Thursday, March 28, AD 2024 6:01pm

Hollywood Angelology

I probably shouldn’t be surprised, but I am.

Last fall I saw a trailer for a new movie that’s coming out next week called Legion, in which Michael the archangel defends humanity against the armies of (good?) angels which God has sent to wipe out humanity. Here’s the plot summary from Wikipedia:

“After God loses faith in humanity, the archangel Michael (Paul Bettany), who has become a fallen angel, is the only one standing between mankind and Armageddon. This time using angels to execute the Last Judgment, God’s wrath descends on Earth to exterminate the world’s population. In a desperate, last-chance gambit, Michael leads a group of strangers to a small New Mexico diner to protect a young waitress who may be pregnant with Christ in his second coming.”

I’m just dumbfounded by the complete inversion of reality here. Michael is, I guess, a fallen angel, but he’s fighting for humanity against God. And God wants to wipe out humanity, but Jesus is about to be born again??? If you watch the trailer (or the even worse, R-rated extended version), you’ll see how God’s angels (the good angels? Or are they bad?) are portrayed in a manner I’d describe as demonic, certainly not angelic. And I haven’t even mentioned the fact that you can kill these angels (who scurry up walls and along ceilings, and whose arms and jaws extend unnaturally) with a shotgun blast. Because they have bodies, you know.

I guess having humanity fight demons is too cliche, so Hollywood had to develop this little twist, but it’s so ridiculous! As I said, I know I shouldn’t be surprised, but I am.

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Zach
Friday, January 15, AD 2010 5:22pm

The movie looks demonic.

Tito Edwards
Friday, January 15, AD 2010 5:46pm

That pretty much eliminates this film for my viewing enjoyment.

I’ll be watching A Man for All Seasons instead.

Can I assume that the title of the movie is in reference to the demon Legion in the Holy Gospel of Saint Mark 5:9?

And he asked him: What is thy name? And he saith to him: My name is Legion, for we are many.

Joe Hargrave
Friday, January 15, AD 2010 5:58pm

Hollywood’s hatred for God is unlimited.

restrainedradical
Friday, January 15, AD 2010 6:02pm

I’m going to reserve judgment until I see it. Maybe there’s some crazy plot twists and it turns out to be a good Christian film.

Tito Edwards
Friday, January 15, AD 2010 6:03pm

RR,

Paul Bettany also starred as the Opus Dei albino monk assassin.

Is there a pattern that I am detecting of this English actor?

Joe Hargrave
Friday, January 15, AD 2010 6:05pm

I doubt it. These people absolutely hate God, and they admire Satan for rebelling against him – whether they see that as a reality or a myth, that is who and what they identify with.

Henry Karlson
Friday, January 15, AD 2010 6:11pm

Some people have pointed out that “the fallen angel” supporting his own messiah sounds like “making the audience root for the anti-Christ.” We have come to this.

Henry Karlson
Friday, January 15, AD 2010 6:13pm

Here’s a good quote:

“So, it would appear that just about everything in this movie in relation to the Christian worldview upon which it is supposed to be based has been turned on its head. Now I understand that the producers are trying to spin this as a re-telling of the Old Testament Flood narrative with God giving up on mankind and effectively hitting the reset button, but in no way was God ever depicted as the bad guy in that scenario, so that analogy doesn’t hold up. This treatment of this worldview betrays either an unfamiliarity with the subject matter or an utter disdain for it. At this point one might think it would be time to ask what this says about the folks behind the production of this film, but there is something else that concerns me greater. Similar treatment of the Star Wars or Star Trek universes by a director would stir up a firestorm across the blogosphere the likes of which we have never seen. Yet in this case there is mostly silence. So, what does that say about us?”

http://www.fusedfilm.com/2009/08/geekgasm-legion-who-are-the-good-guys-again/

Henry Karlson
Friday, January 15, AD 2010 6:20pm

As an aside, I’ve considered all the light-porn angels we see, such as in Victoria’s Secret ads, are good evidence for existence of the succubus…

Tito Edwards
Friday, January 15, AD 2010 6:25pm

HK,

light-porn angels we see, such as in Victoria’s Secret ads, are good evidence for existence of the succubus

Good catch on that one. I’m sure Victoria Secret won’t like that bit of info.

Joe Hargrave
Friday, January 15, AD 2010 6:27pm

It also says,

“So, we have a movie where the audience is asked to root for Satan as he tries to protect the Antichrist from being killed by God. Nice.”

Yes, this is exactly what they want. They’ve been doing it through music for decades, and subtly through film, but now it is out in the open. It is out in the open because they know that now most people either agree with, or are indifferent to, their message – and that even the people who see it for what it is and are appalled by it will do absolutely nothing about it.

They aren’t just mocking Christianity. They’re spitting in our faces. And there will be millions of fans of this, who have been prepared now for a generation to hate Christianity and above all the Catholic Church.

I could say a lot more, but I’ll leave it at that.

Tito Edwards
Friday, January 15, AD 2010 6:28pm

Joe,

I agree wholeheartedly.

I could say a lot more, but I’ll leave it at that.

That would be good for another post don’t you think?

😉

Zach
Friday, January 15, AD 2010 6:29pm

“As an aside, I’ve considered all the light-porn angels we see, such as in Victoria’s Secret ads are good evidence for existence of the succubus…”

agreed

Joe Hargrave
Friday, January 15, AD 2010 6:38pm

Tito,

Perhaps 🙂

Patrick
Patrick
Friday, January 15, AD 2010 8:27pm

Similar themes have been popular in video games for years, though that’s probably due to historical anti-Christian prejudice in Japanese culture.

