One look at my profile and you may think, "Well, of course he's gonna have a problem with this movie."
Well... yeah... but would it mean anything if I told you that I had a problem with the first movie when I still called myself a Christian?
As the trailer for the promised sequel just came out, as an atheist I feel my duty to inform Christians why nonbelievers will be mostly laughing at this than converting:
My first reaction is, well it'd be nice to see a Christian version of "Anchorman". But of course it's not meant to be funny, it's serious. The over-the-top, ridiculous drama you find in an Adam McKay comedy seems present in "God's Not Dead 2". But no, they're really serious here.
The thing is, yes, "God's Not Dead" was a terrible movie. But if they could have left it there it would be fine. I remember criticizing the first movie saying, "This is not how atheists act." And a Christian friend of mine actually made a good point and said, "No, that's just the few atheists in this fictional movie." Yeah, good point (doesn't make things better but it is what it is).
Now we've got a sequel though. And where you could maybe write the first movie off as an isolated incident as well as it being fictional, this second movie - though also fictional (I hope, for Pure Flix's sake) - is much bigger and obligates itself to represent a bigger group. I mean where the first movie took place at some college campus, and maybe... MAYBE... you could say that it's possible for an atheist professor to walk into a classroom of about a hundred students and say "well, as you all know, there's no God, so let's move on," and only get one student to resist him... ah, man, that movie... I can't even... I just wrote down that premise and I'm giving myself a major facepalm. But okay, whatever. Suspend your belief and say that the premise of the first film... could happen.
This next film though? We got a court case that's being followed nationwide. The implication from the trailer is something that looks bigger than the OJ trial.
Just... you know 20 years ago, I was a Christian, and if I had seen this movie I'd be like, "Yeah! God's not dead! Christianity for the win! You go, Sabrina! Yeah!" And I think that's the value of this film. It's not made for atheists, even though atheists are represented in the film (poorly it seems). We'll watch this film, criticize it, laugh at it, and Christians may just shrug, roll their eyes, and say, "Well, of course, you hate the movie." (actually I'm grateful that there were plenty of Christian critics coming out against the first film).
There's one way, and only one way that I will not view this movie as complete trash. If they have a stone cold atheist in this film, who is also a nice and charitable humanitarian, and he/she stands up for religious freedom, and (here's the major catch) even by the end of the film (I mean the credits roll and lights come up), not once does the atheist character waver in his/her nonbelief in God. Because 10 bucks says that the atheists in this film are either evil (and I mean supervillain, Bond badguy evil), or if they show any ounce of goodness it'll be because they're struggling with religion and by the end of the film they'll convert to Christianity. This movie wants to prove that wrong? Oh, man please do. Put my cynicism in its place. Make me go, "Oh, so the people at Pure Flix do listen after all. Was that a pig flying I just saw?"
Well... yeah... but would it mean anything if I told you that I had a problem with the first movie when I still called myself a Christian?
As the trailer for the promised sequel just came out, as an atheist I feel my duty to inform Christians why nonbelievers will be mostly laughing at this than converting:
My first reaction is, well it'd be nice to see a Christian version of "Anchorman". But of course it's not meant to be funny, it's serious. The over-the-top, ridiculous drama you find in an Adam McKay comedy seems present in "God's Not Dead 2". But no, they're really serious here.
The thing is, yes, "God's Not Dead" was a terrible movie. But if they could have left it there it would be fine. I remember criticizing the first movie saying, "This is not how atheists act." And a Christian friend of mine actually made a good point and said, "No, that's just the few atheists in this fictional movie." Yeah, good point (doesn't make things better but it is what it is).
Now we've got a sequel though. And where you could maybe write the first movie off as an isolated incident as well as it being fictional, this second movie - though also fictional (I hope, for Pure Flix's sake) - is much bigger and obligates itself to represent a bigger group. I mean where the first movie took place at some college campus, and maybe... MAYBE... you could say that it's possible for an atheist professor to walk into a classroom of about a hundred students and say "well, as you all know, there's no God, so let's move on," and only get one student to resist him... ah, man, that movie... I can't even... I just wrote down that premise and I'm giving myself a major facepalm. But okay, whatever. Suspend your belief and say that the premise of the first film... could happen.
This next film though? We got a court case that's being followed nationwide. The implication from the trailer is something that looks bigger than the OJ trial.
Just... you know 20 years ago, I was a Christian, and if I had seen this movie I'd be like, "Yeah! God's not dead! Christianity for the win! You go, Sabrina! Yeah!" And I think that's the value of this film. It's not made for atheists, even though atheists are represented in the film (poorly it seems). We'll watch this film, criticize it, laugh at it, and Christians may just shrug, roll their eyes, and say, "Well, of course, you hate the movie." (actually I'm grateful that there were plenty of Christian critics coming out against the first film).
There's one way, and only one way that I will not view this movie as complete trash. If they have a stone cold atheist in this film, who is also a nice and charitable humanitarian, and he/she stands up for religious freedom, and (here's the major catch) even by the end of the film (I mean the credits roll and lights come up), not once does the atheist character waver in his/her nonbelief in God. Because 10 bucks says that the atheists in this film are either evil (and I mean supervillain, Bond badguy evil), or if they show any ounce of goodness it'll be because they're struggling with religion and by the end of the film they'll convert to Christianity. This movie wants to prove that wrong? Oh, man please do. Put my cynicism in its place. Make me go, "Oh, so the people at Pure Flix do listen after all. Was that a pig flying I just saw?"