*insert two hours of manical laughter here*
It's official - the Da Vinci Code SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!
Not that I saw it - I read 6 reviews, and not a single one of them was positive! See what happens when you try to screw around with God? He comes back to get you.
Despite attempting to improve upon the book (improve, mind you, is a relative term here), the movie is a colossal failure. It's just too boring; it spends its time dwelling on something that shouldn't be in the movie (well, the movie shouldn't exist, but that's moot at this point in time), and actually ignoring what is supposedly plot relevant. Indeed, Ian McKellen spends well over fifteen minutes describing (according to the book) the history of the Holy Grail. The description has approximately enough material to fill 2 minutes. Even if this was a real movie and not a thinly-veiled attempt at slander, that's still bad movie-making.
Speaking of slander, which is mostly what the book is famous for, it's been toned considerably - they've added alternate points of view and counter-arguments to go against the bible-bashing. While this was supposedly done to help appease the masses, this reduces the controversial aspect of the movie. That's the whole point of the movie, and yet, they cut back on it. Such a sweet poetic justice, methinks.
The acting, which one would expect to be phenom with a cast such as this, is reported to be either amazingly over the top, or flat out flat. When they find these supposed clues essential to the story, that's it. The only reason they find these clues is because it's in the script that they find that particular clue at that time so that the story may continue. Ron Howard, an amazing director, should have known better than to let this slide by in one of his films. Thank you God, that he didn't correct them.
You see? This is what you get for trying to defy God. Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ did amazingly well and got top-notch reviews. I actually heard that they don't expect Da Vinci Code to break 30 million dollars, at least on opening weekend. Jean Claude Van-Damme have done better than this. That's humiliating. Not that Jean Claude is bad actor, it's just that he does cheesy action flicks. Cheesy action flicks might gain a 'cult' following, but they don't do good in the box office. Da Vinci code is one of those films that everyone (except those of us with brains) expects to do well, but then it flops. If Da Vinci Code can't hold up to a Jean Claude Van-Damme film, I will laugh for 2.5 hours straight. And then i'm gonna tap dance all over the floor and yell at and curse the devil for his stupidity.
Yeah, go Christians!!!
I really don't understand why they thought such a crappy book would be such a great hit. After all, once you've read the book (which also has massive monologues) it's not as though you want to pay seven dollars to watch the same thing again.
Also, people's awareness about DVC has been raised in the past few months (go us) and most people who read the book said it was utter nonsense, but a good "first time read", signifying that while entertaining, it was by no means a classic. I just don't get why people can't understand this simple fact; after all we've been telling them so for months, but they are now shocked that the movie is crappy
!
Oh well, their stupidity...
---------------
Just because I have a short attention span doesn't mean ...
No more denying. Stop trying to hide from it.
People are praying. They're saying their hope is near.
- "Destiny", Spirit Blade
insert subject here
I never read the book or saw the movie; all I know is that it has been the #1 seller for a LOOONNGG time.
---------------
Life would be much easier if I had the source code.
---------------
Gone
Overjoyed
The irony is sooooo sweet.
Peace is a lie. There is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force will set me free.
- The Code of the Sith
Alas...
Despite the horrid reviews, and the last minute change in expectations, Da Vinci Code still managed to break out $77,000,000 dollars, right around the original expectations for the films opening gross. Over the Hedge, which actually did get good reviews, somehow still managed to rake in around $37,000,000. It did beat out Mission Impossible III earnings this weekend, which is now up to $103,000,000.
Phear not, for I have rock solid, unshakeable proof that DVC's income will plummet next weekend (and I know everyone in Malex's family cares somewhat less about this, given the one female character; I will rant on her later) - X-Men 3 premires this coming weekend. My entire youth group is going to go see it. Well... what the heck, might as well rant now rather than open a new thread...
The only change I didn't like in the movies, was that in the comic books, in some fashion or another, MYSTIQUE ALWAYS WORE CLOTHES! SHE WASN'T SOME NATURIST FREAK, BLAMMIT!!!!!!! But, then again, given the whopping paycheck, the actress portraying her (though right for the part in every other way) really doesn't seem to care being uncovered for the entire movie.
--
I am Ninja. Hear me stab.
--
"Have you seen how much cotton candy he can eat?"
"Yes! 5.1 Pounds. That's why his blood is so good on pancakes!"
Waffling
Mystique is nude in this movie, and your entire youth group is planning to see it? As a group, sanctioned by the church? Or individually?
I really think we're waffling too much, people. When I was a kid, the sorts of things you see at supermarket checkouts was considered pornography. And pornography was hidden. If people looked at it, they did it secretly and in shame. But we (Christians) tolerated things going a little farther and a little farther, and now pornography has become an everyday pollution that cannot be avoided. If each person had done what they could to hold the line, society would be much cleaner these days.
