Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Legion (the movie)

From wikipedia, the plot of the upcoming new film Legion.

“After God loses faith in humanity, the archangel Michael (Paul Bettany) is the only one standing between mankind and the apocalypse. This time using angels as the act of Biblical 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.”

The links above were put there by wikipedia and whoever wrote the article about the film. Any links below are mine. The image is, I presume, of the archangel Michael, a very good-looking human for being one of the bodiless powers—according to Orthodox concepts maybe a little too human, right down to his mini-tattoos and the frontal hair. I suppose it's only cultural updating that puts an automatic weapon in one hand and—what is it?—a dagger? in the other.

Like the film I once saw some years ago about Noah and the Ark, in which pirates were attacking the ark (actually, it was Lot and his gang, having escaped from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, shown in the film as having taken place before the Great Flood!), the creators of this movie simply don't know their bible. And should we expect them to? Well, yes, if they intended to produce a film worth seeing. Michael the Archangel is the one who said "Who is like God?"—in fact, that's why we name him as we do, "mi ka El" are the words he spoke, confronting Satan who aspired to be like God. No one, in fact, knows what this archangel is really called, or even if it has a name that human lips can utter. Angels are a completely different species, as a matter of fact. They're not of this earth. In this film, Michael is recast really into the role of the fallen angel Lucifer, aka Satan.

As for the abuse of the concept of the Apocalypse, what can we say? This kind of thing is not new, but the topic has made it to Hollywood a lot lately, for example in the flick 2012. I much prefer watching fantasy movies that admit to being fantasies, like District 9, to ones like 2012 (which regretably, I did go and see) or this newest one, Legion. The title of this film signifies to me only one thing, the name of the demons inhabiting the Gerasene demoniac.
I wonder if the producers of this movie recognize the connexion.


The final touch to this whole farce, and a blasphemous one at that, is portraying a poor New Mexico greasy spoon waitress as the possible mother of a second incarnation of Jesus Christ.

Do these authors not know that Jesus Christ came the first time, born of woman, in a place that everyone knows, because He is Messiah ben Joseph, the suffering Servant who was put to death to atone for the sin of the world? Don't they know that He was rejected by the chief priests, pharisees and scribes, and handed over to the Romans to be put to death, because the messiah they wanted was the other one, Messiah ben David, who is not born of woman, who comes from a place no one knows, and who will execute judgment on the nations, and reign in Israel as eternal King?

Having been born once, put to death once, risen from the dead once, and ascended to the right hand of Divine Majesty, He no longer has to be born of woman. He is alive forever, and His second coming is not another incarnation or avatar, as the world calls it, but simply a return, a reappearance, a parousía, in which He will return, as holy and divine scripture declares, in the company of His saints, to execute judgment on the unbelieving world.

Films like this one do much for Hollywood (maybe) but absolutely nothing to help people understand the times we are living in, or the danger involved for those who choose to live in myths rather than the Truth. Film makers like those who produced this film as well as others with similar warped messages, such as the lately released and highly acclaimed Avatar, are predators enriching themselves at the expense of the loss of millions of souls, most of them too young and inexperienced to tell the difference between reality and fantasy.

It is in this direction that the prince of this world has been leading humanity ever since he deceived our first Fore-Mother Eve, and now that his end is approaching, with the scythe of his lies He is harvesting a wide swath of souls.

May the light of Christ that is shed abroad in this dark world by His holy Theophany enlighten those who live in darkness, as the prophet sings (cf. Isaiah 9:2), and may Christ deliver those who are otherwise condemned to die. For He is risen and has emptied Hades once, and taken men as tribute to His Father on high, from whence He shall come with them to judge the living and the dead.

Δοξα Σοι, ο Θεος ημων, δοξα Σοι!
Glory to You, O our God! Glory to You!

1 comment:

Jacob said...

Sigh... yet another stupid piece of Hollywood nincompoopery that will leave the young masses full of nonsense... as if Dan Brown's novels weren't enough distracting rot.

It's bad enough the only bible stories people today know comes from Disney and musicals.