TV/Movies Megathread

[Savonarola]

The Martian- Not what I expected. Quite a light fun film. Given the subject matter I expected something much grittier and darker.

Yeah, I thought it was going to be way existential; like Solaris only deeper.  It turned out to be much better.  MATT DAMON! gives a believable portrait of an applied scientist in that he views everything as a problem to be solved; unfortunately they spell that out at the end, but beyond that I thought it was a good film.

[celedhring]

Ghost Rider 2. Worse in every regard than the first one, that wasn't too brilliant to being with. Crappier SFX, crappier Cage acting, crappier action scenes, crappier hottie.

Why did I watch it? I don't know.

[Eddie Teach]

It had more Idris Elba, but not a good thing this time.

[Razgovory]

I really dislike those show's reliance on the supernatural bullshit. I mean Christianity did not win in the West because of its magical powers.

Disagree.  From Constantine's victory at the Milvian Bridge, to the miracles of saints and the worship of relics, the history of the Church was very much about "magical powers".

Sure, it adapted the mysticism of the existing mystery cults, but Valmy's point still holds - that is not why it became the dominant religion.

Can you demonstrate a direct line from mystery cults to christian religion?

[Razgovory]

You know what should also evolve?  The study of comparative religions.  It's 2016 not 1906.

Yeah pretty confident the Egyptians understood impregnation long before the rise of the solar cults.

I've been trying to lay off Marty a bit recently, but he's not making it easy.  The Poland=backwards jokes are pretty natural when he keeps using books by Jung and Frazier.

[viper37]

Can you demonstrate a direct line from mystery cults to christian religion?

The look of Satan, closer to Cernunos than any depiction in the bible.
The Virgin Mary cult, inspired by the Goodess of Fertilities pagan cult.
The worship of saints, directly inspired by the need of people to pray to different gods.
Jesus, son of God, saviour of humankind is a recurring theme in paganism too, most notably Thor, Odinson, which the Romans likely encountered when they occupied part of germania.
The cult of one God, comes from Judaism, which comes from Zoroastrianism and Akhenatism as well as other pagan religions.

And lots of other things:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_and_Paganism

[lustindarkness]

Latest Captain America Civil War trailer looks pretty darn good.

[Razgovory]

  I meant something besides wild speculation.

Let's take your first example and analyse it.  The name Cernunnos is attested exactly once.  Of the deity (if it is a deity), we know nothing beyond that that his name appears in Roman Gaul with a picture of a bearded man with horns.  He is sometimes connected to other horned figures found in Northern European art, but there is no way to know if they are the same figure.  Often they look quite different.


Here is the earliest depiction of Satan in Christian art.



I think he's the guy on the right.

Now, we can't really connect "Cernunos" to anyone else.  Not in Gaul and certainly not in Italy or Greece.  We have no attestations of people saying that the images have been co-opted by one religion by another nor is there some gradual shift of iconography that we can track from one to another.  The traditional image of Satan did take on horns (and wings, and a tail and often multiple heads or faces), but by then this Cernunos fellow was long forgotten.  Not that horns are particularly rare religious imagery (they can be found Japanese demons, oni)  In fact, horns are described on demonic figures in the Bible contrary to what you say.

And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.

12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.

13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,

14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.

15 And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

So in short, what you said was Bullshit.

[viper37]

I forgot.  If it's not in the Bible, it's bullshit.  So sorry for bringing facts here

[Razgovory]

I forgot.  If it's not in the Bible, it's bullshit.  So sorry for bringing facts here

If you say something is not in the bible, but I demonstrate that it is, how should I interpret that?

[viper37]

I forgot.  If it's not in the Bible, it's bullshit.  So sorry for bringing facts here

If you say something is not in the bible, but I demonstrate that it is, how should I interpret that?

That depiction did not come until the middle ages.  The first texts about Satan did not described him as horned figure.
If you take a modern bible, of course it presents him with horns.  But of course, do not read anything I posted.

Celtic horned god, aka Cernunnos, but it has many names, depending on which region still worshipped such gods:


A popular depiction of Satan:


such images, the horned devil, appeared around and after the Fall of the Roman Empire.  Coincidence that hords of barbarians bringing with them their cult would find their gods depicted as demons?  Don't think so.

[Martinus]

I don't know why people discuss anything with Raz. 

[viper37]

I don't know why people discuss anything with Raz. 

Yeah, I'll let you do it, he's your friend.

[celedhring]

It had more Idris Elba, but not a good thing this time.

Ciaran Hinds is frankly horrible in it, too. I was somewhat looking forward to see him playing the devil, but...

I actually watched the film because the directors are the same dudes that made the Crank films, and those are very stupid films, but very fun at the same time. This one is just stupid.

[Savonarola]

Zootopia (2016)

According to Wikipedia this is a 2016 American 3D computer-animated neo-noir buddy comedy-drama adventure film.  I must say this is one of the finest computer animated neo-noir buddy, comedy-drama adventure films ever made.  In the lofty annals of the computer animated neo-noir buddy, comedy-drama adventure genre this computer animated neo-noir buddy, comedy-drama adventure film will live on forever.



(Shakira has a song in the film and there's a dance number at the end so really the film should be a 3D computer-animated neo-noir buddy comedy-drama musical adventure film; but that would be just silly.)

This is set in a world of anthropomorphic mammals.  An idealistic young rabbit joins the police force and moves to the big city of Zootopia where she joins up with a smooth talking con artist fox to crack THE BIG CASE^TM.  The film is a parable of race relations as prejudice between the species exists.  This is a difficult subject, but one I think the film handles well.  It doesn't go for an easy resolution (in fact it mocks Disney films that do this) and it isn't overly soap-boxy (until the end where there's a "Change begins with you!" speech.)  Some of the jokes play on the idea of race relations, others are more whimsical (my favorite, sloths run the Department of Motor Vehicles in Zootopia.)  It's not typical Disney fare, but I thought it was good; something for children of all ages.