT similar to the clamor over the Harry Potter books… and although I haven’t read any Potter I have enjoyed the movies and thought them harmless fun. Despite the outcry that Harry Potter would swoon young children into a dangerous curiosity with witchcraft, the reality is that young children long for the flying broomsticks, scaled dragons, magic wands (that shoot lightning), and fairy creatures - these things are not only part of Harry Potter, but are largely found in The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia. But REAL witchcraft is more like mixing a special hot tea to get that promotion you’re looking for, or drawing a circle in the dirt and standing in it to imagine the face of your soul-mate, and no kid is interested in such “mundane” witchcraft.

THE BOOKS

In PARTLY the same way as Harry Potter or The Chronicles of Narnia, The Golden Compass is a children’s story rich in creatures, magic, compassion, oppression. HOWEVER, the book series (His Dark Materials) does go way beyond the generic “good versus evil” tale. There are clear counter-Biblical messages which the author does not deny.

Now the counter-Biblical messages in His Dark Materials can be compared to The Da Vinci Code, except that the latter was never meant for children, and adults would see it as readily filled with enough historical nonsense that there was no semblance of truth to be mistook (at least not by anyone intelligent). But kids are much more innocent and impressionable, and there are indeed - in His Dark Materials - specific counter-Biblical messages found directly in the storyline… it is very subtle in the first book, more open in the second, and blatantly obvious in the third. In fact, the third book’s dialog holds messages that would surely confuse impressionable young Christian children.

From what I’ve read online the author of His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman, is a self-assigned Atheist and decided to write His Dark Materials as a sort-of counter-Narnia story. Pullman would have done better to just write a solid epic children’s story, because although the first book is great, he starts to meander into an amalgam of preachy open-ended bunny trails that bear little resemblance to the exciting start of the tale. Indeed, the further you read the more convoluted (and counter-Biblical) the message gets - until the end of the third book when the reader is doused in a horrid yawn-fest of anti-climax.

If you are looking for an Atheist children’s story complete with homosexual fallen angels, pre-teen main characters who have sex with each other, and “God’s” military general of Heaven’s army getting horny for Nicole Kidman… then this is your book series.

Here is a great critique of the book series: His Dark Ending by James Schellenberg.

Here is an Amazon customer’s rant about the book series… it reads like something I would write.

I am going to see TDVC because it will probably be a great movie and I like to see great movies. I like to watch Tom Hanks breathe an intangible but undeniable spark into the life of almost any character he plays. I try to only watch so-called Christian movies when they also are great movies on their own (like The Passion) or have some merit other than their “Christian” label. It makes no sense to watch inferior artistry just because of the label. Would you let a dubiously mediocre surgeon cut you open because he was a Christian?

I am going to see TDVC because it will be a topic of conversation for sure. The controversy alone has generated more dialog than any movie already released right now. The talk may well be questions about the validity of various parts of the movie… the accuracy of the historical references… the theological implications… and of course, the “could it all be true?”. Many of my friends and coworkers will come to me, being “the religious guy”, and ask me what I think about it or what my “priest” says about the movie. I know this from experience.

If I don’t see the movie I can’t enter into those conversations… I can’t directly and credibly engage those people with their questions. As a Christian I’m called to engage. Some Christians might say I could engage by speaking what I know to be true from the Bible about who Christ was and who Mary Magdalene was without having to see the movie… but it wouldn’t be as genuine, as applicable to specific scenes, or as honest. And it wouldn’t be as credible. Credibility is important, because there’s too many hypocritical Christians out there already. You know who you are… you who will condemn Desperate Housewives or Harry Potter or [fill in the blank]… and you haven’t even seen any of them!? All you know is that some schmuck behind a pulpit found it to be a convenient target to fill a Sunday morning rant session and you walked away with an opinion other than one you formed yourself. Now I’m not advocating diving headfirst into the sin city underground and steeping yourselves in every manner of worldly medium… there has to be some limits and you need to use your brain… but today’s Christians tend toward a missionally debilitating conservatism when it comes to culture.

Back to TDVC… I’ve heard Christians tell me that “I don’t want my money going to them”… but who is them? The “them” is probably about 75,000 people scattered over all of the cinematic industry, from marketers to mass-producers to theater employees to stunt doubles. The notion of keeping money away from a particular “them” is a fool’s notion. Your money will go to Hollywood in some form or another no matter what movie you go to. Then the argument Christians are ultimately making by proxy is whether or not to see movies at all, but that’s not the argument they’re vocalizing… so are they confused or intellectually dishonest? Or maybe just plain hypocrites? Christians have had a shameful streak of openly boycotting a “Judas” only to ultimately patronize a “Pontius Pilate”… whether we’re talking clothing, movies, restaurants… you name it. Here’s a tip - see the best movies, buy the best clothing, and eat at the best restaurants. Dig?

