Movie Reviews: Defiance, Seven Pounds, Taken

Defiance:


I totally loved Defiance. I was excited to see it after Valkyrie because I like Daniel Craig better than Tom Cruise and I thought the story sounded incredible. I had no idea that a group of brothers managed to organize a community of Jewish refugees hidden away in the forests of Belarus and stayed there until the end of the war, when over 1,200 men, women, and children emerged. I guess I'd say the movie isn't a huge epic drama and it had its more stilted moments, but it was still a powerful story and I enjoyed the movie.

Seven Pounds:


This was another super heavy one that takes you for a ride. I had no idea where the storyline was leading when we started watching, so it unfolded before me as a mystery, and at the ending I was just as horrified as the directors meant for their audience to be. I've heard some vehement reactions to the movie - a lot of people hate it with a passion, and I see good reason for that. Will Smith is given an element of heroism because of his great sacrifice, but ... at the same time he does something truly awful.

I had mixed feelings. I'm about to give away things here, so stop reading if you plan on seeing it! To me, Will Smith was a pretty powerful Christ-type in some ways. He gives away everything he has, even down to his life itself, in order to save those around him. That should be beautiful, right? Except - it's a failed Christ-type because while Christ's sacrificial death gave us access TO Him. It gave us relationship, and love. Will Smith's death took away relationship and love, and left people (in particular the woman that had fallen for him) alone. To me, it wasn't really a sacrifice at all, because he didn't do it FOR her or any of the other people, he did it to assuage his own feelings of guilt. I suppose in the end I didn't hate the movie because it provided food for thought about the beauty of the sacrifice of Christ.




Taken:
We made the mistake of watching a movie about the kidnapping of a young American girl with my sister, the day after we picked her up from traveling across the world alone. Poor thing! I don't think it went over well. It is a pretty intense movie with a typical Hollywood hero that outsmarts the bad guy in a huge dramatic show-down. I would say the movie is totally unrealistic in most ways, and it's not particularly amazing, and I can't stand the main actress. However, it has helped bring human-trafficking into public conversation, and that's hard to criticize.