Category: Articles

by The Rev. David C. Mumme

Of all the movies I never thought I would actually go to the theater to see, Nancy Drew has to be at the top of the list. Nancy Drew, after all, is for girls. Now if it were Nancy Drew Meets the Hardy Boys, well then maybe. But I have ten- and eleven- year- old daughters who have read lots of Nancy Drew books, so attend I did. And I actually liked it. (but pPlease don’t tell any of my friends!).

The movie begins with Nancy (played by Emma Roberts, niece of Julia) moving from the quaint little town of River Heights, California to La La Land, California ((Hollywood), because of her father’s job. She promises to stop her sleuthing, but chooses a house which comes pre-loaded with a mystery. Dehlia Draycott, a fictional movie star of the ’70s and ’80s, was murdered there some 25 years earlier. So Nancy, of course, is on the case.

The thing that makes the movie interesting is that Nancy is utterly unlike all of the other kids in La La Land. They are all about looking good, being popular, and having a good time. Nancy is all about doing good, helping others, and using her brain – but not in a self-righteous, full-of-herself way. She is smart, modest, and confident without being arrogant or annoying.

My daughters really liked the movie. They thought that it was funny, at times a little frightening (which is good for a mystery), and pretty true to the character of Nancy Drew in the books (which I have not NOT read). I liked the fact that it portrayed a likeable teenager who was different (in a good way), and who was ok with that. My children are also are different than from many of their friends and peers because they are Christians who and want to live their lives by faith in Christ and with love for their neighbors. They are also home-schooled and their dad is a pastor. How different can you get!? My hope is that Nancy Drew will remind them that it’s ok to be different (in a good way), and that at least some of their non-Christian friends and peers are just waiting for a good example to follow.

Christians, of course, are different in a good way. Not by nature, but by grace. Baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are a new creation. That means that we try to think, speak, and act differently. We seek to live by the Word of God: “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Php 4:8); “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear” (Eph 4:29); and “whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor 10:31).

Being baptized into Christ also means that we value and treasure different things than the world values and treasures. After the movie, my daughter commented about Nancy that, “No one is that kind and nice all of the time.” We know that to be true not only from personal experience, but from the Word of God. And bBecause we have been given to know that, what we value and treasure above all else is the forgiveness of sins which Christ earned for us by life, death, and resurrection, and the means of grace (– Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, Holy Communion, and the preaching of the Holy Gospel) – which deliver that forgiveness to us. Being baptized into Christ means that we value and treasure different things than the world values and treasures. Early on in the movie, Nancy says responds to those who are making fun of her, “I like old-fashioned things.” In a culture that considers Christianity old-fashioned, we would have to agree!

Christians, of course, are different in a good way. Not by nature or by our efforts, but by grace. Baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are created anew. That means that we think, speak, and act differently from others. We live by the Word of God which tells us (among other things): “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things,” (Php. 4:8); “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear,” (Eph. 4:29); and “whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God,” (1 Cor. 10:31).

The movie is rated PG for mild violence and a few objectionable words. Overall, it is a very clean movie, and it even deals with the topic of dating in a responsible way. I would guess that it will be most popular with junior high kids like my own. But then again I liked it, and I’m no longer in junior high!

The Rev. David Mumme is pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church, Waterville, Minnesota. He is a 1994 graduate of Concordia University–River Forest (now Chicago) and a 1998 graduate of Concordia Theological Seminary, Ft. Wayne.  Pastor Mumme and his wife Glenda homeschool their five “different-for-the-sake-of-the-Gospel” children.

by Stan Lemon

Following a growing list of bad sequels by Marvel, The Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer steps into line right behind Spider-Man 3. Marked by a rather well-written introduction, our four fantastic friends, Mr. Fantastic, the Thing, Torch and the Invisible Girl, return in this sequel – which,sadly, is ruined by convenient story changes and an unnecessarily sappy wedding twist.

The story begins with Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Girl finally tying the knot.  If you remember, the last movie ended with a romantic exchange between these two lovebirds involving a gasket from the space station as a makeshift ring.  These two characters are entangled in a web of media frenzy, and we’re apparently witnessing their fourth (or is it fifth??) attempt at getting hitched. 

