Trailer Time: MARY (Netflix)

I am very curious about this movie.  

I have heard conflicting things about it.  Some say it is very Catholic.  Others say that it is anti-Catholic.  I don't know, but I found the trailer to be very interesting.  

Interestingly, it seems to tone down the religious aspects of the story.  The angel says "All things are possible..."  But leaves out the end of the quote where he says, "...for God."  Even the reference at the end to how "Love will save the world," seems a little bit of a secularization of the story.

However, I am open to this being story being an avenue to meet the Netflix audience where they are.  Perhaps this is targeted at those who would normally not consume something so directly religious.  When I would work this one retreat program, the first witness would specifically never mention God.  The purpose as to ease people into the religious elements of the retreat.  Perhaps that is what is going on here.

Regardless, I thought the trailer was well made, with good production value.  I look forward to how it intends to explore Joseph's love for Mary and her holy virtue.

Thoughts?

New Evangelizers Post: Martin Luther Misunderstands Grace

      

I have a new article up at NewEvangelizers.com.  

Several hundred years ago, Martin Luther led a revolt that today we call the Protestant Reformation.

There are several areas of contention to be found between Luther and the Catholic Church. Sadly, Luther made some very astute points about corruption in the Church regarding things like the selling of indulgences. However, he did not focus only on reforming Church corruption. His theology would often be at odds with the established Catholic Faith.

One of the areas where Martin Luther broke from the Catholic Church was in his view of grace. Grace is the encounter with God and the effect that it has on us. It is something transcendent that helps us grow from where we are to where God wants us to be. His grace always comes before our response so that anything we do is a reaction to that grace.

St. Augustine understood the effect of grace in two major ways. The first was that it was a healing we receive which responds to sin and makes us whole. The second is that grace puts our loves in proper order within us. This second point is clearly seen in Augustine’s life. He loved intellectual and sensual pursuits more than God. But when he encountered His grace, Augustine was able to place the love of God first and his other loves in their proper order beneath the Divine.

St. Thomas Aquinas picks up this idea from Augustine. Thomas also emphasizes that grace does not destroy nature, but perfects it. Sometimes, we focus on human sin and frailty as the markers of our humanity. We say, “To err is human…” And in many ways, this is true. But when we err, particularly when we sin, we become less human, not more human. When Thomas says that grace “perfects” nature, he does not mean that we humans must be without flaw before we have grace. We see this reflected in the way we describe horribly violent crimes as “inhuman.” When we receive the grace of God, we do not become less human. We become more like Christ and more whom God has intended us to be. When God brings us His grace, we respond to it by accepting it and letting it transform us.

Luther looked at the tradition that was given from St. Thomas and he thought the Catholic Church was teaching that it was our human response to grace that saves us. Because of Original Sin, Luther thought we were so corrupted that there was nothing in us that was good. Catholics theology says that because of our fallen nature, we all have an attraction to sin which we call concupiscence. It is that thing in us that desires the things that we know are sinful. (Think about how people are enticed to something once they are told that it is “forbidden.”) For Luther, this concupiscence wasn’t just a predisposition or attraction to sin. For him, concupiscence was sin. Because of this, the human being is totally corrupt: we relish sin and have a nausea for the good. This is because Original Sin has completely obliterated human nature.

So for Luther, the only thing that can save us is Christ’s saving power of the cross which we receive through faith alone. None of my works have any merit, because they come from my corrupt human nature. But faith is a gift of God’s grace and it is the only thing that can lead to salvation.

But this makes grace something alien to us. To be sure, Grace comes from God alone, but in Luther’s view, grace is not something we are made for. It is the cure for our disease, which is human nature. For Luther, accepting Christ’s grace through faith makes it so that Jesus covers my sinful human nature. But at my core, I am still sinful and corrupted.

This is at odds with how Catholics view grace. Yes, we are wounded by Original Sin, but we are not beyond repair. We are not saved by faith alone. The one time accepting of Jesus as savior is only part of the process of salvation. The view of Luther is too exterior for the Catholic faith. Salvation is too much of something that happens outside of you. We are not simply covered by Christ’s grace:

We are transformed by Christ’s grace.

You can read the whole article here.

Trailer Time: Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning Teaser

I thought that Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning was the best movie of last year.  It was an exciting thrill-ride that highlighted all that was best of the franchise.

This teaser has all the earmarks of a finale to the series.  It emphasizes how Ethan goes out of his way to do anything he can not to lose anyone else he cares about, like he did in the first movie.  And over the years we've also become attached to his crew so that we also dread the thought of losing them.  The one shot of Ethan and Benji embracing made me feel very sad.

The scope of this movie looks epic and the stunts once again look amazing.  Right now there isn't a show-stopper like the motorcycle jump in the last film, but the bi-plane chase looks great.

This series has delivered more excitement and entertainment than most movie franchises and I can't wait to see it.

Thoughts?

Film Flash: Here

 

15 words or less film review (full review to follow soon)

Tries to be a modern Our Town, but bad acting and unlikable characters derail it.

Film Review: Transformers One

 

Sexuality/Nudity No Objection

Violence Acceptable

Vulgarity No Objection

Anti-Catholic Philosophy Acceptable

This is the best Transformers movie since the 1986 animated film.

The story takes place before the great Autobot/Decepticon War.  Cybertron is being ruled by Sentinel Prime (Jon Hamm) who is leading them through the crisis of energon (the source of energy for Transformers) after a brutal war with the Quintisons that destroyed all the other Primes.  As a result, the non-transforming Cybertronians have to mine the planet for energon.  This includes the daredevil Orion Pax (Chris Hemsworth) and his cautious best friend D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry).  Orion is convinced that the Matrix of Leadership is the key to saving Cybertron but that it exists on the forbidden surface of the planet.  After circumstances thrust these two friends along with the no-nonsense Elita-1 (Scarlett Johansson) and the lonely and desperate B-127 (Keegan-Michael Key) into an adventure on the surface where they will go on a journey of discovery that will change them forever.

