Fooled
Most of the movies I have seen at the theater over the last 10 years or so have been mostly animated features with “G” ratings. They were not my first choice for a night out at the movies, but you go with your child because she wants to see it. Some were quite good – like the “Toy Story” series. Others, like “The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl”, were terrible (as in bad script and bad acting). So when the opportunity presented itself for my husband and me to take in a movie while our daughter was away for the night, I was excited.
The last movie we had seen together at the theater was, I think, the new version of “Star Trek.” We like the sci-fi genre, though he probably likes it more. We always try to find a movie we’ll both enjoy – I don’t make him sit through chick flicks and he doesn’t put me through gory and scary ones. When I looked through the movie listing, I found a movie called “Paul.” I had seen the trailers on television and it looked like a sci-fi comedy, which appealed to both of us. I checked out the web site for the movie and checked the ratings. It advised that it had some bad language, which I would expect from any movie involving the actor Seth Rogen. Though I am not thrilled with profanity, I can put up with a few words now and then if the movie is good.
Here’s the storyline: Paul is an alien who came to earth more than 60 years ago when his spacecraft crashes on a farm. When he crashes, he kills the family dog, whose name was Paul and he adopts the name. A young girl (home alone at night for whatever reason) takes care of him until the Men in Black arrive to take him to a secure government location. Fast forward to present day, and two chums from England are vacationing in the states. They are self-proclaimed geeks who take in Comic-Con and rent an RV to visit all the touristy UFO sites in New Mexico. One evening as they are driving along, a car speeds pass them and crashes. The driver turns out to be Paul, the alien, and he is not the cute Spielberg E.T. Paul smokes and curses and has a smart-aleck attitude. After their initial shock passes, the two men agree to help Paul, who is running away from the government to meet up with a rescue ship from his home planet. Seems the government has learned everything they can from him and now they want to cut out his brain and study it. Hilarity ensues as they dodge the Men in Black and make their way to the rendezvous site.
Psalm 14:1
The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
If that’s all there were to it, I would have loved the movie. But they just couldn’t leave it at that. Apparently the writers, Nick Frost and Simon Pegg, who also star as the traveling friends, have issues – religious issues. Looking for a place to rest for the night and not be spotted, they find an RV park where they can blend in. The park is run by a religious fanatic and his daughter, Ruth, who is blind in one eye. One of the men is smitten when he meets Ruth, and she seems to like him, as well. That evening she notices that there are three voices and three sets of legs around the campfire, but doesn’t get to see the third person. The next morning she stops by to collect the rent. Paul hides in the bathroom, but comes bursting out after a debate on Creationism. He turns Ruth’s world upside down, basically saying that he is proof that God doesn’t exist.
Ruth faints and the gang decides to take her with them because she has seen Paul. When she awakes, she is again frightened by Paul’s appearance and calls him a demon. Paul’s response is something like, “These people, what can you do with them?” referring to Christians. His eyes roll when he says it and he and the men have a laugh. That hurt. What was really hard, though, was the laughter the line evoked from the audience. I looked around and suddenly felt like a lone minority. Paul finally gets tired of listening to Ruth and lays his alien hands on her forehead and she receives all of his knowledge and experience of the universe. She comes out of it with her faith in God gone. She is almost giddy as she says that now she can curse and drink and fornicate all she wants because it isn’t a sin if there is no God. For the rest of the movie, every other word that comes out her mouth is a curse word. There were some words and expressions she used that I hadn’t heard before.
About that time my husband leaned over and said, “I can’t believe you picked this movie.” I told him I couldn’t either. None of the trailers I watched and nothing I read even hinted at this being a theme in the movie. I thought about getting up and leaving, and probably should have. But I kept thinking that down the road something would happen and Ruth would have her faith renewed and Paul would also be changed. And my husband and I rarely get the chance to go out. So I decided to stick it out and see what happened. Unfortunately it didn’t get any better, though the latter part of the movie got away from Christian bashing and back to the story of Paul’s escape.
I did find it interesting that even though the writers were definitely pushing Darwinism over Creationism, the story carried some very Christian like themes and influences. First of all, the names Paul and Ruth are from the Bible. Paul apparently has the ability to heal and raise the dead. He heals a dead bird – and then promptly eats it. (“I’m not going to eat a dead bird,” he quips.) When asked if he can do it for people, he says yes, but it is dangerous for him to do. (Hello, foreshadowing – you know it’s coming.) On the trip, he lays hands on Ruth’s eye, which is just a mass of white, and restores it. At the end of the movie, Ruth’s religious fanatic father shoots the man she likes in the chest. The wound is fatal. Despite the danger, Paul feels he has to try to bring back the man who has protected him and helped him. He lays hands on the man and slowly the chest wound heals and he begins to breathe again. At the same time, Paul begins to fade and weaken, apparently giving his life to help his friend. After a few moments, though, Paul comes back to life and after a few rounds with the bad guys, he is back with his people on a starship home. Another thing I noticed was that whenever the action became intense, the characters cried out, “Oh God!” Like I said, I think the writers have issues, and I will be praying for them.
Proverbs 29:11
Fools give full vent to their rage, but the wise bring calm in the end.
I was not happy when I left the movie. I felt like I needed to do something or say something, but I wasn’t really sure what. I chastised myself for not walking out when the thought first occurred to me. Later I thought about how Jesus had cleared the temple of the merchants and money changers (John 2). His was a righteous anger, and He had the authority to do what He did. I was angry and indignant at the portrayal of Christians as ignorant, backward and gullible. I was angry that God had been dismissed as an urban myth. I was angry that a theater full of people found this funny. I was angry that I didn’t say or do anything. I didn’t stand up and interrupt the movie or make a whip and run people out of there – that would have only gotten me arrested and labeled a crazy religious fanatic (not that I mind really, lol).
James 1:19-20
My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.
What I can do is tell people about it. I can remind myself and everyone else that we must always guard our minds and our hearts. The old saying is “garbage in, garbage out.” You are affected by what you read, watch and listen to. I thought I had done the due diligence in checking out the movie and knowing what I would be watching, but I was surprised. I wonder how many other unsuspecting Christians paid $9 to watch their faith be bashed and undermined. I wonder how they reacted.
God always manages to turn all things around for good, though. The one good thing that came from seeing the movie is that on the way home, it opened the door for a conversation with my husband about God and salvation. Seeds were planted. That made sitting through the movie worth it. However, I don’t recommend anyone else see this movie. In fact, I hope that anyone who reads this will warn others not to give this movie any of their time or money.
Now more than ever, we need to stand up for what we believe and for the One we believe in. Christianity is under attack on many fronts. The world is trying to limit our ability to worship, pushing the limits of our freedom of speech and freedom of religion. If that isn’t successful, it tries to demean us and make us look like fools. But the real fools are the ones who say there is no God. In the end, they will have to stand before Him, as will we all. Jesus said that if we deny Him before men, He would deny us before the Father (Matthew 10:33). “Paul” is just a fictional character in a movie. But the men who wrote this and the people who acted it out will be held accountable for their words and their portrayal. Even worse are those who watch and condone it. We need to be aware of what we let into our lives and what we condone, because we will have to answer for it.
I was fooled by the humorous ads about this movie, but I was not fooled by the movie’s message. My faith was not shaken, but only reinforced. If anything, the anger I felt has fueled my passion for sharing the Word of God.