Meanwhile, the world is quickly approaching its doom, as the Silver Surfer (unknown by that name at this point) soars around the planet, changing the climate and drilling huge holes in the ground.  The wedding ends abruptly as the Silver Surfer happens to whiz through the city of New York – but not before Stan Lee, Marvel creator, makes a guest appearance arriving to the wedding.  It’s so convenient that the Silver Surfer appears at the wedding, you could have predicted it during the opening credits.

The Silver Surfer is eventually downed by a tachyon pulse, the blast of a theoretical particle which travels faster than light.  (Has Marvel stooped to borrowing technology from Star Trek now?). This pulse throws the surfer off of his board, a true “wipe out,” thus rendering him powerless.  He is captured by none other than the villainous military thugs who whisk him away to a secret compound, sadly reminiscent of one of Marvel’s better movies, X-Men 2.  While the goons are off torturing the Silver Surfer, the Fantastic Four are busy trying to figure out how to pull off his jail-break.  Did I mention Dr. Doom even comes into play?

Another convenient plot twist occurs when the Silver Surfer (before he is caught) just happens to soar over Latveria.  For those unfamiliar with Marvel comics, Latveria is a small country tucked away between Hungary, Romania and Serbia.  The country is ruled by Doctor Doom, whom we see at the conclusion of the first movie entombed in a crate being shipped off on a freight liner labeled “Latveria.”  Did I mention Latveria has no access to a body of water?  Presumably our villain resides in the capitol city of Doomstadt,  still entombed from his last encounter with the Fantastic Four.  But, conveniently for Doom, the Silver Surfer flies over this micro-state, triggering some unexplained reaction which gives life to Doom.  The process isn’t incomplete, because one of Doom’s assistants helps him by cutting pieces of steel from his body. The audience isn’t quite sure as this convenient aide is not explained.

Dr. Doom is now free, and with no explanation, he flies away in a helicopter with fancy scientific equipment to find our silver friend.  Marvel really did fans an injustice on this one, failing to explain about the Doom empire to those who may not be comic-savvy.   Doom teams up with the military and, reluctantly, the Fantastic Four in order to take on the Silver Surfer.  If you didn’t see it coming I’ll spoil it now: Dr. Doom has another plan in store…when the Four finally free the Silver Surfer from the compound where he’s been confined, Doom runs off with his surfboard, which is (of course) the source of the Silver Surfer’s power, and thus makes Doom even more powerful.

In the end, Doom is defeated only by the combined powers of the Fantastic Four, which is (conveniently) made possible since the Human Torch contracted a mutation from the Silver Surfer which exchanges his powers with those of the others.  Even more amazing is how this mutation suddenly changes form “swapping” to “absorbing” and thus all of the other’s powers are united in the Torch and can finally defeat Dr. Doom.

The movie wraps up, with the exchange of the Invisible Woman (who dies after battling Dr. Doom) for the Silver Surfer, whom we learn has been sent to earth by some mysterious demi-god who eats planets.  The Silver Surfer’s job is to direct him to the tasty planets, so that his own home planet might be saved.  If this doesn’t sound strange enough, then be prepared for more. The movie finally ends with the Surfer going kamikaze on the Planet-Eater, resurrecting the Invisible Woman, and restoring all of the Fantastic Fours’ powers to them.  

The moral to the story?  Everyone has a choice, even the Silver Surfer who does the bidding of the Planet-Eater.  In the end, the Surfer’s choice is to stop the Planet-Eater.

If you can make it through the twists, turns and convenient plot changes to the end, you’ll find this an anti-climatic build to a modern-day decision theology.  There is no free gift for the Silver Surfer, and there is no gift for the Fantastic Four.  Everything is based upon what they earned or taken, and the choices they have made.  It’s no wonder that the Invisible Woman doesn’t quite seem satisfied with the direction of her life, or why the Torch feeds only off of his entrepreneurship, or even why the Silver Surfer looks so down and out about his predicament.  Ironically, only Dr. Doom gets it – in the last movie, he said to the Invisible Woman, “Do you really think Gate turned us into gods so we could refuse these gifts?”  For Dr. Doom, his evil powers comes as nothing but gift, they exist outside of himself and he reaps the benefits of them.  It’s sad that the best theology in this movie is found in the words of the evil villain.