This movie does something that I very much enjoy, which is that it uses the comedy of the first half to emphasize the tragedy of the second half.  This is also a place where I think marketing for this movie did it a great disservice.  There is a LOT of silly, PIXAR-style humor in the first half of the film.  Most of the ads focused on this tone.  As a result, I think people felt like all of the drama from these characters was being ignored.  

Instead, the fun and friendship of the first half serves to underscore the dramatic turns.  At one point Orion and D-16 talk about how they will be friends forever.  In the theater, my wife looked at me and smiled at the sweet moment, but she told me later that she was confused because I looked so sad.  Those who know Transformers lore will understand why.

I was struck by the story parallels between this movie and Plato's Allegory of the Cave.  In this film, the people of Cybertron are literally in a cave, forbidden from going to the surface.  But when our heroes do, they see the truth about how their entire lives below have been built on lies.  For one of the characters, this enables them to take on the responsibility of saving the people.  But to the other, the information reveals an utter betrayal that shatters him.  You can see the resentment over the one who brought them out of the cave because he was happy in his illusions.  

All of this comes about successfully because the character interactions are so good.  This wouldn't work if you didn't completely invest in Orion's and D-16's friendship.  The chemistry between the other characters works well.  Elita covers her insecurity with a stern bossiness, but Orion's improvisational style helps her loosen up and helps him mature.  As annoying as B-127 is, his utter sincerity brings the characters together.  These are real, three-dimensional characters that feel like the adventure and the interactions with each other change them.  Orion and D-16 are utterly transformed (pun intended) in an incredibly cathartic and satisfying way.

Director Josh Cooley gives the whole movie a feeling of technological wonder.  The action scenes are exciting.  There is a race in the first act that is both funny and fun to watch.  Brian Tyler's score is reminiscent of Tron in the best possible way: it has a synthetic feel that feels like something mythic.  

The movie wrestles with lots of oddly complex issues like truth and lies, friendship and betrayal, good and evil.  What are the limits of retaliation against those who have done evil?  And what does that cost you in terms of your relationships and your very soul.

This was surprisingly deep for what was billed as a silly kids cartoon.  But I was invested from beginning to end.  The movie set everything up for a sequel, but I fear that the box office disappointment that resulted here will prevent that from happening.

But if you would like to experience a good, character-driven Transformers movie, then this is the One.

New Evangelizers Post: The “Messed Up” Stories of the Bible

     

I have a new article up at NewEvangelizers.com.  

I was teaching the story of Sodom and Gammorah in class last week. For those unfamiliar, two angels who look like men go to the house of Lot in the city of Sodom to see if there are at least 10 good men. If these 10 men can be found, God will not destroy the cities. However, the men of Sodom come to Lot and want to sexually assault the angels (again, who look like men). The angels knock out the men of Sodom and tell Lot to leave with his wife and two daughters, but they are not to look back. When Lot and his family get away and God destroys the cities. But Lot’s wife looks back and turns into a pillar of salt. Lot and his two adult daughters hide in nearby caves. Lot’s daughters think that the world has ended and lament that they will not have children. So they get Lot drunk and have him impregnate them.

When discussing this story with my students, one of them said, “Man, the Bible is messed up.”

I replied, “Excuse me? Did you just say that the Word of God was ‘messed up?'”

He responded, “I mean, there are so many messed up stories in the Bible.”

And on that point, my student is 100% correct.

There are many “messed up” stories in the Bible.

Besides the story of Sodom and Gammorah, here just some of the examples:

-Cain murders his brother Abel out of jealousy
-Noah gets drunk and Ham looks upon his father’s nakedness
-Abraham gives away his wife to Pharaoh
-Sarah beats and abuses the birth mother of her adopted son and eventually banishes them.
-Jacob steals from his blind father
-Onan is killed for “wasting his seed on the ground.”
-Reuben sleeps with his stepmother
-Simeon and Levi kill all the townsmen of Hamor to avenge their sister.
-Judah sleeps with his daughter-in-law who he thinks is a prostitute
-Joseph’s brothers sell him into slavery.

Those are just some of the “messed up” stories you will find. And those are all exclusive from the book of Genesis. You can find similar stories throughout the rest of the Bible.

So why does the Bible have so many “messed up” stories?

My short answer to my student is this: the Bible needs to have these “messed up” stories because the world is messed up.

The Bible is not some simplistic children’s fable. It is not Barney or Dora the Explorer. To be sure, there are some valuable lessons children can learn from these programs, they do not reflect the darkness of our world. If your house has been burglarized, I’m not sure how much help Dora will be other than to say “Swiper, no swiping!”

We live in a world that is often cruel, dark, and indifferent to suffering. Human beings inflict all kinds of senseless hurts on each other. Just turn on the news on any given day and you will see a constant stream of stories about man’s inhumanity to man.

But we don’t have to look far outside our own homes to see this darkness. In side our families there can be rivalry, jealousy, bullying, selfishness, ingratitude, resentment, and every other kind of vice. We’ve seen families torn apart by divorce, abuse, addiction, and sin.

In that way, the “messed up” stories of the Bible reflect the world we live in. If the Bible was all lollipops and lilacs, then we would dismiss it as soon as we hit adolescents (like many ignorantly do in the modern world) as another children’s tale that we outgrow. But as we grow up, we see the world the people we encounter become darker and more complicated. When we read these darker stories of Scripture, we find a resonance with the darkness found in the people there as well.

But the darkness is not the only point.

You can read the whole article here.

All Saints Day 2024

  The saints have been great friends to me throughout my life.  Today, we are reminded that our destiny is not of this world but of the next.  Failure, humiliation, loss, and suffering in this life are nothing compared to the glories that await the blessed.

It is so much easier to say it than to believe.

That is why we need the saints.  We need the concrete examples of holiness in this fallen world to help us remember that this world is not our home.

