Movies and TV shows ruined by belief.

After reading Jared Lardo's discussion I thought I would begin one with the opposite premise, movies and tv shows that were ruined by story lines relating to belief in god, or the supernatural. Or predestination - I do not believe in fate, destiny, grand plan, or any of that crap.

Note, if I know going in, that it's about the supernatural I don't have a problem with it like with Lost.

** Potential Spoiler alert for Battlestar Galactica and I Am Legend ** >>



















An example is the recent TV show Battlestar Galactica, which I got hooked on. Then they completely ruined the entire series with finale where everything was god's plan.

The movie I am Legend with Will Smith. Basic message I got: Science caused the problem, god will save. Yes I know Will Smith's character Neville, discovered the cure but that would have been useless if god hadn't sent Anna to meet him and escape to the colony.

I recently watched the first episode of Flash Forward. I got a bad feeling about this one. Whether it's "god is punishing us" or future is set and can't be changed BS.

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Permalink Reply by Emily Dietle on September 29, 2009 at 5:52pm
TV show ruined with god/religion: DragonballZ I love DBZ, but the religious and spiritual stuff is always so gooey.
Permalink Reply by Scarletizm on September 28, 2009 at 1:25am
I've had these same thoughts it normally pulls me out of the movie for a bit and then I have to force myself back into the movie. I'm already not much of a movie watcher and a harsh critic. I'm that person that always has something "negative" to say about the movie. But even with music it's the same thing of relating to some words then next BAM something religious is said that I cannot relate to.
Permalink Reply by Adrian Lovett on September 28, 2009 at 6:44am
I don't know if this is on topic, but a really annoying cliche of supernatural etc films is the token skeptic/atheist who generally either becomes a believer or dies horribly. In a universe with magic, actual miracles, supernatural events etc etc than yes it would be stupid to be an unbeliever. If ghosts/angels/ESP etc were real in this universe, we would all know about it.

Btw, my biggest problem with I am Legend was that the book's ending explained the title, and since the film totally screwed with that, the point/reason of/for the title "I am Legend" was lost.
Permalink Reply by Louis Davout on September 28, 2009 at 8:09am
"really annoying cliche of supernatural etc films is the token skeptic/atheist who generally either becomes a believer "

Oh that really ticks me off.
Permalink Reply by Mel on September 28, 2009 at 4:19pm
Thats not why he was Legend in the book. He was Legend in the book because he was the boogey man to the vampires.

I loved the premise of I am Legend, and I think I actually like the execution of the movie better than the book. (But then as much as I like sci-fi, I always struggle with sci-fi older than me. Older writers structure it in a way I'm not used to dealing with and the protagonists are always arseholes.) I think the alternate ending of the movie was much MUCH better than the theatrical release, but if they'd tried to work the book's ending into that film I might have declared it a masterpeice good enough to eradicate Transformers too from the face of the Earth.

However, a couple of my friends said that the best POSSIBLE ending to that film would have been a pan through the destroyed lab... to see two mannequins hiding in the chimmney. :D
Permalink Reply by Adrian Lovett on September 28, 2009 at 8:31am
Indiana Jones....grew up with the first 3 movies and loved them, to the point that I can look past the grail/ark stuff as silly and it doesn't bother me. But....now that I'm a full-on skeptical atheist made the last one difficult. Really, survive nuclear blast in fridge? Really, crystal skulls?! REALLY, THAT ending??!! Ugh. Still love Indy, but still...

BTW, if Flash Forward is worrying you, read the book. The book apparently stays scientific and is mainly a murder mystery/disaster story with a look at free will/determinism...by all accounts. (It's about midway on my to-read list).
Permalink Reply by Louis Davout on September 28, 2009 at 11:56am
"Really, survive nuclear blast in fridge?"

And walks away after being thrown hundred of feet. 'Tis a scratch'

Thanks for the info about flash forward.
Permalink Reply by Mel on September 28, 2009 at 4:34pm
Why does everyone hate the Crystal Skulls so much!?! OK, the fridge thing was a bit out there. (But if you think about it, Indy did in fact apparently travel on the outside of a submerged Nazi submarine for a few hundred miles in Raiders. Watch it again. Either that or he managed to break into a sub full of Nazi's AFTER it had submerged without drowing everyone and/or being noticed.)

The Nazi's were reputed to be obsessed with Biblical artefacts. The interaction of archaeologist hero and 40's setting meant that Biblical artefacts were the logical choice of mcguffins. The 4th one was set in the 60's - which meant two things.
1) the Bad guys had to be Russians - which I have problems with. The bad guys in the first 3 were very CLEARLY the bad guys. Nazi's and child kidnapping slavers. No moral ambiguity in Indy killing as many of those as he liked. Not so much with Russians, though they did overcome that by making these Russians as obnoxious as possible.
2) Aliens were the big thing. The Roswell crashes, Von Daiken's book "Chariots of the Gods" (basically "Stargate: the pseudo-science") was published in '68. To me the aliens make perfect sense in that context.

I am one of the few people that agrees with me on this point.
Permalink Reply by Louis Davout on September 30, 2009 at 2:22am
I completely agree. My problem isn't a religious character or society, it's when god-did-it. Or there is some religious message being made.
Permalink Reply by Kaimana on September 30, 2009 at 2:28pm
Knowing was a fairly good movie for the first 45 minutes or so. I'm not sure if it was just a shitty movie after that, or if god screwed it up, but I'm going to blame god.
Permalink Reply by Louis Davout on September 30, 2009 at 2:40pm
Sounds reasonable to me.
Permalink Reply by Joel Mensah on October 5, 2009 at 12:52pm
I remember looking at the movie "The Mist", the new one. Theres this crazy religious women in there that manages to make everyone around her believe that God is the reason for their predicament. She was extremely crazy and it actually pissed me off for some reason, I rarely get frustrated at movies, but she was just too much.

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