Anthony
Anthony
Friday, January 15, AD 2010 8:54pm

Why would God try to prevent the second coming of Himself? Seems like a plot point thats either going to end up with a lame explanation or be completely ignored… which is what I’ll be doing to this movie.

Joe Hargrave
Friday, January 15, AD 2010 11:05pm

“The portrayal of God is obviously not a Christian one…”

That really depends. I believe the makers of this film fully intend for the audience to accept in their minds that this is the one God, the God of Jews, Christians, Muslims and assorted sects and cults, the God that has been called “Yaweh” and “Jehova.”

By virtue of what they propose God is doing, no, is not our God. But that isn’t the point. The harm will be done regardless. Movies such as this are both caused by, and contribute to, the moral, spiritual and intellectual degeneracy of our time. I believe this movie has been created to give the open and violent enemies of God, and the open admirers of Satan, something to salivate over. It is a celebration of rebellion against the one true God, who it turns out was a mean guy all along – don’t you see, that Satan guy had the right idea.

It would be a grave and foolish mistake – and I don’t accuse you or anyone else here of this, mind you – to shrug this off, or get a laugh out of it. At no point in Scripture did God find blasphemy amusing, at no point has the Church found it amusing. It is always something to be taken with the utmost seriousness.

Finally, I do believe that God is capable of anger, vengeance, and “getting medieval” – but also, as we know, of infinite mercy and love. These are not mutual exclusives. Only to modern man have they become so.

Foxfier
Saturday, January 16, AD 2010 1:20am

Annoys me that 1) it would be *easy* to make this movie OK with at least shallow Christian mythos and 2) they are STILL making everything look like the CGI of The Mummy.

Lazy.

To both.

Henry Karlson
Saturday, January 16, AD 2010 2:37am

One could, in theory, say this is a Gnostic film, and that would be why “God” would oppose the second coming, but it really feels more as if it is an Antichrist film

Gabriel Austin
Gabriel Austin
Saturday, January 16, AD 2010 11:17am

I think it hilarious that the new Messiah is discovered in a diner in New Mexico. Does anyone have an idea of which diner in which town?

There is a level of absurdity which is too far out to criticize or to make mock of.

Henry Karlson
Saturday, January 16, AD 2010 12:36pm

Chris,

I thought there could be a sense of inspiration from Pullman going on here, which would both allow for Gnosticism, and allow for the scriptwriter to include it without knowing what he/she is doing.

Donna V.
Donna V.
Saturday, January 16, AD 2010 1:13pm

“I think it hilarious that the new Messiah is discovered in a diner in New Mexico.”

Is his first line “Can I finish my waffle?”

an incurable optimist
an incurable optimist
Monday, January 18, AD 2010 6:08pm

I think it hilarious that the new Messiah is discovered in a diner in New Mexico.

So much for returning in glory.

karen harris
Tuesday, January 19, AD 2010 8:56am

well, Hollywood has hit a new low, really low. They must be getting very desparate at trying to shock us. We all need to write a letter-to-the-editor of our local news papers urging christians, jews and muslims not to spend one dime on this movie that encourages us to rebel against God and side with fallen angels who are supposedly sticking up for us. Sure…thats going to happen.

Foxfier
Tuesday, January 19, AD 2010 9:01am

Given the many *fake* “Christian protests” that have gone down, we don’t want to do that.

Perhaps, more effectively, we could tell a better story?

emma
emma
Saturday, January 23, AD 2010 12:17pm

i just saw the movie last night, and the angels certainly did look demonic, and with the due consideration that they “possessed” human bodies in order to take out the “new messiah”… well, at least it explains why they can be killed, i guess. the archangel gabriel is sent to actually kill the baby, which bothered me more than almost anything else in the plot line. the movie itself was cheesy and didn’t give any regard to the actual biblical stories, one that it even references. i was still resting under the impression that God has promised that He will never kill his children off again.

but in the end, He is supposed to have come to his senses because of saint michael and realized that humanity is still good and He still loves them, so i suppose it has a happy ending after all.

emma
emma
Saturday, January 23, AD 2010 12:23pm

also, i feel it important to add that the angels who possessed aforementioned bodies came with flies, which was, i was always taught, a sign or demons/satan. this is just a bad movie based shallowly on the end of days, with a few out-of-context biblical references and some “get your life straight” lines sprinkled in.

overall… i wouldn’t give it much more thought than given to constantine or any number of movies fitting the same motif.

Tito Edwards
Sunday, January 24, AD 2010 1:33pm

Emma,

Thanks for the update! Interesting ending as you said.

Chris B.,

Tito, the funny thing is, Bettany also played the Catholic doctor Stephen Maturin in Master and Commander with Russell Cr

Stephen played a cynical character that doubted and questioned tradition. His only saving character trait was that he helped secure the capture of the French frigate while disregarding his selfish impulse of continuing his naturalist research.

restrainedradical
Sunday, February 21, AD 2010 8:29pm

Finally saw it. I don’t think it was really anti-Christian. Despite the premise, religion doesn’t feature prominently. You’d think there’d at least be some religious imagery. Nothing. It must’ve been one of the dumbest movies I’ve ever seen. There’s so many holes in the story you wonder if the writers even thought this through. Watched it with my mother who was laughing. It’s that ridiculous.

Sophie
Sophie
Saturday, July 3, AD 2010 2:24pm

Better than Hollywood angelology, or even the new novel Angelology, is a true life story of a musician and a life with angels and their teachings for the world today.

See it at Amazon. Angels on My Stage: The True Story of Eddie Benitez

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