My parents' generation and my generation should be ashamed for allowing this to happen. But now, what are you kids going to do?
---------------
Just keep swimming!
---------------
I get up, I walk, I fall down. Meanwhile, I keep dancing. - Hillel
If it's any comfort...
Mystique isn't nude per se, she's wearing body paint or latex or something.
Siggy -
I know waiter-fu. Hyah!
Peace is a lie. There is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force will set me free.
- The Code of the Sith
She ain't technically naked
She wears a spandex suit under the paint. It appears that he is naked, though. They're careful with their camera angles and their timing when they have her doing stunts, like in the first film, she had that big fight scene with Wolverine; you saw her, but only at certain points, and the focus was more or less on her head. Still can get annoying though. Don't worry, Mama San, i've learned to avert my gaze at all the crucial moments.
--
I am Ninja. Hear me stab.
--
"Have you seen how much cotton candy he can eat?"
"Yes! 5.1 Pounds. That's why his blood is so good on pancakes!"
On the flip side
Maybe we should be ashamed that it's taken so long! Yeah.
What?
What are you saying?? It can't be what it sounded like...
---------------
You're traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind. A journey into a wonderous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That's the signpost up ahead: "Constuction Zone".
God is leading me along a trail of miracles.
Quartz, I think...
He was responding to SangMing's post about porn, and was not referring to Mystique ... Right
?
---------------
Just because I have a short attention span doesn't mean ...
No more denying. Stop trying to hide from it.
People are praying. They're saying their hope is near.
- "Destiny", Spirit Blade
I know...
It's just as bad either way.
---------------
You're traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind. A journey into a wonderous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That's the signpost up ahead: "Construction Zone".
God is leading me along a trail of miracles.
Guys still shouldnt look at it!!!!
Ok thats still gross! I hate things like victorias secret commertials My ten year old brother sees those and doesnt even think to turn away!!!! That is not how things should be! whatever happened to chivalry?
---------------
Suddenly and horribly, I could hear the Slushy no longer...
---------------
“Yeah,” Ilor said, beginning to laugh, “they'd kill us because they're pirates!”
AMEN!
It would take me a very long time to explain what all is wrong with the constant bombardment of near nudity that permeates our society. I doubt that many of you, being young, would believe me anyway. But I can briefly tell you that I've seen and heard some very heartbreaking things as a result of this casual filth. The effects are as dangerous and as commonplace as secondhand smoke was during my youth. How many of us will develop cancer and other problems from that will never be known. Likewise the full cost of this onslaught of softcore pornography will never be tallied. But you guys are the ones who will suffer, although you probably can't begin to imagine how now. You guys are the only ones who can protect yourselves, since adults don't seem to want the responsibility.
If I was a teenager now, I'd demand accountablility from my parents, teachers, preachers, youth group leaders, anyone and everyone who has any power. When I was a teenager, we protested the war in Vietnam and eventually got results. We protested pollution and got results. Why are you guys letting adults do this to you?
Or am I being too radical?
---------------
Just keep swimming!
---------------
I get up, I walk, I fall down. Meanwhile, I keep dancing. - Hillel
Simmer down now...
I understand your feelings, but I think you're letting it get to you TOO much there. I'm willing to (litteraly) overlook her scenes to get to the rest of the movie. Trust me, with all the volume, no amount of closing my eyes is gonna make me fall asleep, i'll be awake - I just won't be looking.
Trust me, I know Adam (our youth pastor) well enough that if he suspected that seeing her (or anything like that in a movie) would cause a person to slip and fall, he wouldn't let that person, or possibly even the entire group go. He's very careful on he lets us do; he was calling us out on some bad movies most of last summer (By us, I mean the group in general; I wasn't involved with these films).
--
I am Ninja. Hear me stab.
--
"Have you seen how much cotton candy he can eat?"
"Yes! 5.1 Pounds. That's why his blood is so good on pancakes!"
Not to get off topic...
When I was a teenager, we protested the war in Vietnam and eventually got results.
I thought Vietnam ended because we won.
Siggy -
I know waiter-fu. Hyah!
Peace is a lie. There is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force will set me free.
- The Code of the Sith
'Nam ended alright
We lost. You see, our special forces units that were stationed there were more than capable of fighting the guerrial war that was going on, the rest of the army would have developed tactics within a few months to a year as they arrived that would have helped them fight the guerrial war, and when the real army showed up, we could have beaten them down to. But, between some turely idiotic commanders, politicians that tried to run the war, even though they hadn't the slightest idea of what they were doing, and also John Kerry, the commies were able to run us out of the country.
Note that this is a highly summed up version of what happened and is very much paraphrased. But it's the (most watered down) gist of what happened.
--
I am Ninja. Hear me stab.