So you’d have to be an “outed” gay Muslim cleric hiding in a Pakistani cave not to have heard all the controversy surrounding this movie. Catholic and Protestant groups are calling for boycotts and disruptive litigation. But why? They say the movie is offensive… but how? Sure, the story has all the historical accuracy of an episode of the Teletubbies… much like most other stories from books and movies. Sure, it said Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, but does that offend you to hear someone think or say that? Are we all of a sudden offended by anyone with a different view than our own? Do we only see movies or read books that we already agree with? Who exactly, then, are we trying to engage? Many are seeking some truth from somewhere in this topsy-turvy world, and they just may look for it in TDVC… wouldn’t it be great to use TDVC to enter into a dialog with them about Jesus? Wasn’t that what the Book of Acts says Paul did in Athens?

Pastor Ed Marcelle of Terra Nova Church was a scrambled soul looking for truth in 1988, long before he became a pastor, when the movie The Last Temptation of Christ came out. The movie was met with much controversy from Christians for how it depicted Christ, so local churches would picket theaters and hold demonstrations. Ed recalls going to see the film and having to jostle his way through a crowd of Christian protesters who wore stern frowns of disapproval toward everyone they saw and stood in stiff-shouldered groups to impede entrance into the movie. What was the goal of any of that? What possible constructive purpose did that serve? None… those Christians may have had sincere hearts and some Biblical knowledge but they were acting like idiots. They could have brought a friend to the movie and then afterward talked all about Christ for hours over coffee… a priceless opportunity.

To my Christian readers, listen up a second. TDVC comes out soon. Don’t play the idiotic boycott game… and don’t let priceless opportunities slip away. Be like Paul in Athens and go see the movie. Because if you don’t then someday you may just have to explain why not. *wink* *wink* *nudge* *nudge*

Here’s a good site for TDVC error checking: www.davincidelusion.tv

In the story, the main character (said red violin) was the perfect creation of a master Italian craftsman named Nicolo Bussotti. However, every search I do for him only comes up with information on this movie. Is he a fictional character? I’m so ignorant… I just thought he was like Antonio Stradivari and Giuseppe Guarneri.

For my instrument, the modern guitar, there are no grand movies spanning centuries… nor could there be, unless to unfold an epic featuring an ancient lute or oud from Biblical times that gets smashed by… I dunno… a meteorite and is unknowingly rebuilt by a drunk luthier into a Fender Stratocaster. Weak… very weak. So instead, let’s just munch on a few guitar wallpapers for Wallpaper Wednesday. I have no idea where the one on the right came from (but it does tie in a Biblical reference to the guitar!)… but the one on the left is from guitare-nstructor.com.

With the marketing industry being at the top of its game, and the wild popularity of J.K.Rowling’s books to begin with, and with the relative enjoyability of the first three movies… OF COURSE this one was going to make the mad duckets (lots of money). But, although I enjoyed the first three Potter films I had some trouble with this one.

It wasn’t the darkness by any means… I rather enjoyed the small departure from pure sugar candy. It wasn’t the lack of good special effects, because they were excellent… the dragon climbing on the castle looked really good to me. What it was, in my best estimation, was trying to squeeze a huge book into a little 2-hour movie.

The plots were many, varied, and unrelated. At several points during the movie… even as far as two thirds of the way through, I’m wondering when the main plot of the movie is going to start! A couple times… just when I thought things were gettin’ a move on… a completely unrelated subplot would take full-reins of the film for 15 to 20 minutes. I was sitting their bewildered. I was confused that three of the six characters on the cover of the DVD (the ones besides Harry, Ron, and Hermione) had they been put in a ranking by plot-importance and/or screentime would have ranked more like 12th, 17th, and 20th. I was confused that Harry never smiled or acted with any male impetus… and in fact I was beginning to get sick of his whining.

Now, was it a fun movie? Sure. But, unlike my esteemed Pixar flicks, this one will leave adults’ common sense nerve hurting a bit. It may still be good fun for the kiddies (and indeed some of you may wonder why I have not left it as such)… but for the so-called grown-ups… instead of this DVD, I’d throw one of Tolkien’s in my DVD player if I were you.

People hate lawyers until they need one.
- unknown (but widely quoted in law circles)

The person who said the above forgot one very important thing… the reason that I would NEED a lawyer to protect me is because of ANOTHER lawyer trying to screw me. [minor detail] With all the talk recently of bloggers being sued and whatnot it reminded me that I would do well to have what is called a “privacy policy & terms of use” for this site. Most blogging resource sites have examples bloggers can use, so I grabbed one (linked here). It’s basically my way of covering my tail in any circumstance where I don’t overtly break the law… because as we all know lawyers will twist anything into anything if there’s a buck in it for them.

Mr. Sansweet didn’t asked to be saved. Mr. Sansweet didn’t want to be saved. And the injuries received from Mr. Incredible’s “actions,” so-called, causes him daily pain.
- Oliver Sansweet’s Lawyer, The Incredibles

I personally love the depiction of lawyers in the movie The Incredibles. The barbed arrow that the movie plunged into litigious irresponsibility and greedy hypocrisy was truly a golden takeaway of the film. Maybe that’s why I like those Pixar flicks, because even as an adult I think I take away as many things as the kids do.