So today, I would like to share with you the litany of saints that my wife and I pray every day.  I am leaving out those who are not canonized or in the process.  There are many whose intercession I seek, like my mom and my grandparents, trusting that the love we still share will be strengthened through prayer.  But here are the saints that we turn to each day.

Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.

St. Joseph, pray for us.

St. Gerard Majella, pray for us.

St. Padre Pio, pray for us.

Servant of God Lucia de Jesus Rosa dos Santos, pray for us.

Sts. Jacinta and Francesco Marto, pray for us.

Sts. Anne and Joachim, pray for us.

Sts. Elizabeth, Zechariah, and John the Baptist, pray for us.

Abraham, Sarah, Hannah and Rachel of the Old Testament, pray for us.

St. Gianna, pray for us.

Pope St. John Paul the Great, pray for us.

St. Teresa of Calcutta, pray for us.

St. Teresa of the Little Flower, pray for us.

St. Teresa of Avila, pray for us.

St. Catherine of Sienna, pray for us.

Bl. Miguel Pro, pray for us.

Bl. Carlo Acuits

Bl. Pierre Giorgio Frassati

St. Thomas Aquinas, pray for us.

St. Augustine, pray for us.

St. Maria Goretti, pray for us.

St. Joan of Arc, pray for us.

St. Francis of Assisi, pray for us.

St. Clare of Assisi, pray for us.

St. Anthony of Padua, pray for us.

St. Ignatius of Loyola, pray for us.

St. Dominic, pray for us.

St. Benedict, pray for us.

St. Philip Neri, pray for us.

St. Peter, pray for us.

St. Patrick, pray for us.

St. Peregrine, pray for us.

St. Paul, pray for us.

St. Jude, pray for us.

St. Stephen, pray for us.

Sts. Cosmos and Damian, pray for us.

Venerable Fulton Sheen, pray for us.

St. William of Rochester, pray for us.

Bl. Michael McGivney, pray for us.

St. Faustina Kowalska, pray for us.

St. Raphael, pray for us.

St. Gabriel, pray for us.

St. Michael, pray for us.

All holy saints and angels, pray for us.

Sunday Best: Election Novena 2024

 

As we draw nearer to the election I have noticed that tensions are running high on both sides of the political aisle.

It is important that we remember that no matter who wins, our loyalty is not to the princes of this world but to our God in Heaven.

America is the greatest country that the world has ever seen.  But we cannot be so without the grace of God.  We are ever in need of His providence.

Perhaps I am just getting older, but it seems like the divide between the county around election time is getting bigger.  Not only that, but the amount of angst and acrimony has increased.  I am not denying that this election has incredibly consequences.  But moreso than ever, I see the rush of fear and anxiety that grips people when the election does not turn out the way they had hoped.

The Knights of Columbus have published a novena to Mary of the Immaculate Conception, the Patroness of our country.  With Americans going to the polls and deciding our nation's course and destiny for the next four years, it is more important than ever to put that choice into the hands of our Lord and our Lady.

I will be praying this novena every day from now through election day, but the Knights particularly ask that it be prayed from October 28-November 5.  And I invite all of you to pray with me.

God Bless America!

Prayer to Mary, the Immaculate Conception, Patroness of the United States

Most Holy Trinity: Our Father in Heaven, who chose Mary as the fairest of your daughters; Holy Spirit, who chose Mary as your Spouse; God the Son, who chose Mary as your Mother, in union with Mary we adore your majesty and acknowledge your supreme, eternal dominion and authority.

Most Holy Trinity, we put the United States of America into the hands of Mary Immaculate in order that she may present the country to you. Through her we wish to thank you for the great resources of this land and for the freedom which has been its heritage.

Through the intercession of Mary, have mercy on the Catholic Church in America. Grant us peace. Have mercy on our president and on all the officers of our government. Grant us a fruitful economy, born of justice and charity. Have mercy on capital and industry and labor. Protect the family life of the nation. Guard the precious gift of many religious vocations. Through the intercession of our Mother, have mercy on the sick, the tempted, sinners – on all who are in need.

Mary, Immaculate Virgin, our Mother, Patroness of our land, we praise you and honor you and give ourselves to you. Protect us from every harm. Pray for us,that acting always according to your will and the will of your divine Son, we may live and die pleasing to God.  Amen.

Film Review: Saturday Night

 

Sexuality/Nudity Mature

Violence Acceptable

Vulgarity Objectionable

Anti-Catholic Philosophy Objectionable

I don't think that this will be a traditional film review.  This will be more of a rant.

My experience watching this movie may be very different from yours, dear viewer.  But I had such a viscerally negative emotional reaction to this movie that it may blind me to its artistic merits.

But first, let us talk about the plot: Saturday Night is a movie that takes place in real time in the 90 minutes leading up to the premiere of the now-iconic show Saturday Night Live.  The film centers around showrunner and creator Lauren Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) as he juggles incompetent crew members, egotistical stars, stifling network executives.  All of this occurs as the clock keeps ticking and the show is not ready.  The pressure mounts and what occurs will either be monstrous or magic.

Director Jason Reitman keeps things tense and claustrophobic in the tight halls of Studio 8H.  As the time gets closer, it feels like the walls are literally closing in.  There are a lot steadicam shots throughout so it makes you feel like you are backstage for all of the insanity.  People walk and talk with the frenetic energy of The West Wing.  Reitman is very good at transporting us to that specific place and time with the look and the feel of the era.

The performances are also top notch.  LaBelle does a fantastically understated job as Michaels as he does his best to keep his cool while clearly screaming on the inside.  The people playing the famous comedy icons like Chevy Chase (Cory Michael Smith), Dan Aykroyd (Dylan O'Brien), Gilda Radner (Ella Hunt), Garrett Morris (Lamorne Morris), and the rest do a fantastic job.  Not only to the behave like them and sound uncannily similar, but they do a great job of doing more than simple impersonations: they give us fleshed out characters.  This all the more impressive when you see how little actual screentime they have to accomplish this.

All of this is positive.  I am also a fan of entertainment history and a fan of SNL.  

