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The Celestine Prophecy (2006)
As bad as it gets....
This is not so much a prophecy as a watered-down philosophy much like that of Carlos Castañeda reduced and simplified for dwellers of trailer parks. There are sprinkles of PC absurdity such as when they try to convince a guy that his trying to convince someone else was taking away their power and wrong. The woman, apparently, became a victim of his intrusion by even listening to his convincing speech. She can't think for herslf and is a hapless toy of circumstance and men. The story only goes downhill from here, assigning mystical meaning to optical illusions and worse. Skip it.
Akron (2015)
Good movie, but....
The movie has a captivating plot (with an amazing coincidence that is a characteristic of usual Korean dramas). But I couldn't help but feel a backdrop of sermonizing, self-delusion, and undeveloped morality.
It's pretty clear that we are supposed to sympathize with the mother, and later admire her for her forgiveness. But whom is she forgiving, and for what? She is angry at everyone but herself about the tragedy that occurred when by rights she was the person most responsible for it. She was the caretaker of the children that day and I fully expected her to have an epiphany that she was blaming everyone else because she was unable to forgive herself or acknowledge her ultimate blame. But that never came - we were left with her being some sort of hero of forgiveness when the people she forgave never deserved blame in the first place. Forgiveness is an act of condescension, a putting of oneself into a position of judgement. We are supposed to admire her act of self-aggrandizement. The movie ends without any resolution of her guilt and the message that sometimes we just need to forget. A bit of insight by the people involved would have raised the jejune level of human psychology displayed.
Camp (2013)
One sorry film
Aside from the fact that the camp redemption theme is older than video itself, the introduction of religious claptrap into what may have otherwise been a decent film ruined it. The kids at this camp had problems, and introducing God, imaginary friends, and prayer ends up substituting a mental illness for their original problems. What could have been an uplifting and inspiring movie was further ruined by the complete lack of respect shown by the staff toward the children. The typical, religious, baby-voiced condescension was nauseating to observe. Hopefully, camps such as this are in short supply in the real world.
Under the Dome (2013)
I'm Hooked. But a High School science teacher?
As I find often with series of this type, the whole premise upon which it is based is somewhat ridiculous. The series could certainly use a science adviser.
The human interactions and the characters are the real reason to watch this series. Though there are some minor contradictions in the character development, consistency from one episode to the next is good. The good guys don't suddenly turn bad, or vice versa, though they remain human by being neither one entirely, but have foibles and flaws even if with good intentions. The motivations of some are left unknown, making for suspense and unpredictability in their actions. Only time will tell if they adhere to a true line of behavior after we find out what they are really up to.
My biggest gripe is that science teacher. Not only is she an inhuman robot guided by her poor sense of what is truly valuable, but she follows some bizarre cult of Scientism to an extreme degree. That she has the knowledge and facilities to carry out the experiments and procedures that she does is simply impossible. Little flubs, like her needing to "analyze" what acid was in the rain before neutralizing it (baking soda works with all acids, and analyzing an acid helps not at all in dealing with it), as well as 100's of other discrepancies, make the whole story hard to swallow. She's creating recombinant viruses in her lab? Yeh, right. I have to wonder if Steven King is scientifically ignorant as well as knowing nothing about high school science courses or their facilities. If so, he should have sought an adviser.
There are still enough mysteries and unanswered questions for me to want to finish the series. It's a strange story overall, but some of the philosophical questions raised are apropos of today's world, even if most people make now those choices automatically, or leave them to the "experts". This series can at least show us in a time-condensed form what moral principles we take for granted that could benefit from a bit more examination. If we don't make those decisions and choose them as the right and ethical ones, someone else will.
Once Upon a Time: The New Neverland (2013)
Entertaining, but contrived.
This series, like Sleepy Hollow, is a mashup of multiple stories. Parts of other fantasies and myths are paraded out like "dei ex machina" to solve nearly all problems. There is no REAL story since it is simply a combination of many stories, already good in themselves, that put together make no sense. Though possibly entertaining to some with no knowledge of fiction or myth, it is not something that children should be allowed to watch since it will confuse and uneducate them to the truly marvelous stories that real myth and fairy tales have to offer. They will grow up culturally ignorant and make fools of themselves, not to mention making them fail exams and become social misfits.