Now I know I’m painting a very gloomy picture… and that all lawyers aren’t like that, but there are more than enough to rightly perpetuate the hard earned stereotype. Lawyers get paid to CREATE truth from facts… this clashes with me as an engineer where I’m paid to FIND truth from facts/data. It clashes so badly that lawyers go out of their way to keep engineers out of juries. They have no interest in anyone who bases their opinions more on facts than the eloquent linguistic ballet of an attorney.

I learned that bands of elves, half-lings, dwarves, wizards, rangers, and warriors aren’t just for Dungeons & Dragons (a role-playing game despised by Christians). Rather, my fellow faith-lings are quite fond of Mr. Tolkien’s mystical epic of magical creatures and mystical characters… and of Mr. Lewis, who wrote quite a fantasy tale of his own filled with much of the same. Of course, the magic and wizardry in their tales are very acceptable to my dear and righteous faith-lings. BUT… don’t you dare go see Harry Potter and his band of demonic Satan-worshiping ne’er-do-wells. For some reason a good dose of Rings or Narnia will deftly craft an allegory in a child’s mind to help shape their moral compass rightly… but a brush with Harry Potter will plunge them deep into the dark downward spiral of witchcraft, demon-possession, and premarital sex.

I also learned that it’s not a bad thing to enjoy some good pipe-weed or ale. Just about every good guy in Rings was either smoking or drinking (or both) at some point during the story. I already knew about the ale, but pipe-weed was always something I rather more enjoyed smelling than partaking of myself. But hey, if I ever get a hold of some Old Toby I just may see what all the fuss is about. You know you gotta love Tolkien… and Lewis… for they are master craftsmen true… and, should there be any chance of a kingdom to come, I’ll bet they’re tilting back ales right now laughing at all of us.

In place of a Dark Lord you shall have a Queen! Not dark but beautiful and terrible as the dawn, treacherous as the sea, stronger than the foundations of the earth. All shall love me and despair!
-Galadriel

I also learned that evil witch sorceresses are peculiarly enchanting! Check the wallpaper… it’s Galadriel when she was being tempted and freaking out. There’s something about a Dark Queen. Hmm… like the Ice Queen from Narnia…. icy, yet hot. It’s a paradox… the powerful and evil woman figure, who maintains an aura of femininity and grace.

Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends.
- Gandolf

I also learned that Gandolf knows more than anybody else. If anything… I should listen to him. When it was time to give an encouraging word he was right there. When it was time to mourn he was there. When it was time to lead he was there. When it was time to dress somebody down for their stupidity (even an ally) he was right there, and his rebukes had a wonderful sting. And most important… when it was time to kick a little arse… he always brought his own whoopin’ stick!

And I learned that the elves have some enchantingly spellbinding songs… filled with rich Celtic melodies and ethereal drones. I was inspired by the Fellowship extended version scene where Sam and Frodo lament the elves’ departure to the ships leaving Middle Earth. The elves in the scene had a simple, yet haunting song that I sought to imitate on the guitar… so I wrote an extended sequence of Celtic song with chords that layer over one another in a very elvish style. I have included a few of the cool chords I use below. Note the open A string throughout acting as the drone.

x o       x       x o       x       x o       x
-----------       -----------       -----------
| | | | | | <9    | | | | | | <9    | | 1 | | | <5
-----------       -----------       -----------
| | 1 1 1 |       | | | | 1 |       | | | | | |
-----------       -----------       -----------
| | | | | |       | | | | | |       | | | 3 | |
-----------       -----------       -----------
| | | | | |       | | 2 3 | |       | | | | 4 |
-----------       -----------       -----------

   F/A               Dsus/A            G5/A

And, the last thing I learned… was how to properly bid people farewell.

I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.
- Bilbo Baggins

Despite seeming like a clone with cliché looming over every scene, this film jukes left when you’d think it would juke right. Fight scenes expected to be short are long. And vice versa. Good guys are bad, and bad, good. And really, you get to see the hero transform from a zealous (if there is such a no-emotion equivalent) law enforcement agent to an unwilling weapon at the command of oppressive authoritarians. This is very reminiscent of that of the Apostle Paul in the book of Acts and also of the main character in ::amazon(”0842384065″,”Soon”)::, by Jerry B. Jenkins.

I enjoyed this movie. I’m a dystopic nut and this was right up my alley.

A dystopia can be thought of as the polar opposite of a utopia. A dystopian society is usually depicted as having an authoritarian or totalitarian form of government that has imposed some kind of oppressive social control over society.

Here’s a great example of a dystopic movie I just saw recently… The Island. Now for whatever reason this film was given tepid reviews and a hasty box office stint, but I thought it was excellent… good acting, great storyline (I don’t care how Matrix-y it was), crazy action sequences and enough suspense to keep me riveted even if there’d been no action. The movie also skillfully mirrors the modern-day debate over stem-cells and organ harvesting from living human babies.

Anyways, for much more information about dystopias (and some lists of dystopic films and literature) visit the Wikipedia article :: dystopia.