2012 - movie review

1^st half of movie = suspension of disbelief.

2^nd half of movie = some decent morality lessons.

So – all told I’ll give it 3.5 stars of 5

There’s been a bunch of hoopla recently about the date 12-21-12, and depending on whom you read, it either marks the end of the Mayan calendar (and thus the end of the earth), or the beginning of a new cycle in the Earth’s history ushered in by cataclysmic events.

Personally, I don’t put any stock into the Mayan calendar.

I do recognize that there are many end times prophecies in the Bible that will be quite cataclysmic – earthquakes in ‘strange’ places, wars, famine, the raging of the sea, visible disturbances in the heavens, a massive heat wave (which could theoretically be triggered by a massive solar flare), and what “looked like a mountain on fire falling into the sea.”

So big, terrifying events are indeed on their way.  Whether these occur in 2012 or not remains to be seen, but they will have devastating effects on the earth.  (As an aside, scientists claim that we are due for a massive solar flare soon – which at the least could possible render all electronics useless – and this is not without precedent.)

And please, please, please don't even bring up the whole Nibiru thing (rolls eyes).  Glad that this movie steered clear of that!

But back to the movie…

It starts in 2009, in India, with a conversation which includes some scientific sounding jargon that most movie-goers including myself will not be able to question the veracity of, due to our lack of knowledge… but suffice it to say that it sounded like a “we’ve never seen this before – so you can’t question it” scenario.  Basically due to massive solar flares, the sun is microwaving the earth's core and turing the mantle(s) into liquid... but somehow leaving the earth's crust.... crusty.

The president of the USA is warned and he subsequently warns other heads of state. 

Here’s one of my first gripes.  You find out later in the movie that these heads of state include mainly only countries that are: a.) wealthy and b.) familiar big players.  Zero mention of informing anyone on the continent of Africa, or South America, or Australia or the mid-East.  It’s pretty much the U.S., Canada, France, Italy, the U.K., Japan, Germany and China.  I’m sure I missed one on this list… but that was about it. Seriously?  In a movie that ends with a call to preserve the human ‘species’ this is how little is thought of those places not part of the G8 summits?  Hmmm.  Maybe there is some truth showing through in this movie.

Rather than give a blow by blow review, here’s my nickel review:

Actors - nothing Oscar worthy, but good for a disaster flick.  And I really enjoy John Cusack.  Though he tends to feel like the same character in most of his films.  Is this just Lloyd from "Better Off Dead" all grown up?  Or was Lloyd in "One Crazy Summer"?  Or was that "Grosse Point Blank"? See what I mean?

Cusack and Amanda Peet do manage to convince that they are concerned for the kids' well being.  But not necessarily that these kids are their children.

The plot is fairly weak – but come on it’s a Roland Emmerich movie.

And Mayan and scientific doubts notwithstanding, the movie – like so many others – misrepresents the Christian end-of-days prophecies.  No Mr. Emmerich the ‘rapture’ is not synonymous with world wide tectonic shifting, super volcanoes and world wide simultaneous tsunamis.  And yes – we catch the in your face crumbling statue of Jesus in Rio as a not so subtle reminder that you view the Bible and its prophecies as weak.

The special effects were great.  But you have to head into this movie with the knowledge that these are going to be what can only be considered the most logic-defying, laugh out loud implausible disaster scenes ever put to film.  And a scene like this (where our heroes not only cheat death, but groin-kick and mug the grim reaper) happens more than once.

So great visuals, but totally unbelievable.
Outrun a Yellowstone supervolcano? No problem.  Only had 2-3 plane lessons?  No problem – all this airplane flying stuff is easy, right? OK – I’ll stop there.

Oddly, I ended up liking this movie – with a bit more editing and less over the top sequences it could be as good as ID4.  Emmerich also seems to think that natural disasters can chase our heroes (see also “The Day After Tomorrow” where the element ‘cold’ chases people down a hallway!)

