Serenity

—1. Overview (multimedia)
—2. Overview Basic (dial up speed)
—3. Reviews and Blogs
—4. Cast and Crew
—5. Photo Pages
—6. Trailers, Clips, DVDs, Books, Soundtrack
—7. Posters
—8. Production Notes (pdf)
—9. Spiritual Connections

Serenity is a contradiction in terms: it’s the name of a ship on the run, named after a battle that continues to bring our heroes more war than peace, but represents the sole hope of humankind. This discrepancy represents this television series-turned-film as well: it’s a space western with a ‘new’ language of blended Old English and Chinese. The series was axed by its distributor but Joss Whedon’s love for it and the love of its fans brought it back. But the actual struggle between characters and within characters is what makes the movie (and the show) so sweet. Discounting the action, fight-choreography, and humor would be a dishonor to the movie because all those ingredients make this an entertaining ride, but the changing depth of the characters makes this a good one. Note: Some spoilers may occur!

Meet Mal (Nathan Fillion), the battle-scarred captain of said ship, who has faith in nothing but defends his crew to the death. Meet Mal’s motley crew of misfit space pirates, who grudgingly take on Simon and River Tam (Sean Maher and Summer Glau) again and encounter more trouble from the government conglomerate, the Alliance, than they ever did during the war. Meet Shepherd Book (Ron Glass), the peace-preaching reverend who serves as an advisor to Mal…in addition to Mr. Universe (David Krumholtz), whose only companion is a remote-control female droid.

The movie pits Mal against the Alliance (no surprise!) but after brief explanations on ‘how we got here,’ the film sets up the main combatants—Mal & Co. versus The Operative (Chiwetel Ejiofor.) Mal represents a man so scarred by the war that he has lost his faith in everything except himself, while the Operative believes in the Alliance, talks about sin and perfection, and promotes his purpose to fulfill the overall good. What transpires over the course of the movie is the gradual transition of Mal from one who is self-centered and self-serving to one who becomes focused on the good of the whole and serving others. Mal’s lack of faith grinds again and again against the faith of Shepherd Book but the teachings that Shepherd lives by become evident in Mal’s actions, even if he does not articulate them in the same way.

The beauty of Mal’s character is that he’s an everyman. Human beings tend to focus on themselves more than others until something snaps them out of it. River Tam is that ‘snap’ in Mal’s life—and his newfound awareness forces him into action. While the Alliance and the Operative are firm in their absolute correctness, Mal and his crew represent a gray, nebulous cloud of doubt and insecurity. They still hold to the crew as absolute, as family, but the family lines grow and change. Their discovery of the Alliance’s secret and their willingness to sacrifice everything to prevent tragedy show that they may be more moderate than the Alliance in their beliefs, but they care the truth anyway. This dichotomy models the battle between religious extremes and the moderate middle: both ends of the spectrum believe they are correct with no room for flexibility, while the moderate finds truth in the basics, with room for discussion around the middle. Serenity shows that playing God in any aspect often leads to a great fall!

And I would be remiss to leave out the Reavers, the humans who have seen that there is great space out there and ‘become lost in the black.’ In the television series, they were explained as having given themselves over to the basest of desires, to lust, greed, and anger. Mal (and Adam Baldwin as Jayne) strike close to those desires but steer away when tempted, rising to accept responsibility for others and defending the good. Firefly and Serenity after it are true to love and to the story of humankind depicted in the Bible: humanity is faced with a choice, to seek after self-oriented gain or to lay down one’s own desires to help others and to love God. In the end, the passengers of the good ship Serenity prove to choose the second, in that they lay their lives down for their friends and for all humanity itself. Mal may not state his faith like a mantra but his example is worth following…to the edge of the black and back.

—1. Overview (multimedia)
—2. Overview Basic (dial up speed)
—3. Reviews and Blogs
—4. Cast and Crew
—5. Photo Pages
—6. Trailers, Clips, DVDs, Books, Soundtrack
—7. Posters
—8. Production Notes (pdf)
—9. Spiritual Connections

Flight Plan

—1. Overview (multimedia)
—2. Overview Basic (dial up speed)
—3. Reviews and Blogs
—4. Cast and Crew
—5. Photo Pages
—6. Trailers, Clips, DVDs, Books, Soundtrack
—7. Posters
—8. Production Notes (pdf)
—9. Spiritual Connections

Kyle Pratt (Jodie Foster) has her hands full with the death of her husband and the return of his body to the United States from Germany. Add to that the disappearance of her six-year old daughter Julia and you have the recipe for tension. Or to put it mathematically, add one part Panic Room, one part The Forgotten, and one part Red Eye, and you get Flight Plan.

Fortunately, the acting in the film is pretty good. The tension mounts with well-shot scenes that provide information but leave the audience guessing about the ‘whole’ truth. Does Pratt have a living daughter or a dead one? And if you believe that she’s not crazy, then who is out to deceive her and what is the point?

