Wow! So many raving reviews! Makes me want to bring mind something in the actual Christian Scriptures, "Beware when all men speak well of you..."
There is not anything in here about Christian apologetics, especially not about the existence of God. I would say that it actually goes in the opposite direction from the other movies, to move the argument from reasoned debate to subjective feelings. There is not one moment where the viewer is actually asked to think. It's possibly even a hijack of the meme to keep selling the franchise. (To sell promotional materials, plug a book, advertise a touring rock band! - in the bonus features on the DVD)
This movie is about a man's emotional attachment to a building and a fight over its imminent destruction couched in it's supposed value or threat religiously. It is not about a fight for free speech or for the Faith. Some points of Faith are rejected and mocked by characters with no answer, even seeming to want the viewer to agree and not question. Besides that there are some glaring negative stereotypes of the supposedly good Christians. The lead "good-guy" characters seem to be the ones with the most doubts about God along with being the least honest with themselves. Kind of like they don't have any principles on which to stand and in the end they prove it.
I don't really want to go into how implausible the whole lot of premises are, which alone merits a don't go, don't see review.
The ending is a real stinker - no resolution, just an amazingly dumb Kum-By-Yah, let's just all get along moment. No one will convert because of this film. The only choice presented is between being nice or not being nice. Nice is the one where you maybe feel like there is a God who might be alive - but even that is only implied.
Makes me wonder how Pure Flix has managed to stop being Christian! It's a new kind of not-Dead God being promoted here, one where it doesn't matter what you believe or not about Him. This God is not a person but an idea in people's heads about whom you may have as many doubts as you wish - as long as you can succumb to group pressure to light a candle.
So, it comes back to marketing - this movie is about creating a larger niche for the Christian Rock mega-church crowd - to embrace all agnostics by having "Christians" who imitate them. It is a seduction of souls that does not seek to unite them to Christ through Faith. A work without faith and it's Dead.
There is not anything in here about Christian apologetics, especially not about the existence of God. I would say that it actually goes in the opposite direction from the other movies, to move the argument from reasoned debate to subjective feelings. There is not one moment where the viewer is actually asked to think. It's possibly even a hijack of the meme to keep selling the franchise. (To sell promotional materials, plug a book, advertise a touring rock band! - in the bonus features on the DVD)
This movie is about a man's emotional attachment to a building and a fight over its imminent destruction couched in it's supposed value or threat religiously. It is not about a fight for free speech or for the Faith. Some points of Faith are rejected and mocked by characters with no answer, even seeming to want the viewer to agree and not question. Besides that there are some glaring negative stereotypes of the supposedly good Christians. The lead "good-guy" characters seem to be the ones with the most doubts about God along with being the least honest with themselves. Kind of like they don't have any principles on which to stand and in the end they prove it.
I don't really want to go into how implausible the whole lot of premises are, which alone merits a don't go, don't see review.
The ending is a real stinker - no resolution, just an amazingly dumb Kum-By-Yah, let's just all get along moment. No one will convert because of this film. The only choice presented is between being nice or not being nice. Nice is the one where you maybe feel like there is a God who might be alive - but even that is only implied.
Makes me wonder how Pure Flix has managed to stop being Christian! It's a new kind of not-Dead God being promoted here, one where it doesn't matter what you believe or not about Him. This God is not a person but an idea in people's heads about whom you may have as many doubts as you wish - as long as you can succumb to group pressure to light a candle.
So, it comes back to marketing - this movie is about creating a larger niche for the Christian Rock mega-church crowd - to embrace all agnostics by having "Christians" who imitate them. It is a seduction of souls that does not seek to unite them to Christ through Faith. A work without faith and it's Dead.