Some of the family dynamics and conversations are good reminders to not leave relationships undone, and to value each day we have.

The human spirit of compassion is highlighted.  It was like during the 2^nd half of the movie they went from – “look at our pretty special disaster visual effects” to “be human.  Be compassionate. Be forgiving.” And more than once we see reflected what Jesus told us was the greatest form of love – that one would lay down his life for his family, friends, even complete strangers.

SPOILERS AHEAD

The human race is preserved with massive ‘arks’ that were built by the Chinese (how?  Hello?  Though never mentioned explicitly through forced labor!) at the request and financing of wealthy countries.  (survivors include those chosen as "helpful to humanity - scientists, artists, intellectuals, etc.... and those who could afford 1.5 billion Euros a seat.  Lifeboat indeed!) And it only took them 2 to 3 years to build them all and the massive underground hanger in the middle of China?   To quote Bill Cosby, "riiiight!"  This over-reaching plot element assumes that the Chinese government desires that they not be the only country or people left on the face of the earth once the smoke clears.  Emmerich has obviously never studied Mao or the even the current Chinese heads of state.  And wait - if the world is ending, what good is a fiat paper currency to those who will survive?    But I digress… curse you, Logic!  I forgot that reason went out the window once the limo smashed its way through the tumbling office building  :)

The earth is flooded except for sparse areas – the largest of which is … wait for it… the continent of Africa!  Ah – the ‘cradle of civilization’.  Where we are told our ‘first ancestors evolved’.  Our heroes and the remnants of humanity are last seen heading for Africa.

I don’t think this ark element was a snub at the Biblical account.  Almost all cultures have worldwide flood stories (which I and others contend came from a shared actual experience) – so the idea of making new arks is not an affront to the Noah account, but a recognition that ‘hey!  That’s not a bad idea!’

As the credits rolled I turned to my friend Frank and discussed the movie.  Both of us have a hobby of editing commercially released movies, and we both said similar things at roughly the same time – with a few more edits it could have been even better.  So… 6 months from now when it drops on DVD it will be a project for me/us.  :)

I read on several websites that 2013 will be possibly be heading to television – will it survive without the flashy FX and without the sense of an impending end of the world?  I doubt it.

I mean – it’s not like it’s “V” or anything  ;)

Jesus and Jericho

Some days I love the access the internet provides – like the ability to watch TV shows online.

Granted I probably watch much more TV than I should, having gotten hooked on shows like LOST and The Office, but I really like that the big 3 stream many of their shows online.

I completely missed viewing any of the episodes of Jericho when originally aired, but over the course of the last few weeks I’ve made it through the 29 episodes that comprise the series (and secretly hoping there will be a season 3). It ended mostly satisfying enough… mostly.

I liked it for several reasons: plausible premise, decent acting, not much language, no hot n heavy ‘love’ scenes, decent writing – though there were some episodes that had about 10 minutes of plot that moved the story along surrounded by 30 minutes of filler.

I’m also somewhat of a ‘disaster movie’ junkie: Volcano, Twister, The Day After (not to be confused the abysmal “the Day After Tomorrow” by Roland Emmerich – you know the one – where ‘cold’ chases the principal characters down the hallway?).

Note to self: Netflix “The Day After” – haven’t seen it since childhood when it ran on TV. OK – set to #4 on Queue.

Where was I? Oh yes – Jericho.

The series really got me thinking – what would happen if several major U.S. cities got nuked? And not to give away any part of the series plot, but how ‘safe’ are we anyway? And have we considered all potential threats to our current way of living?
What would our utilities infrastructure be like? What about commerce? Grocery shopping? Clean water?

If you’re up for an intriguing series you may have missed, head over to CBS.com and navigate your way to the Jericho page(s) and watch the series

I also recently finished reading the novel Dead Heat by Joel Rosenberg, who through his political connections seems to have a pretty good read on the pulse of current world events as they relate to Biblical prophecy. The novel also raises the question of what would happen during a nuclear attack on the U.S.