Sean Bean makes an appearance as the captain of the 474 aircraft that Pratt helped design but Peter Sarsgaard gets high marks for his portrayal of Marshal Gene Carson. Already rocked by the past five years worth of airborne terror, moviegoers will be inclined to think Foster’s Pratt might be onto something, just in time to be yanked back into everyday reality by mentioned medications and prior incidents. But if you watched the preview closely enough, then the truth is already out there.

I was struck, as I was watching The Forgotten, by the love that is depicted as a mother searches frantically for her missing child. While everyone around her calls her crazy, Pratt loves her daughter so much that she throws the proverbial abandon to the wind. The love that Jesus talked about was foolishness to the wise but served as truth in the kingdom of God that He described. Here a mother sacrifices her reputation, sanity, and even offers up her life to save her child.

In addition to the main plot, there is an interesting social commentary about dark-skinned individuals traveling on planes. The audience is led to believe, through the eyes of Pratt, that a group of Arabic men are involved. Prejudice just moves from one group to another, doesn’t it? We have to intervene individually for it to stop.

Finally, humanity as a whole is critiqued. No one cares, whispers the villain, no one spoke up as I shoved your child into a storage bin. Isn’t that sad but true? Just like Bonhoeffer’s comments about the dwindling populace around him as he did nothing, so the plane becomes the location for a kidnapping…and no one notices. How excellent a world we would live in, possibly even the kind of world Jesus hopes for us, if we started to notice each other and really cared. Just noticing would be a good start, but what if we started to love one another like desperate parents seeking out our lost children? Or should I say, shepherds seeking out our lost sheep?

—1. Overview (multimedia)
—2. Overview Basic (dial up speed)
—3. Reviews and Blogs
—4. Cast and Crew
—5. Photo Pages
—6. Trailers, Clips, DVDs, Books, Soundtrack
—7. Posters
—8. Production Notes (pdf)
—9. Spiritual Connections

Switchfoot: Nothing Is Sound

Well, my reviewing has certainly made a wide arc since I last wrote about Switchfoot, but much has changed for them too! Now, worldwide acceptance meets the band as they tour with their new album, Nothing is Sound. …Even if you hated them before, this album provides a new spin on what they have to say and how they sound. And for those who’ve been anticipating this album for months, this album is for real.

Kicking off the album is “Lonely Nation,� as Foreman is “singing without tongues, screaming without lungs,� as a more artful verse cannot be found. Those two phrases present impossibilities or at least the artistic frustration of someone who spends most of his life expressing himself vocally. The song describes ‘we’ as young, separate yet one, as the target market, as the corporate target, as slaves of what we want, and as numb and amused. We’re not dealing with an overly optimistic sound here, are we? No, instead Switchfoot is drawing attention to the reality that they see in the world they exist in, and the realities appear grim.

At least in “Stars,� Foreman sees the light (pun intended.) He does sing of questions within himself as wonders whether he caused the problems, and sees the same distress in others he meets. “But when I look at the stars I see someone else,� he sings, “when I look at the stars I feel like myself.� He further reflects on the “meaning of a resistance of a hope beyond my own/And suddenly the infinite and penitent begin to look like home.� There is hope, Foreman seems to say, but we can’t grow comfortable with the status quo to achieve that hope.

In “The Shadow Proves the Sunshine,� Foreman sings that his crooked soul wants to stay straight, but allows for his shadows to show that the sunshine is real. Mixed in with the hopelessness that reoccurs throughout, there is the sense that Switchfoot, like Paul, believes God can be shown even more fully through his own weaknesses. And I tend to agree.

“Easier than Love� sings out against using sex for everything it’s not, before Foreman returns to the Ecclesiastes-intoned “The Blues� (first presented in “Happy is aa Yuppie Word.�) He sings for all those who are downtrodden and asks if there is anything worth saving. Foreman wants to find the good in the everyday, the struggle of life, to be able to see that which is hopeful. He continues this strain in “The Setting Sun,� where his hope lies underneath all the pain, and only when the weak can be strong will the kingdom truly come. That’s pretty well tied to the teaching of Jesus Christ, and His understanding of the last becoming first.

“Golden� speaks love and peace to a worn-out woman (is God the speaker?), before “The Fatal Wound� and “We are Tonight� close out the album with living fully and hoping hard. I will argue, as I did over “Dare You to Move,� that the first could be about Jesus. I can see this song as His words looking down on those around as He hung on the cross, with “We Are One Tonight� as the anthem for all who follow Him, longing to upend the status quo and letting the kingdom come.

Switchfoot rocks a bit harder, and Foreman sounds a bit more raw, less polished in this latest album. But I think the combination brings Switchfoot’s message across in a more thorough way. Maybe these songs won’t become worship songs at the contemporary services across America, but the agenda to bring the kingdom to earth is one that is full of hope for everyone. I believe that’s a message worth hearing.