So why do I hate this movie?

Because this movie hates me.

In the movie, writer Michael O'Donoghue (Tommy Dewey) is upset that the network censor, who is a Christian, is cutting the vulgarity from the live broadcast.  When they confront each other, he says, "Hey you want to hear a joke?"  He then proceeds to say the most blasphemous joke I have ever heard in a film (which I will not repeat on this blog).

I want to say a few things about this.  The joke was not targeted at the Christian woman's uptightness or judgmentality.  It was not directed at her being out of date or close-minded.  If it had been either case, I may not have liked the joke, but it wouldn't have felt offended.

The joke was directed directly at God and said of Him things so horrid that it made my stomach turn.  We Christians are just as fallible and full of foibles as anyone else.  We are fair targets for mockery over our shortcomings.  But this joke was not targeted us,  It was targeted at Him.

I also want to be clear that this joke was not told with any kind of jovialness or friendly leg-pulling.  One of the advantages to being a comedian is that you can make fun of sacred cows and people will laugh along.  I find Monty Python's The Life of Brian to be blasphemous, which is why I will not watch it again.  But even here, I felt like they were taking aim at the faith not with a particular axe to grind, but instead treated the religious subject like they treat anything else.  It is the same with the blasphemous humor of South Park.  I think it is wrong, but I don't bear any ill will towards the creators because they treat everyone with their irreverent satire.

You can even say this about more pointed anti-religious humor as with Ricky Gervais.  Granted I haven't listened to all of his stand up, but he clearly goes after Christianity with jokes like, "Unlike Jesus, I actually showed up."  I bristle at how this joke insults the love of God.  But for some reason I don't get angry at Gervais.  The joke comes off not as an attack.  Instead, he is putting out his atheist point-of-view in a tongue-in-cheek way.  You may disagree with me and I respect that.  But while Gervais speaks things I disagree with, I never felt like he wanted to be my enemy.

Saturday Night wants to be my enemy.

That joke was done in the most mean-spirited way imaginable.  And it was done with the tone of the cool kids bullying the one who is not of their group.  The joke was a line in the sand where they said: "Do you believe in Jesus?  Then stay on your side of the line.  We don't want you over here.  We hate you."  It was done specifically to injure, not enlighten.  It was done to cause pain, not laughter (except maybe the haughty laughter of the bully).

And there was no narrative balance, no introspection that a line had been crossed.  This is something done in other parts of the film.  In the first half of the movie, Aykroyd is constantly hitting on the female members of the cast and crew in clearly objectifying ways.  But later in the movie, he rehearses as skit where the tables are turned and he is made to feel uncomfortable.  This gives narrative and thematic balance and resolution to the events of the movie in a way that the blasphemous joke did not.

And that mean-spirited tone is directed at beloved icons like Jim Henson (Nicholas Braun), who is relentlessly bullied by the cast and crew or Johnny Carson (Jeff Witzke) who is portrayed as a vulgar narcissist.  

Now, I know I did not give the specifics of the joke and you are free to think that I am a super zealous Catholic who is overreacting to a bit of humor.  I will leave that up to you.  All I can do is give you my honest reaction to what I was presented with.

From that point on in the movie, I was sour on everyone.  While I could understand the characters' dreams and frustrations, their horrid morality remained on full display.  

Throughout the movie, Michaels kept talking about wanting to start a cultural revolution on television.  They were revolting from all the traditions that came before.

I don't know if this movie captures a revolution.  But it certainly was revolting.

Film Flash: Transformers One

 

15 words or less film review (full review to follow soon)

Best Transformers movie since 1986.  Silly comedy/adventure that turns into a slow tragedy

New Evangelizers Post: We Are Saved By Grace Alone

    

I have a new article up at NewEvangelizers.com.  

“I can earn my way to heaven.”

This statement may not be something that any of us would say out loud. And yet, I bet that if I did a little questioning, I would find this assumption laying underneath my thoughts on salvation. Sometimes I hear it phrased this way: “I haven’t done anything bad enough to go to hell.” The hidden assumption is that Heaven is owed to us as long as we don’t screw up too badly.

But this is not at all what the Catholic Church teaches.

One of the early heresies in the Church was Pelagianism. I wrote in an early essay: “Back in the 4th century, a man named Pelagius taught that human beings could earn their way to salvation. If we are only good enough, we can achieve heaven. The good will outweigh the bad.” And I may have it in the back of my own mind that if I just follow God’s commands and give to charity, then I will be given salvation as my just reward.

But St. Augustine showed us why Pelagius is wrong. We are too broken by original sin to save ourselves. I remember when I broke my back and I couldn’t walk. I was powerless to fix the problem. I need my surgeon to fix me. In the same way, our broken nature requires a Savior.

And we need to take that title “Savior” very seriously. Jesus is not my co-equal partner in my salvation. He is the One who saves me. He pays the price for my sins on the cross and rises to give me new life in Him. That is His free gift to me. And this is grace.

Grace is God’s completely gratuitous gift of His love and His goodness. I can do nothing to earn it. It is completely a gift.

I think about my wife and how she is way out of my league. And yet for some reason, she has graced me with her affection. My whole life I know that I can never be good enough to be her husband and there is no way I could “earn” her love.

It is the same with God’s grace. We can never earn it by any good deed. Why? Because even the ability to do those good deeds are gifts of His grace. If I give money to charity, it is only because He has blessed me with wealth or income. If I use my mind to write Christian essays, it is only because God has given me an intellect to use for His service. There is nothing I can point to that is good in me that is not also a gift from God.

Even my ability to say “yes” to Him is grace. For Augustine, I could not even say “yes” to God unless God gave me the grace to do so.

In all this talk of grace, it would understandable to make the mistake of thinking that grace is some “thing” that God gives us apart from Himself. But grace IS the encounter we have with our God and how it affects us. It is His presence in us to make us more like Jesus. In His presence He transforms us and re-orients our hearts. As Augustine says, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” CS Lewis puts it another way in Mere Christianity: “God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.”

