God and other fictional characters

There is a series of movies entitled “Gods Not Dead”, and also “Gods not Dead 2”. Apparently there is also a third in the series that might at some point appear.

If you are religious then you will indeed mark these down as “Inspirational”. If however you are a movie critic … not so much. For example if we surf on over to IMDB and check up, this is how things pan out.

God’s Not Dead (2014)

If you wonder about that poor rating, then surf on over to the reviews. The issue is not that people hate religious movies, but rather that the movie itself is basically a weird collection of wholly unrealistic cardboard characters presenting rather lame arguments.

Here are a few randomly selected snippets …

I was dragged to this “movie” by a Christian friend who keeps thinking that I”ll finally come around to her religious way of thinking. Jeez, it was worse that I expected. Atheists are portrayed as evil beings who “hate god” and are determined to convert Christians. Actually, atheists do not “hate” god; god is simply something they don’t believe exists. As to forcing their way of thinking on anyone, the movie has it backwards. It’s Christian zealots who demand that everyone think like them. Most atheists – those that I know anyway – are happy to let others believe as they wish as long as they don’t force their “values” on the rest of us. 

I am a Christian pastor and genuinely appreciate the efforts of those who try to engage the culture in creative ways. However, someone needs to say this. This movie isn’t particularly good.

I’m a Christian and just watched the movie last night. I have to tell you that this is NOT a good movie, at all.

I’m a conservative evangelical Christian (a Calvinist in fact), and I am not exactly proud of this movie. At times, it was actually kind of entertaining – mostly because of the laughably bad writing

OK, so perhaps the creators learned a few lessons and the second movie in the series was better. Let’s see.

God’s Not Dead 2 (2016)

This is a far superior high-quality and truly outstanding movie, it just might win an award … oh wait, perhaps not, because it gets an even worse rating than the original.

.. and once again the review comments are far more entertaining that the actual movie itself. Here is one of the positive reviews …

A fascinating sci-fi alternate reality thriller with a fundamental reality twist that would put Hitchcock and the writers of the Twilight Zone to shame. Imagine a world where Christians were victims of oppression and persecution in the United States. As hard as it may have been to conceive of such an outlandish alternate reality (much less make a film about it), the team behind GND2 were Kubrickian in making this film. The idea itself is worth 10/10 stars on its own, all the way to its conclusion of an ordinary schoolteacher besting an Orwellian justice system. It puts everything in perspective, as the oppressors become oppresses (the shoe is on the other foot, so to speak). The film carefully parallels the persecution of non-Christians by seemingly earnest (but deceptive) believers, and completely switches it around! 

… and here are a few randomly selected extracts for other reviews who write with a straight bat …

Instead of adding a coherent voice to the debate on Freedom of Religion vs Human Rights, it is an insanely one sided depiction of how Christians are persecuted for being religious. This plot is so laughable that it makes United Passions look like a critical look into how Fifa works.

The close mindedness of this movie and its predecessor is cringe worthy and even some of my more religious friends complained about the plot holes, horrible acting and unfair representation of non-Christians. This movie provokes no thought and misunderstands what freedom of religion means.

i believe this movie does a great disservice to Christians. the dialogues sound like members of a sect are talking. it makes faith look very shallow and almost weird. it makes the believers look very dumb and narrow minded.

Some movies are meant to entertain. Some movies are meant to educate. A few movies are meant to deceive. This movie falls into the latter category. The “true story” is not true.

This is a fairy tale about people telling fairy tales to people who aren’t supposed to be taught that fairy tales are real, and the supposed good fairy getting into trouble for telling fairy tales.

Don’t watch this movie!! It doesn’t matter if you’re Christian, Atheist, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, or whatever, it’s horrible and should be avoided at all costs!!!

It is all just fiction

Theses are just moves and so they both have the standard disclaimer tacked on the end in the credits without really giving it too much thought …

That text reads …

This story is fictional and any similarity of any characters or incidents to the name,
character or history of any actual person, living or dead or any actual event is entirely coincidental and unintentional.  

In other words, the makers of this movie are telling you that all the characters that are referred to within this movie, such as God and Jesus, are fictional, and that all references to who they are or what they said are completely fictitious.

Nice to know, and also nice to see that they appreciate that.

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