One of the things I love to do is
to view movies. I enjoy good stories in all formats and I try to find those
that match certain criteria I have. One of the biggest decision makers I have
is that I will not watch a movie that is rated R. My reason for so doing is
that my parents have taught me that R rated movies do not conform to our
standards. Reading the reasons why they receive that rating will also usually
tell me that I will not enjoy it. If a movie has people hooking up I will try
to avoid it because I do not like filling my head with images that I know are
against my religious beliefs and I don’t want what I see to form my opinion on
how I treat my fellow men. Earlier this summer I went to see The Lone Ranger
with my dad and youngest brother. However there was one scene that had a really
disturbing moment that could be taken as violent. I have seen some movies with
violence in them. However I think that how something is portrayed and why will
be a big decision factor in me deciding if I like a movie or not. For example
even though the Lord of the Rings films have a lot of violence in them I think
they portray war as something very dark and evil and not something to be
celebrated. Same with the film Thor where at first he wants to launch a war
only to have his opinion change at the end of the film because he learns that
war isn’t something to be desired. Something that I like to do more with films
is to try and see if they can be used to teach life lessons like honesty,
virtue, courage, and faith. I also enjoy seeing movies that are fantasy stories
or have dinosaurs in them because those are some of my biggest interests.
This
summer I went with my brothers to see Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters. It was
based off the second book of a series that I had enjoyed reading. Even though I
had been furious with the first film adaptation I opted to go see this movie
because it sounded like they were trying to correct some of the errors of the
first film. I was furious because of how different The Lightning Thief was from
the book. However recently I did a blog post asking if movie adaptations should
be the same as the books. That was pretty much the only film my brothers
expressed interest in seeing because the other options I was considering were
Turbo and The Smurfs 2. I had seen some of the trailers for the film and I was
a little nervous about some of the things they showed like the encountering of
Kronos and falling into the mouth of Charybdis. However I decided a long time
ago that I wouldn’t judge movies without giving them a chance. The only
exceptions are R-rated films and some PG-13 movies because I don’t like seeing
material I know goes against my religious beliefs.
Apart
from being based off a book I liked I also saw it because it has strong fantasy
elements due to the series being inspired by Greek Mythology. For some time now
I’ve been interested in the fantasy worlds of strange creatures and mystical
forces that seem to define worlds separated from our own, or in the case of
this film hidden within our own. Some elements from the book were taken out yet
they managed to portray some of the creatures from the book in a very
interesting way. The hippocampus was designed to have the head of a horse and
the body of a fish and instead of the front legs of a horse it was given fins
instead. Although it would’ve been nice if they stayed true to how the book
described the creature a movie isn’t supposed to be the book. It’s an
adaptation and one should expect differences between the two.
I
did see several moral lessons contained within the film. One of the biggest
issues that the main character, Percy Jackson, had to deal with was his
confidence. Even though in the last movie he stopped a war between the gods it
seems that not everyone has that event memorized. The head of Camp Half-Blood,
Dionysus, seems to disregard Percy and views him as only good for cleaning up
the training ground. When a hero is being chosen to go on a quest for the
Golden Fleece, Percy is overlooked and the camp’s superstar, Clarissa La Rue,
is handed the mantle. Percy throughout
the film gets the feeling that his father, Poseidon, doesn’t care because when
Percy tries asking him for help his pleas seem to go unanswered while his
Cyclops half-brother Tyson gets his request answered. Eventually Percy shows us
that we don’t have to just sit around and wait for things to get better. We
need to do things to make our situations better.
There
was also another lesson that could be learned on forgiveness. Percy’s love
interest, Annabeth Chase, has a hard time connecting with Tyson because he’s a
Cyclops. While one could argue that was being racist it was because in
Annabeth’s past a friend of hers was killed by a Cyclops. I generally dislike
it in stories, whether they be books, films, or TV shows, where the character
chooses to hold on to a grudge because to me that sends a message that people
should hold on to grudges and not forgive others. However when a person
forgives in fiction I feel better because it shows they are willing to let the
past go and not hold another person accountable. In the film Tyson seemingly
sacrifices himself to save Percy that causes Annabeth to realize that Tyson was
not a monster as she perceived him to be. She learns to forgive him.
For
a long time I had the idea that film adaptations should stay one-hundred
percent true to the books. When I learned that Disney changed the name of a
film from Rapunzel to Tangled I was furious and felt like it was going to be a
horrible movie. After a while I realized that I had gone against a saying and
judged a book by its cover, or in this case a movie by its title. After that I
decided to give Tangled a chance and walked away loving the movie. I did a blog
post not too long ago about movie adaptations of books and if they should stay
the same. I think that we should keep in mind that there may come a time where
a story may have to change and adapt for a new generation. If it doesn’t it may
not survive. Besides is there only one right way to tell a story? If you answer
yes to that then many films that have been huge successes should be hated
because of how different they were from the original stories.
I
generally try to avoid movies based off of Greek mythology because my readings
about those old tales are loaded with “hook-ups” as the film adaptation of The
Lightning Thief put it. Even though that was part of the mythology I don’t
believe that it gives us the right to show or make those kinds of movies. Still
because I’ve read the books I know that is not going to be the focus of the
films. They don’t go beyond the characters saying that one of their parents is
a god or goddess. So far I’ve been right. My only hope is that they’ll continue
to hold true to that. I was also surprised at the lessons I saw could be
learned from this film. I wasn’t expecting to see so much in the story. I was
wondering after I came out of the theater why I wasn’t feeling outrage like I
did with the first film. I would say it was because I wasn’t expecting the
movie to be a strict adaptation of the book. True I wish some of the things
done in the film were closer to the book yet I did not focus on those details.
I still found the story to be very enjoyable and having a strong foundation in
the plot of the book. I will try to keep an open mind about films and not judge
a movie by its title.
I
think maybe one way I can do that is to think about why certain things are done
or why they show certain events. For example I mentioned earlier that The Lord
of the Rings films show war as a horrible event. I also remembered The Avengers
also had that message about war, and I also saw lessons on the dangers of pride
and jealousy through the antics of Loki. I think if a film advocates something
I know is wrong I won’t enjoy it or watch it. However if it has a representation
of what I know is right I may enjoy it. It will vary because I think the movie
Avatar shows war as a horrible thing yet I still did not like the movie because
I didn’t like how the Na’vi were portrayed. I do not believe that we have the
right to show primitive people with really scanty attire. I just do not feel
comfortable with that. True the reason could be that they’re down to earth and
don’t know any better. However I still feel that it’s not right for anyone to
create a race like that. True the mermaids are portrayed in a similar fashion
in The Little Mermaid yet I still feel it’s an okay film to see because the
original story was a Christian tale. I guess in the end it’s up to me to decide
if a film fits my standards or not.
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