The gift of grace is the gift of God Himself.

You can read the whole article here.

Film Flash: Saturday Night

 

15 words or less film review (full review to follow soon)

West Wing-style biopic that repelled me with the most blasphemous joke I've ever heard.

Wednesday Comics: DC All-In and Absolute Batman

 

For years, DC has tried to capture the magic of the Marvel's Ultimate line from the early 2000's.  Their first real attempt was with their "All-Star" imprint.  This led to the critic and fan favorite All-Star Superman, but it also gave us the attrocious All-Star Batman and Robin.  

In the years since, they have tried again and again with things like the "First Wave" line or the "Earth One" graphic novels.  None of these have quite caught on, but that hasn't stopped DC from trying.

And once again they are swinging for the fences with their new "Absolute" line that is introduced in the "All-In" storyline.

And this time, DC may have actually done it.

DC All-In was a fun read.  It is an oversized flip book where you read one half and then flip the comic over and read it from a different view from the other side.  The main story involves the Justice League rebuilding after the Absolute Power storyline.  

One of the things I really liked about this book was that it brought into the DC continuity the Justice League Unlimited concept: expand the JL to include as many heroes as possible.  This not only creates a stronger army of heroes, but it gives you the ability to diversify your storytelling about the League adventures, just as it did on the cartoon show.  

However, things go wrong immeadiately when Darkseid shows up in a way they have never encountered him before.  I will not spoil the details here.  But this encounter leads to a new universe that is known to us as the "Absolute Universe."

Writers Joshual Williamson and Scott Snyder have set up an epic story that will hopefully pay off.  I also enjoyed the different artistic styles employed in the book by Dan Mora, Wes Craig, and Daniel Sampere.

But this takes us to Absolute Batman #1.

There has been a lot of buzz around this book and I have to tell you it was a very fun read.

The idea behind teh "Absolute" universe is that these stories will find our heroes fighting against more impossible odds.  Their world is rougher, more violent, and darker.  This aspect alone is not necessarily a big selling point.  But the way they tell the story feels like something fresh.

Scott Snyder writes a much gritter Batman than I have seen.  This Bruce Wayne is no longer a billionaire.  He has all of his brains, brawn, and drive, but he is a working-class hero, lurking in the shadows.  When the designs by artist Nick Dragotta were first released, many people made fun of it.  This Batman is a gigantic mountain of muscle, reminiscent of Rob Liefeld's work on Captain America.  But Snyder and Dragotta make it work.  This is a Batman who is there to scare the heck out of everyone by his sheer size.  On top of that, he is brutal and precise in his tactics.

Reading this book reminded me of something out of Frank Miller.  There is a rawness to it that has been lacking in Batman's stories lately.  Part of the fun is that this is a story mainly told from the outside.  You get to see how other people see Batman, so it adds to the mystery and intrigue.  

Snyder could still drop the ball with this.  And I don't know how Absolute Superman and Absolute Wonder Woman will be.  But based on how much I enjoyed these two books, I will be there for the rest of the story.

In fact you might say (forgive the pun) that I am all in.

Lack of Updates - October 2024

 Hello Dear Reader,

My apologies for the lack of updates in the last week or so.

As is common this time of year, I have a lot of time-sensitive projects and responsibilites that are all converging at this time.  These include doing a research paper for my Diaconate class, re-writing a screenplay, running class retreat, in addition to my parish assignment work and my job.

Thank you for your patience.

We should be back to our regularly scheduled program in the next week or so.

God bless!

Catholic Skywalker

TV Review: Penguin Episode 1

 

After Matt Reeve's The Batman became a big hit, HBO greenlit a spinoff miniseries about the villain Oswald "Penguin" Cobb (Colin Farrell).  Farrell's performance was one of my favorite parts of the movie, so I was curious.  But since the movie was two years ago, my enthusiasm waned.  When I heard that the show premiered, I didn't make it a priority to watch.

But I have to say, Penguin was really good.

Be warned that this is a very violent and vulgar show.  It is very much in the mold of classic mob entertainment like Goodfellas or The Sopranos.  If that type of movies and shows are too distasteful to you, then you will want to avoid this show.  I was also annoyed that there was some brief nudity, which makes this show difficult to recommend.

The story takes place in the immediate wake of the end of The Batman.  The flooding of Gotham and the death of crime boss Carmine Falcone has caused chaos on the streets with an outbreak of crime and gang wars.  Oswald (or "Oz") was one of Falcone's lieutenants who sees an opportunity to rise up in prominence.  However, he has several obstacles.  Falcone's drug-addict son Alberto (Michael Zegen) has been put in charge.  In addition, decisions are being made to move most of Oz's operation is being taken away from him.  And the biggest chaotic point is the arrival of Sofia Falcone (Christin Millioti): Carmine's insane daughter who has been released from Arkham.

I cannot help but think about the classic line from Game of Thrones: "Chaos is a ladder."  In the aftermath of the disaster in Gotham, things are all in disarray.  Oz looks to capitalize on this, but he is playing an incredibly dangerous game, one that could kill him as easily as elevate him.  When he thinks of running and hiding, his senile but domineering mother (Deirdre O'Connell) humiliates him and puts steel in his spine.  Also in a dark twist on the Jason Todd story, Oz finds a teenager named Victor (Rhenzy Feliz) trying to steal his car.  Oz then forces him to assist in his dark quest.  One of the things that makes this relationship so fascinating is that you really get the feeling that Victor may not live to see dawn (I will not spoil if he does or not).

The writing for this episode is excellent.  Oz is very complex.  He is a corrupt, vicious man.  But he has very human aspirations and you can't help but want him to have some success in the face of overwhelming obstacles, even if his goals are terrible.  The plot doesn't glorify him, but you can see that he aspires to be someone who is loved more than feared.  Unfortunately, that love seems out of his grasp, so he chooses fear.  He is a smart man, no doubt.  But his flaw is that if he is pushed too far he acts emotionally.  In one of the early scenes we see him lose control.  He revels in his actions at first, but when cold reason begins to take hold he understands the hole he has just dug for himself.