--
"Have you seen how much cotton candy he can eat?"
"Yes! 5.1 Pounds. That's why his blood is so good on pancakes!"
I agree with Sangming
We should protest! Aisling, come up with an idea, cuz I got nothin...
---------------
Suddenly and horribly, I could hear the Slushy no longer...
---------------
“Yeah,” Ilor said, beginning to laugh, “they'd kill us because they're pirates!”
Porn
I also have the ability to filter things that are inappropriate, like Crazy J. My mom, sadly doesn't have this ability and is constantly worried about what I'm watching/reading and can't enjoy it with me. This makes things interesting in a house of TV watchers and bookworms
. I can't read many things with my mom, so when we find something good, we absolutly milk it 
!!
Porn is definately a problem, but I can ignore it. However, me must make an effort to protect those unfortunates who can't just ignore it!
---------------
"I refuse to continue unless I recieve a full apology!"
"And in a free, perfect world, you would certainly recieve one. However, as this world is neither perfect nor fair, you won't"
-- "The Outlaws of Sherwood
No more denying. Stop trying to hide from it.
People are praying. They're saying their hope is near.
- "Destiny", Spirit Blade
Filter?
Sometimes, filtering isn't good enough. Sometimes you have to decide, is it really worth wadeing through this? And I know from experience, and from respectable sources, that even filtering doesn't work sometimes. It does damage and you don't even realize it.
---------------
"It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." - Sherlock Holmes in The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet
You know how to raspberry, don't you Steve? You just put your tongue out and blow.
What!
Marile! If your mom is worried about you reading it you shouldn't!!!! Even listening to some songs or seeing stuff on tv that you dont like but not focusing on how bad it is right then will slowly make you think its ok.
Did that make any sense? To anyone?
---------------
Suddenly and horribly, I could hear the Slushy no longer...
---------------
“Yeah,” Ilor said, beginning to laugh, “they'd kill us because they're pirates!”
It's Alright.
The beauty of human communication is the ability to compensate for lack of clarity on the input end.
---------------
I may not have broken any records on the last ramp, but it's because I'm building speed for the next one.
God is leading me along a trail of miracles.
I agree
I agree with you, Lilly. Trust your mother, Mariel. I know you think you're "filtering" it out. But just because you're not consciously aware of the trouble, doesn't mean it isn't impacting you, just like secondhand smoke. If nothing else, it is definitly searing your conscience. In other words, Lilly, just what you said, slowly making you think it's okay.
If you took the latest swimsuit issue back in time and tried to display it in checkout lines in the 1950's, you would have been arrested. Honest.But the collective conscience of society has been seared to what was once considered pornogrphy. What do you think will be in the checkout lines that you'll be trying to shield your kids from someday?
---------------
No more compromise, no more room for lies.
No more giving in to a world of sin.
-"No More Compromise" by Rubicon 7
---------------
I get up, I walk, I fall down. Meanwhile, I keep dancing. - Hillel
Trust you?
if he suspected that seeing her (or anything like that in a movie) would cause a person to slip and fall, he wouldn't let that person, or possibly even the entire group go.
What would he do, single Bob out as unable to deal with the temptations of the flesh and make him stay home while all the spiritual big boys get to to the movies?
And exactly what harm do you think the sight of a fully naked woman will do? Cause you to grow horns? Don't you suspect the damage will be more subtle than that? Do you think that a Christian's willingness to dally with a little bit of sin might grieve the Holy Spirit? Not that we don't all sin a lot, but must we indulge when we know better?
I leave you with a quote from Ephesians 5:9-12 (NIV) ...for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth, and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret.
---------------
No more compromise, no more room for lies.
No more giving in to a world of sin.
-"No More Compromise" by Rubicon 7
---------------
I get up, I walk, I fall down. Meanwhile, I keep dancing. - Hillel
Engagement
I have, as probably most of you know, remained silent on this conversation, except with the occasional reply to off-subject remarks, or slightly off-subject replies to on-subject remarks. The reason for this is that I don't give enough of a darn about X Men to mind for an instant the idea of never seeing the movie, so my opinion really wasn't necessary.
But now I do have something to say, after five days of ponderation on whether I do, and if so, the wording of what I have to say.
There are some movies or shows that are worth going to the trouble of filtering. The (quite satisfactory) way Mom and Dad do it is inform us when to "look away". If necessary, the volume on the television will be turned off momentarily. Whether X Men's worth is equal to those movies is irrelevant.
The thing about X Men is that the amount of bad (I know that wording is convaluted; just bear with me.) makes the movie not worth it, no matter how much the movie would have been worth it. The dew point rises above the temperature, no matter what temperature it was.