The U.S. could never be nuked though, right? Why not?

Nowhere in Bible prophecy is the prominence (or existence for that matter) of the U.S. assured. There are some who would spiritualize parts of Revelation seeing the U.S. as Israel that John is talking about. I think that’s poor exegesis. It also is based on the notion of ‘British Israelism’ – the belief that that many early Britons, Europeans and/or their royal families were direct lineal descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel but rarely the Tribe of Judah and that God’s blessing and choosing of ancient Israel have migrated to the U.S. and Caucasians in general.

Others have said that the U.S. is the ‘mystery Babylon John refers to, a nation that ‘exports her immorality to the rest of the world’ and that one day we will fulfill the words “in one hour your doom has come!” The passage indicating smoke pillars rising….

Let’s take texts as face value: Israel is Israel. Babylon is Babylon – yup the one in Iraq.

No mention of the powerhouse that is the United States. Of all the major players in the end times passages (Iraq, Israel, Iran, Libya, Egypt, Turkey, Russia and a vast Asian army) there is no mention of the U.S.

So I wonder what happens to us(U.S.)?

Let me be clear in saying that no matter what happens, I trust the sovereignty and goodness of God. His plan to bring Himself glory through Christ will not be thwarted. God seemed to be silent during the 400 years that Israel – His chosen – was in bondage in Egypt. God seemed silent, seemed distant during the 400 years between testaments. But His plans are so different from ours.

“Signs, signs, everywhere the signs…”

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the state of the world. Seems there’s a lot going on that could be indicators of the Big Show coming down soon. And I realize every generation thinks they’re the last. But some significant things are going on that have never happened before. To get a more comprehensive read on some of these, you can head on over to http://www.joelrosenberg.blogspot.com

Pick up a copy of Rosenberg’s non-fiction work – Epicenter. Don’t get the DVD. Get the book. (http://www.joelrosenberg.com/epicenter.asp)
It is eerily prophetic. And some of his ‘guesses’ at what’s to come next have been steadily moving that direction since its publication.

I’m an unabashed ‘Pre-wrath Rapture’ guy. (You can read the books by Marvin Rosenthal or Robert VanKampen for a detailed explanation).

In a nutshell, I reject the eschatological view that says the Church (big C) escapes the tribulation during the time when the anti-christ rises to power. That position, called ‘pre-trib’ has been popularized by the Left Behind novels and could do a major disservice to the Church if we don’t all vanish before the anti-christ is revealed in the coming temple in Jerusalem. What will happen to the faith of those who think they have missed the rapture? Many Christians in the West live with this sense of “I don’t have to be prepared, cuz I’ll be outta here.” What happens if(when) that position does not come to pass?

How many Western Christians realize that unimaginable conditions exist today for our brothers and sisters around the world? While we complain about carpet color and music style and whether the pastor wore a tie (or - gasp!- jeans), our sisters in Sudan are sold into prostitution and their children as sex slaves because they will not deny Christ. Believers in Jesus in the mid-East and Indonesia and China and North Korea are tortured and executed for their faith. Interestingly, these countries’ believers are mostly not ‘pre-trib’. And Czar Putin is in the process of squashing the Church of Jesus and funding the building of mosques.(read)

Back to Jericho & Dead Heat – how many Christians will lose faith if the U.S. is nuked, experiences famine, the rise of a tyrannical government or any other ‘impossible situations’?
If I am wrong, so much the better. If I am right, the Church should consider what to watch for. Again, see VanKampen & Rosenthal for specifics, or check out www.prewrathrapture.com

Jesus said to watch and pray. If He said ‘watch’ that means that we (the Church) are to watch for something. And there are many coming, specific signs. It does not mean “hopefully some unbelievers will race to find a Bible and stumble upon specific prophetic utterances when they realize that Christians have disappeared, and then watch for the signs to come.”

We need to not be naively biding time, hoarding or fretting.

We do need to be watching, preparing and praying.

Thank you Lord for wake up calls through the coaxial.