The production value looks great.  The director does an excellent job of showing us the difference between the street-level enforces and contrasts that with the posh lifestyles of their bosses.  The directing is sleek and tense all around.

But what really makes this show work are the performances.  Colin Farrell is mesmerizing as Oz, and I don't use that description lightly.  I couldn't take my eyes off of him.  He reminds me so much of Robert DeNiro in The Untouchables.  He carries in him the same intelligence and menace, but he also lets you behind that danger to see a real character underneath with just enough humanity to make us emotionally invest in him despite his crimes.

I also have to say Millioti is fantastic as well.  She doesn't try to be a hyper-masculine girl-boss that stands toe-to-toe with Oz.  But her menace is horribly believable.  This is very hard to achieve.  I remember when I watched The Last of Us and Melanie Lynskey was the leader of an an insurgent army.  She would boss around men twice her size who cowered in front of her, but it rang false and artificial.  Because of that, I couldn't buy into the story.  But Millioti brings a simmering insanity boiling under her calm surface.  She is scary because she is a crazy person backed by violent men and dirty money.  On top of that, she is as smart, if not smarter than Oz and Millioti knows exactly the right buttons to push to keep us on edge.

Because of the darkness of the tone, the show may go down a path too disturbing for me and cause me to tap out. 

But for now, I am incredibly excited to see what happens next.

Film Flash: Super/Man - The Christopher Reeve Story

 

15 words or less film review (full review to follow soon)

A moving documentary about a flawed, passionate man that had the courage to perservere.

New Evangelizers Post: St. Augustine and the Attraction to Sin

   

I have a new article up at NewEvangelizers.com.  

“To do what was wrong simply because it was wrong – could I have found pleasure in that?” (St. Augustine, The Confessions II.4)

When St. Augustine was a youth, he and his friends got the brilliant idea to steal pears from an orchard. This seemingly harmless prank became a serious point of reflection for the saint many years later. When writing his famous Confessions, Augustine took this moment in his life to question why we sin.

St. Augustine struggled with the reality of his sin. When Augustine and his friends robbed the pear tree, they did so not because they were hungry. They did it because “we derived pleasure from the deed simply because it was forbidden.” (The Confessions. Book II, 4, 37) Augustine had such a difficult time understanding this sin because it seemed so morally insane. We desire sin because of some kind of good. As Augustine said, “Sin gains entrance through… good things when we turn to them with immoderate desire…” (The Confessions. Book II, 10) But Augustine was tormented by this memory because it was not the stolen pear that gave him pleasure, but the stealing: “I feasted on the sin, nothing else, and that I relished and enjoyed.” (The Confessions. Book II, 12)

This touches on the great paradox of human nature: we are made in God’s image and likeness and yet we are attracted to sin. We are not pure angels nor are we vile beasts. We have the contradiction of both light and darkness in us. As we read in the previous week, Augustine holds that we are not evil because of our material nature, but it is with every human as a kind of second nature.

Augustine raises the idea that we feel the attraction to sinful things simply because they are wrong. As Augustine points out in the quotes above, we desire some good inside of every sin. Even the ancient philosophers like Plato made the point that human beings desire the good and not the bad in itself. But there is something so irrational about wanting something that is bad, simply because it is bad. If we are made in God’s image, how can we be attracted to evil for itself?

Before the Fall, human beings were made free from sin in God’s image and likeness. But after Adam and Eve disobeyed God, our human nature was broken by Original Sin. One the lasting effects of Original Sin is that it gives us something called “concupiscence,” which is our human attraction to sin. Concupiscence is the reason that something becomes more desirable to us if it is forbidden. If I tell you “Don’t wiggle your toes,” you may suddenly feel the urge to move them simply because I told you not to do so. One of my favorite flavors of ice cream is Friendly’s “Forbidden Chocolate.” The makers of that desert know that by calling it “forbidden” it stirs in us a desire for that indulgence.

Because of this, it is not enough to arm people only with knowledge of what is right and wrong. Concupiscence can make it easy to ignore the greater good. We could be tempted to think about humanity only in terms of our concupiscent nature. If we do that, we could be like John Calvin and write of human beings as being totally depraved. Are we so broken that we are beyond the pale?

I do not think Augustine is making that point. But if we treat our fellow human beings as completely depraved, we will fail to see Christ inside of them. To see the human person as fundamentally bad would be to deny the essential nature of our being in God’s image and likeness.

You can read the whole article here.

Sunday Best: Top Ten Superhero/Supervillain TV Shows of All Time

 Last week I had a chance to watch the first episode of HBO's The Penguin.  I will have my full review later, but it got me to thinking about the best Superhero/Supervillain TV shows.  In the last few years, there have been several productions from both Marvel and DC.  Going through this list, there were some shows I ranked in surprising spots.

With TV shows, there is always a bit of a catch.  A great show can be remembered poorly because the quality of the show slid drastically over time.  But for the purposes of this list, I will focus only on the greatness it achieved.

Also, this is not the best "Comic Book TV Shows."  The list is reserved to shows about superheros and villains.  So that means shows like The Walking Dead and Locke and Key will not be on the list.

So here are the top ten.

10.  Jessica Jones

This was not a pleasent show to watch.  In fact, it might be the darkest super hero show I have seen.  But that doesn't take away from the quality of that first season.  Killgrave was one of the creepiest villains I have ever seen in a show.  Watching him tightent the noose around Jessica and her friends kept me enthralled the entire season.  After that first season, the quality dipped, but I still remember how intense it was at the beginning.

9. Loki

Of all the Disney Marvel shows, I think this one might be the best.  It has flaws to be sure, but Loki comes off as a more dangerous Doctor Who.  The second season had incredibly charming supporting characters and closed the arc on Loki's journey in an incredibly satisfying way.