Here's why I say that:
If you looked away at every part where you might see the character like you say you do, you would be looking away at an unreasonably large percentage of the movie. I'm not kidding--people around you in the theatre would start to wonder. I've seen the other X Men movies. You'd be looking away during pivotal plot developments where there is no explanatory dialigue, too.
So, in order to look away when you might see the character like you say you do, you would have to miss have of the movie. And because you wouldn't know when to look away, you would be occupied with the constant effort to guess whether you might need to in the next few seconds. It's very hard for me to picture someone doing that and not having there enjoyment of the movie even slightly robbed from them.
Now I'm sure there are some strange people who are so darn intent on seeing the movie anyway that they take a friend along who has seen the movie and memorized where you see the character so they can tell you when to look away, and have the friend narrate the the scenes that are necessary. But at that point it's a ridiculous cause, and it opens a sibling can of worms about the friend having seen the nudity, unless it was a girl.
And apart from all that, the very idea that this character is walking around naked, starkened in your mind by the fact that you're trying to avoid noticing it, can do damage all by itself.
This is another reason I don't want to like common media, even when people I know say it's good. I simply do not trust them with my enjoyment. I simply can't trust them to do it right.
---------------
I may not have broken any records on the last ramp, but it's because I'm building speed for the next one.
God is leading me along a trail of miracles.
Hey...
I just realized... There is a tenuous similarity between this conversation and this conversation...
---------------
I may not have broken any records on the last ramp, but it's because I'm building speed for the next one.
God is leading me along a trail of miracles.
Uh Oh girls
I want to grab one small part of what you said and comment on it.
But at that point it's a ridiculous cause, and it opens a sibling can of worms about the friend having seen the nudity, unless it was a girl.
My question is how is it better for a girl to see it? Simply because mistique (sp) is a female hardly makes it right. What if the sister you ask struggles with un-Godly desires? I know that society tries to tell us that for women seeing nudity is not the problem that it is for men but seriously we have magazines that are the opposite of playboy for women out there. They may not be grabbing the percentage of the population but its hardly a small problem. Looking at it from another perspective is that if asking a girl to help us navigate the dangers of our physical sight is important for guys what are we protecting her from? Ever consider a gentle caress by logan on jeans cheek might be just as problematic?
Ok, I'm asking many of these questions in a retorical light and I realize that quartz was hardly focusing on this point and there are much greater ones in the post but I also saw an opportunity to discuss a problem I see fairly often.
Everybody Has a Seed to Sow
Wait a minute...
"My question is how is it better for a girl to see it? Simply because mistique (sp) is a female hardly makes it right." -Jeremy Tech
...You're joking...right?
---------------
I may not have broken any records on the last ramp, but it's because I'm building speed for the next one.
God is leading me along a trail of miracles.
Moving right along
I twasn't joking
---------------
Everybody Has a Seed to Sow
Everybody Has a Seed to Sow
In that case...
I'm handing this one over to someone more eligible.
---------------
I may not have broken any records on the last ramp, but it's because I'm building speed for the next one.
God is leading me along a trail of miracles.
A ridiculous case
how is it better for a girl to see it?
It's hard to believe you're not trying to be funny here. Sure, if the girl struggles with unnatural tendancies, it's a problem. It's also a problem for her if her body is not perfect when Mystique's is. It might dishearten her. But other than that, it should be pretty much okay. Of course, the whole point is, as Quartz pointed out, silly and pointless. The scenario of a Christian man wanting to see X-Men3 badly enough to ask a sister in Christ to screen it for female nudity, then go to the theater with him to tell him when it's okay to look is just preposterous.
society tries to tell us that for women seeing nudity is not the problem that it is for men
I think you've got this backward JT. Society (media) tries to tell us the opposite. That women are affected by male nudity the way men are by female nudity. You see it all the time in movies, women ogling nude men. In real life, women just are not affected the same way. We do not go out of our way to see naked men. God made men and women very different and this is one of the fundamental differences. The magazines you cite do not sell. In fact, I don't think they exist anymore. If they do, it may be gays buying them. Girls may look once or twice as a novelty, but not regularly.
If this conversation is to go any deeper than it has, we need to continue privately, I think. And I am disinclined to do so. But I want to say this in closing. Your belief that women are prowling like men do is fostered by the media. This belief, which is becoming widespread, is extremely harmful to women, and is even more devastating to those men who have porn problems and those women who are affected by them.
---------------
No more compromise, no more room for lies.
No more giving in to a world of sin.
-"No More Compromise" by Rubicon 7
---------------
I get up, I walk, I fall down. Meanwhile, I keep dancing. - Hillel
My viewpoint
I'm also disinclined to continue this although I disagree with some points made. My point is that I think according to the mores expressed it's no more appropriate for a girl to view than a guy. If you disagree that's fine you've stated your position quite well and you'll all have huge issue's with scenes in X3 (because I did
).
Everybody Has a Seed to Sow