One other cool reference worth noting in this latest edition of the Fantastic Four series is when Mr. Fantastic discovers the vocation of the Silver Surfer, he says, “Everywhere he goes, 8 days later it dies.”  What beautiful baptismal imagery!  The Silver Surfer (if you can get past the other bad theology) is like a planetary baptizer!  Eight is a baptismal number, for eight people were saved in the ark when God flood the earth, destroying all life on it.  Eight is also a baptismal number as we remember the circumcision of our forefathers, who were saved by the promise of God attached to this earthly act performed 8 days after birth. Perhaps the evil guys in this movie do get a bad rap.  Eight days, and the old planet died so that the new one might live?  All is gift for Dr. Doom?  Sounds like Dr. Doom might be a little bit Lutheran!

If you’re a Marvel fan you’ve got to go see this movie – even if you see it simply because you’re a Marvel fan.  If you’re not, save your money and hit up Shrek, or Ocean’s 13 instead.  A little more explanation, a lot less wedding and fewer less-than-convenient story changes could have put this movie on my shelf next to the X-Men Trilogy and the first two Spider-Man’s. Instead it’s getting filed away with Daredevil, Elektra and Spider-Man 3 – somewhere in the attic. 

Pucker up movie goers! I give Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer four out of four lemons, which makes for one sour movie!

by The Rev. Mark Buetow

I enjoyed the first Pirates of the Caribbean. I really did. I thought Jack Sparrow was hilarious and the action was good. I even though the ending wrapped things up pretty well. If that was the only Pirates movie to be made, I would have been happy. But they had a sequel. And it was long. And it was slow. And the story wasn’t really clear to me. So I didn’t really enjoy it. Well, the third installment has arrived. Would it tie up lose ends? Would it bring the whole story to a satisfying conclusion? The answer, after seeing the movie, is a resounding “No” to all of the above. Pirates 3 was a very long movie that moved slowly and the story was a bit confusing and for a fantasy type epic, the ending wasn’t very satisfying. Now, I will give full disclosure. Last year we went to Disney World in Florida and the Pirates of the Caribbean ride was closed down for renovation. So I didn’t get to ride this classic. Maybe that’s where my disappointment ultimately stems from. Then again, I think this latest Pirates film was really not a particularly great flick.

PLOT SPOILER WARNING: The plot, as best as I can figure it out goes like this: Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) has to destroy the heart of Davy Jones in order to put him to final rest and rescue his father from Davy Jone’s crew. If he does this, he’ll become the next captain and be the immortal but bound captain of that cursed ship, the Flying Dutchman. Elisabthe, Wil Turner’s love becomes a captain in her own right as things unfold. The story begins with the search for Jack Sparrow (who is dead and in the limbo of Davy Jones’ Locker). Once they get him and his ship the Black Pearl back, they can go and carry this out. Lord Beckett, the haughty Englishman whose sole role in life is to exterminate the last of these pirates is also in on the constantly switching plans of who’s going to do what. I won’t give away the final ending, but let’s just say the hero doesn’t quite get the girl and Jack Sparrow could return in a sequeal (though I won’t be seeing it).

As with all the Pirates movies the special effects are really good. But I’m getting crotchety in my old age and I am no longer into a movie solely for its special effects. There has to be a good story. Engaging plot. Interesting characters. Sadly, Pirates: At World’s End is really lacking in these areas. Since this is a Higher Things movie review I suppose I should comment on any philosophical or theological themes that come through. But even here it’s a tough sell. When it comes down to it, the “theme” might be the ages-old quest to cheat death and live forever. Some do and some don’t in this movie but never in ways that are satisfying. There’s certainly no portrayal of a heavenly afterlife or eternal punishment, just a dreary immortal existence in one fashion or another. Another bit of theme that might be explored is how people like Elisabeth and Will descend from being ordinary good citizens down into the realm of becoming pirates themselves. Following Jack Sparrow might be an explanation except that he’s not a really terrifying pirate. The British government is cast as a freedom-crushing regime whilst the pirate brethren are portrayed as all about freedom. (I accept the whole fantasy pirate bit, but hey! Pirates were pretty bad people in real life!) There just doesn’t seem to be any real contrast between right or wrong or even heroism versus selfish self-preservation.

I’m sorry to say it, but I don’t really recomment Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. It’s too long. The plot isn’t particularly clear or interesting. The action is limited and almost all toward the end of the film. The characters which should be well developed by a third movie are not. If you really, really don’t have anything to do for almost three hours, then go see it. Otherwise, you might want to pass and watch the first one again. It’s really the best of the three by a long shot!

The Rev. Mark Buetow is pastor of Bethel Lutheran Church in DuQuoin, Illinois.  He is editor-in-chief of Higher Things’ Daily Reflections.