Friday, May 25, 2012
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Album Review: The Staves - 'Motherlode EP'
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Album Review: Beach House - 'Bloom'
Monday, May 21, 2012
Summer Kickoff - The Avengers
 |
| Chris Hemsworh and Chris Evans in The Avengers. Courtesy of Image.net |
Film Grade: A-
Summer movie season has arrived, and looking at the lineup,
it won’t disappoint. The Avengers serves a strong kickoff. The film is
packed with A-listers including, but not limited to, Robert Downey, Jr.,
Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, and Scarlet Johansson as the comic
book characters. Having so many well-known stars in one film is risky, as chemistries often
don’t transfer well on-screen, but Avengers proves to be a rare exception.
The plot is a simple one. Bad guy steals valuable power, runs off, plans to take over
the world, and lets his native alien family destroy Earth. Naturally, when a
juggernaut of a villain like Loki arrives, Nick Fury, the creator of The
Avengers, enlists the aid of Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and
Captain America.
Chaos and hilarity ensues, mostly from heroes, as
their personalities could not be more opposite. The result is a 2.5 hour movie
with more laughs than any other superhero flick I’ve seen. Where The Dark
Knight movies are a serious exploration of the moral themes in Batman’s world,
The Avengers provides a colorful explosion of action and fun – just like a
comic book.
Besides being enjoyable, the movie is well-made. The acting and chemistry of the
on-screen personalities jibe well together; none of the heroes outshine
each other, and each is given his own spotlight and dialogue. The dialogue is
probably the best I’ve seen in a superhero film. Rather than being predictable
and cheesy, it’s clever and witty, much like the banter in Golden Age films –
which is most fitting, considering Iron Man’s character. Some of the funniest
scenes were when Iron Man and Captain America argued. Where Iron Man is
narcissistic, egotistical, arrogant and progressive, Captain America is self-sacrificing,
traditional and humble. Their interaction is a gift from filmmaker to viewer,
extracting at the very least, a pleased smile.
Is there a deep, meaningful lesson to be learned in The
Avengers? Not really, except that if we’re to be “good” or heroic, sacrifice is
necessary, and that sometimes, we will have to work with people we'd rather not associate with in order to bring about a common good. Other than that, Avengers simply keeps you entertained the
entire time. Like Captain America, which was released last summer, it is a respectable film that brings the
comic book to life, with lots of action and witty banter in between. The perfect formula for a summer movie.
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Published on National Catholic Register!
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Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Beauty vs. Technology
“Truly great must be
the value of human life if the Son of God has taken it up and made it the
instrument of the salvation of all humanity!” – John Paul II
Being bodily creatures, we experience and come to know
things through our physical senses. We’re wired that way. The body is God’s
greatest work of art and deserves nothing less than sheer wonder and awe at its
beauty. Not only is it created with systems that help it function, but it is a
marvel to see. Every body is beautiful, every body tells a story about the soul
that lives inside it.
So often, we live two extremes: either we are so
desensitized to the world’s objectification of the body that we no longer give
the body the value it deserves, or we turn away from beautiful bodies to avoid
temptation. There has to be a happy medium.
The first extreme shows the body is good, but doesn’t give
it its proper value. The second extreme shows the body to be bad. Both are
wrong. The body is good. While we should guard ourselves from temptation, we
nevertheless need to recognize and appreciate beauty when we see it, especially
in a person.
As shown in the Greeks' nude sculptures of bodies or the paintings in the Renaissance period, the body reflects the beauty of the divine, namely,
the soul, which is made in God’s image. Simply by being human, we are transcending
God Himself. We point our fellow man further to God because we are a reminder of His goodness and beauty. By becoming human Himself, He glorified our bodies even more,
since He shared in our humanity, in all its beauty and weakness.
But it doesn’t stop there! While the body is the most
magnificent work of art by a Creator who inspired all other arts, the person is
more than a body. He is a soul. A human person never dies, though his body will. Every soul has a purpose, and every soul has infinite value and is loved by the Creator. Generally, our culture has lost the sense of the
worth of the human person.
This is evident even in what we do when we “socialize”. For
example, if you go to a movie theatre and watch the crowd before the movie
starts, nearly everyone has their phones out. If eyes aren’t glued to
smartphones, they’re glued to a computer screen. We’ve lost touch with interpersonal
relationships. We have forgotten how wonderful people are, what we can learn from them and what we can give to them. We don’t worship a golden calf per se, but we practice idolatry
by sacrificing the human person on the altar of technology and progress with
the way we use our time. Technology is good, if used in moderation.
By nature, man is a social being and cannot develop gifts if he lives
in solitude within himself. Meaning, if he's glued to his technology, he's not developing relationships, or himself. Like the ripple affects the entire body of water,
so our interactions with others affect the entire brotherhood of humanity. Once in
a while, take a break from technology. Turn off that phone, close that computer
and have a meaningful conversation with someone. Who can compare "stuff" with the marvelous beauty of the human person?
Case and point: BlimeyCow’s video on Smartphones and how
they make us lazy. I’m afraid it’s too true.
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