Related articles and links |  1 of 5

My first year steering Film Forum through reviews, debates, and discussions has been an education. It hasn't been the most memorable year for movies. But we've experienced a continental shift in the conversation regarding violence on the big screen. For example, after the release of In the Bedroom, letters demonstrated that the wounds of September 11 were still raw and there was an urgency to viewers' soul-searching as they questioned the ethics of revenge.

I've also seen just how many ways, in conversation, in print, and online, that Christians can respond to their culture. Many believers will only accept and praise films that bear a blatant scriptural sermon to the audience. Others warn Christians away from the cinema, treating contemporary secular films as poisonous. Some approach the multiplex as though they're stepping into a minefield, carefully marking anything that might offend or "corrupt" them.

Recently I have had the privilege of participating in a new endeavor—The Promontory Film Critics' Circle. Several critics frequently excerpted in Film Forum are now working in concert to cultivate in-depth conversation among Christians about movies, how they should be made, and what they mean. (The group is being organized by Doug Cummings of Chiaroscuro, Steve Lansingh of The Film Forum, and myself.) I hope Film Forum serves a similar purpose for you in the coming year, leading you to rewarding perspectives, making moviegoing a more nourishing experience.

Hot from the Oven
Enough about the last year at Film Forum. There are other backward-looking endeavors to consider. One of literature's most beloved sci-fi writers, H.G. Wells, has given us The Invisible Man, The War of the Worlds, and the often-adapted The Time Machine. The story remains popular, its influence evident in numerous big-screen and television favorites, from Back to the Future to Star Trek to Quantum Leap.

This new big screen adaptation introduces drastic revisions. The scientist-inventor-hero (Guy Pearce) is now crushed by the loss of his sweetheart. So he employs a time travel vehicle that's part gyroscope, part cockpit, part Harley-Davidson—a whirligig that hurls him backward and forward, first in an attempt to prevent the death of his beloved, then in a quest to gain understanding from a future world 800,000 years away. In the future, he discovers the Eloi, an above-ground people caught up in conflict with monstrous subterranean Morlocks. The Morlocks are orc-like beasts led by a ghostly psychic (played by Jeremy Irons, who must have slept in a tub of bleach to achieve his ghastly appearance.

The film is directed by Wells's great-grandson Simon Wells (The Prince of Egypt). But Wells departed the project near its completion, and Gore Verbinski (The Mexican) took over. The result is a fusion of smirking comedy and action/adventure that became the weekend's box office champ but scored very few points with critics.

Michael Elliott (Movie Parables) complains that the directors "straddle between two genres and ultimately satisfy fans of neither." The silver lining: "One thing the film does depict well … is the truth that no matter what man does to ruin this planet for himself, God designed it to endure."

Bob Smithouser (Focus on the Family) calls it "an amusing B-movie … a mindless popcorn flick. The movie raises issues of conformity, guilt, and deciding when it's appropriate to accept one's fate and when it's better to fight it."

Although she too liked the film, Holly McClure (Crosswalk) warns worried parents: "I predict your kids will have bad dreams for weeks."

next page... |  1 of 5

share this page

March (Web-only) 2002, Vol. 46