I enjoyed the geek side of PAUL. All the sci-fi and fantasy quotes and allusions and the veritable chorus line of Slave Leias at ComicCon and oh yes, the Wilhelm Scream was in there too.
But I'm of similar opinion in that the film really mishandled the religion angle something fierce. Even though Paul asserts he doesn't invalidate all faiths, I still got an impression that the film confused Creationism with religion as a whole, or at least presented a general polarized line between religion and science. The strawman creationist (and the strawkristenwiig, which was weirder to type than it is to read) were also embarrassingly one-dimensional, almost drawn from a Bizarro Jack Chick tract.
Still, the film tries for balance but just a little bit. One character is saved by their faith. Paul does throw out the disclaimer, and doesn't deny the existence of any higher powers. (However, while he uses the correct term Abrahamic, at another point he quotes "an eye for an eye" as coming from the Old Testament. Hammurabi wouldn't be pleased.)
I saw this on Friday and have been mulling it over the entire weekend. I want to write more about it but am waiting for spoilers to blow over.
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Date: 2011-03-21 08:58 am (UTC)But I'm of similar opinion in that the film really mishandled the religion angle something fierce. Even though Paul asserts he doesn't invalidate all faiths, I still got an impression that the film confused Creationism with religion as a whole, or at least presented a general polarized line between religion and science. The strawman creationist (and the strawkristenwiig, which was weirder to type than it is to read) were also embarrassingly one-dimensional, almost drawn from a Bizarro Jack Chick tract.
Still, the film tries for balance but just a little bit. One character is saved by their faith. Paul does throw out the disclaimer, and doesn't deny the existence of any higher powers. (However, while he uses the correct term Abrahamic, at another point he quotes "an eye for an eye" as coming from the Old Testament. Hammurabi wouldn't be pleased.)
I saw this on Friday and have been mulling it over the entire weekend. I want to write more about it but am waiting for spoilers to blow over.