8. Stargirl

There is something fun and innocent about this show.  While it may never have reached the depths that other shows on this list may have, Stargirl was so enjoyable because at its heart it was a family show.  Sometimes they dealt with mature topics, but it always came back to the idea that in this world our friends and our family are our greatest super powers.

7. Batman

When I was a small child I loved this show.  But then in my teens I reviled it for its campy tone and silly humor.  But now that I am a man, I look back on this show with great fondness for what it was.  I can see why my childlike eyes were drawn to the vivid colors and dazzling visuals.  I think I owe this show a lot for stirring in me the love of superheroes.  If you take the show for what it is, it can still be incredibly enjoyable.

6. Smallville

I love the fact that this show is about the "man" behind the "super."  While most people probably remember the big fights and spectacles, I think back on the character moments.  I loved watching how Jonathan and Martha helped shaped Clark into the man he became.  I loved watching his youthful crush on Lana eventually transform into a mature love for Lois.  I was enthralled by the slow-moving tragedy of Clark and Lex's doomed friendship.  Piecing the mythology together over ten years, the last 5 minutes of this series might be some of my favorite moments on television.

5. The Incredible Hulk

I hope that this show regains popularity in our collective pop culture memory, because it was great.  Lou Ferrigno was a mountain of muscle that you could believe was the Hulk.  But the real key to the series was how deadly serious Bill Bixby played David Banner.  He gave him such a haunted and tragic look that the happier the ending of an episode the sadder you were that David had to move on.

4. Arrow

There is a reason why the CW "Arrowverse" lasted as long as it did.  Arrow essentially made a Batman show around Oliver Queen.  Season 2 might be one of my favorite seasons of television with that fantastic villain in Slade Wilson all the way through to the final episode.  And the quality kept up for a few more seasons in a way where I looked forward to what was going to happen next.  

3. The Flash

If Arrow is the CW's Batman, then The Flash is their Superman.  Bright and hopeful, this show added so many fantastic sci-fi elements to the story.  I loved the way they explored Barry's powers and his character.  Thrawne was such a fantastic villain that brought menace and charisma to every episode.  You never knew what to expect.  With a show like this, they unlocked all the potential of what a super hero show could be in ways I had not seen before.

2. Superman and Lois

This one may surprise many people that it is up this high on the list.  But the concept of the show is fantastic: Superman and Lois rasing teenagers.  This is a problem that you cannot punch your way out of and heat vision would just make things worse.  The drama comes from when our heroes are at the most powerless.  This past season when Lois got her diagnosis, I felt the anguish of Clark in a way I hadn't felt since Superman: The Movie where he said, "All those powers... and I couldn't even save him."  On top of that, this show does something that so few movies and TV programs do: subvert expectations in a satisfying way.  The pilot episode ends on a twist, but the writers were so smart in making you think the story was going in one direction when it was actually going in a much better one.  That has consistantly been the case with this show, with one final season to go.

1. Daredevil

This show is brutal.  You feel bruised after watching it.  But that is because it makes you feel every hit, both physically and emotionally, that our hero takes.  Matt Murdoch is up against impossible odds.  And more often than not he fails.  But the light in the darkness is that no matter how much he wants to give up, there is just enough spark in him to keep going.  And while Matt is no saint, this show takes the question of God and the Catholic faith respectully and seriously as our characters wrestle with the darkness of the world.  The writing is fantastic.  The fight choreography is some of the best.  The stories pull me in and have me on the edge of my seat until the final moments of the season.  Disney is set to release a follow-up to this series and I am dubious that it could possibly match the quality of what has come before it.

Honorable Mentions:

Agents of SHIELD

Agent Carter

Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman

Wonder Woman

The Adventures of Superman

Thoughts?

Film Flash: The Killer's Game

 

15 words or less film review (full review to follow soon)

Mediocre movie that tries and fails to transition from John Wick to Bullet Train

Sunday Best: Rest in Peace, James Earl Jones

 His was perhaps the most iconic voice in all of cinema.

On Monday, September 9th, James Earl Jones passed away.

Born in 1931, Jones came from a poor family in Mississippi, where his father abandoned them to become an actor when James was only 5.  Although they eventually reconciled, James had to move to live with his grandparents in Michigan.  He became so nervous that he developed a stutter that was severe enough to render him almost mute.  But one day a teacher noticed his talent for writing poetry and nurtured him into finding his voice.  If that teacher had not done that, the world would be robbed of that irreplaceable voice.

Jones went to the University of Michigan and joined the army, but was not called up until after the end of the Korean War.  After his time there, he went to New York to become an actor.  His reputation grew as he performed Shakespeare to much acclaim.  He won awards for portraying boxer Jack Johnson in the play The Great White Hope, which he then played on screen.

While he is remembered so much for his voice, he was a powerful presence on the screen.  He could be a farmidable villain in Thusla Doom or a stabilizing presence with his James Greer in the Jack Ryan movies.  He was also one of the few actors that could pull off comedy as well as drama.  His supporting turn in Coming to America is incredibly funny.  And his lampoon of himself on The Big Bang Theory is one of my favorite episodes.  

I think that the movie that best shows his range is one of his best known: Field of Dreams.  In that movie he is dramatic, mysterious, funny, and sage.  All of these mixing qualities never feel false.  You believe he could beat Kevin Costner with a crowbar one moment and then giggle like a child at the idea of leaving this mortal plain.  His "People Will Come" speech might be one of the finest in movie history and it is not simply because of the writing.  His absolute commitment to that monologue makes it move from good to timeless.

But once again, we must return to that voice.  He gave Star Wars such a great villain in his voice for Darth Vader.  For my generation, Darth Vader was the embodiment of evil.  That voice gave him a power that was terrifying.  The look itself was scary, but that voice left an indelible mark on all of us.  There was no mistaking it, there was no replacing it.  It was often imitated, but could never be replaced.  

And I don't think people give him enough credit for the nuance he put into that role.  Go back and listen to his performances.  In the first movie, there is a youthful arrogance in his inflections.  In our memories we hear the weight of that heavy voice.  But listen to how he talks to Obi-Wan with little taunts like "Your powers are weak old man."  He says this like an immature youth.  By the time you get to Return of the Jedi, you hear the wear and tear in his voice.  The long loneliness of the the dark side is keeping him from his son and that is reflected in that voice with his final line, "Just for once, let me look on you with my own eyes."

His regal voice gave such emotional weight to the story of The Lion King.  His classic line "Remember who you are," feels like it carries with it the wisdom of the ages.  He carried that power and dignity through an amazing career on stage and screen, helping him to be one of the rare EGOT achievers.  

Jones was married twice.  He met each of his wives when he was playing Othello and she played opposite him as Desdemono.  He and his first wife divorced after 8 years.  His second wife in 1982 and they were together until her death 35 years later in 2016.  They are survived by their one son, Flynn.

Many people may not know that, like Star Wars co-star Sir Alec Guiness, Jones was a convert to the Catholic faith.  Also like Guiness, he did not speak about it much publicly.  He converted while he was in the military and briefly discerned a call to the priesthood.  He said of that time, "The only thing that I had that was not geared toward the art of killing was the Catholic Church... and the complete works of Shakespeare."  

And with that in mind, I think it fitting that we end with words from his beloved Shakespeare:

"He was a man, take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again."

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him.  May his soul and all the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.  Amen.

Rest in Peace, James Earl Jones

Film Review: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

 

Sexuality/Nudity Mature

Violence Mature

Vulgarity Mature

Anti-Catholic Philosophy Mature

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is a good movie once it gets going.  The problem is that it takes about an hour for it to get going.

The movie takes place several decades after the original.  Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder) hosts a paranormal tv show and is engaged to her smarmy producer Rory (Justin Theroux).  She is haunted by visions of ghosts, particularly of Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton).  But then her step-mother Delia (Catherine O'Hara) lets her know that her father died.  So they get Lydia's estranged daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega) and brings them back to the town from the original movie to have the funeral.  Astrid thinks her mother's supernatural desire is a fraud and she yearns to get away.  She finds a bit of reprieve with a local boy, Jeremy (Arthur Conti).  Meanwhile in the afterlife, a soul-sucking ghost named Delores (Monica Belluci) is on a hunt for Beetlejuice, who is also under the scrutiny of a ghost cop Wolf Jackson (Willem DaFoe), who was an actor in his former life.  Eventually all of these stories converge when Lydia reaches out the Beetlejuice again in desperation.

If that plot sounds a bit convoluted, it is.  It feels like the writers came up with three different scripts and couldn't decide which one to use, so they smashed them together.  As a result, the various storylines don't gell together the way that feels organic.  A number of the supporting characters get way too much screen time.  I understand why they spend so much time on Delia, because the filmmakers think that she would be good comic relief.  The problem is that she comes off more annoying than funny.  Beetlejuice Beetlejuice forgets that in the original, Delia was more of an antagonist and we don't really have a transfer of good will to her.  This is where we really miss the Maitlins (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis), who were the stand in for the normal audience thrust into a weird world.  But in the sequel there are no normies.  Rory is also deeply unfunny.  He reminds me of Otho from the original, but Otho had way less screen time.

Because of the time spent on characters like this, other characters get less development.  Delores is very interesting, but she does very, very little in the movie.  Most of her scenes involve her entering into a room, asking for Beetlejuice, and then killing a ghost.  On top of this, most of her scenes don't actually move the story forward.  They serve only to remind us that she is there as a looming threat.  The same is true of Jeremy.  With a little more breathing room, his story would have a much bigger impact.  But instead it all feels rushed.

Ironically, the first half feels rushed, but it also drags.  That's because these each of the individual stories are truncated so that they can all be pushed together.  And if this was what the entire movie was, then it would not work at all.

But Michael Keaton saves this movie.

Every scene with him pops off the screen.  He ha not lost a beat when it comes to playing this character.  It feels like he just played him a few years, not a few decades ago.  He still has the mad twinkle in his eye of a complete and irredeemable louse who enjoys the chaos he creates.  He would be completely hateful except for the fact that has crazy charisma and makes you laugh constantly.  And the humor is wonderfully inappropriate.  One of the reason we like Beetlejuice is that he is the rebel who sticks it to the stuffed shirts who make things unbearably boring.  The problem with him is that he is a force of nature that cannot be tamed.

Ryder plays Lydia much differently than she did in the original.  She is much more neurotic and nervous.  But this works because Astrid is the cynical and sardonic voice that Lydia was in the first.  But Ortega is not merely mimicking Ryder in the first movie, nor is she rehashing her title character from the Netflix show Wednesday.  Her Astrid is actually very idealistic and emotional, but she hides it behind a wall of coolness.  Some of her best moments are when Jeremy says something that really touches her and she cannot help but let a genuine smile of delight break through.

Visually, the movie is wonderfully quirky.  You have Tim Burton's specific other-worldly aesthetic that combines the macabre, the weird, and the mundane.  The afterlife is both a stifling bureaucracy and a funky nightmare.  Burton is able to balance both of those very well.  There are even a few more new flourishes.  There is a fantastic black and white sequence and another claymation scene that fits right in with the overall look of the movie.  Every time Beetlejuice is on screen, they are able to squeeze out the maximum amount of humor that the movie can give.  I have to admit I laughed out load in the theater more than I thought I would.

Unfortunately, Burton's disdain for Christianity is clear once again.  He isn't openly hostile the way you find in other of his movies like Sleepy Hollow and Edward Scissorhands.  But there is a prominent supporting character that is a priest and Burton made sure to make him as creepy as possible, lacking any kind of compassion or charm.  This, along with its generally dour view of life-after-death, is slightly depressing.

Can I recommend Beetlejuice Beetlejuice?  I think that there is enough fun in this movie to make it worht watching.  But be prepared to slog through long patches of time until the scenes where the 'Juice is loose.