This has been a week of movies. Thanksgiving was great, as per usual, and I always associate the holiday with a certain amount of movie watching. Some years involve seeing the latest "Harry Potter" movie, others mean watching a DVD or two with the family.

This year we watched "Transformers." It was...silly. Very silly. But then, I couldn't believe that someone was actually making a live-action version some ten or twenty years after they first were popular as toys. Then again, it always struck me as strange how popular they are among the people I go to art school with, many of whom hadn't even been born when the cartoon was on the air. I will admit that hearing the original guy (or someone who sounds just like him) doing Optimus Prime's voice was pretty cool (By the way - I forgot to thank you for that phone call, Mr. Slusser), and the scene in the protagonist's backyard was pretty funny.

Fortunately, that's not all we watched this holiday. The night before, we sat down in my in-laws' downstairs living room (which is basically a little apartment all by itself with a really huge TV) and watched "Amazing Grace," which is a historical biopic about William Wilberforce, the man who fought to end the British slave trade. It was very good, and is one of those rare Christian-backed movies that isn't at all cheesy (it was co-produced by sister-in-Christ "Everybody Loves Raymond" star Patricia Heaton). It also had a favorite actor of mine, Rufus Sewell, in a role that made him look like 60's musician Tiny Tim. Fortunately, he didn't sing.

This evening, we went out to see something in the theater. Pickings were a bit slim out here in Des Moines, but fortunately something that I'd been wanting to see was showing - "Beowulf," the computer animated adaptation co-written by Neil Gaiman. As Marilyn and I were looking up movie listings online, I saw that the critic from the L.A. Times said it was a lot of technological genius used to prop up a pathetic script. This goes to show that the L.A. Times' critics have about as much taste and sophistication as their editors have integrity. I really liked it. Mr. Slusser and Mr. Skaggs, take notice - I think you will both enjoy this movie as much as I did. May I suggest that this is a particularly relevant movie for men, though I'm not going to explain why here. It's better just to see it. Just know beforehand that it is by no means a "family movie"; it is for adults and deals with mature themes. And Grendel nearly made me wet myself.

I was also pleased to look around the lobby of the theater and see from the posters (as well as from some of the previews we saw) that there are some promising movies coming. From commercials, I've seen that the long-awaited (if you're Andrew Gaughen, at least) "I Am Legend" is finally coming to theaters. J.J. Abrams apparently has a similarly apocalyptic-looking movie cryptically called "Cloverfield." I'm intrigued by a movie called "Jumper," which is about people who can teleport (though I'm a little dismayed by the fact that it stars Hayden "Darth Whiny" Christensen - granted, you can only do so much with Lucas-written dialog, but still). Disney's got its "National Treasure" sequel, "Book of Secrets," which looks like fun to me (I know the original has its critics, but darn it, goofy as it may have been, I enjoyed it). Walden Media (the same guys doing the Narnia movies) have something coming out that looks like it's about, I don't know, the Loch Ness Monster that gets raised by a kid or something - we didn't get to see a preview for that, but their producing of the Narnia films makes me want to give them all kinds of box office goodwill. "Iron Man" looks pretty great based on the previews. Someone is coming out with an adaptation of the children's book series "The Spiderwick Chronicles," which I know nothing about except that the books are filled with lovely Tony DiTerlizzi artwork. S0meone else is making another "Aliens vs. Predator" movie, called "Requiem," which I'm guessing may be pretty cheesy, but the poster image suggests that it will bring the Alien-Predator battle to Earth...so we'll see.

This, of course, must bring me to the one fantasy movie I will be skipping: "The Golden Compass." As I understand it, the special effects for this movie were done by Weta, whose work I enjoy. And I do love a good fantasy movie. However, since Philip Pullman, author of The Golden Compass and its trilogy, His Dark Materials, has pretty much openly declared himself an antichrist (and I mean that in the non-hyperbolic, Biblical sense of 1 and 2 John) and the intent of his stories to discourage children from placing their faith in God, I can't say that I believe there will be anything there for me. Putting aside the fact that I don't want to contribute my money toward anything that overtly campaigns for the Enemy, what can "The Golden Compass" offer me except some neat visuals and some clever scenes? What can I really share with this man, who has without remorse openly declared himself an enemy of God, and is proud to call himself the "Anti-C.S. Lewis" in that his work communicates an atheist dogma? I love fantasy, and while I love the trappings of fantasy, it is the core of wonder, the soul of the fantastic that romances my heart. It's a specifically Divine soul that the Brothers Grimm recognized in folklore and placed emphasis upon in their retellings of the traditional wonder tales. Even in works by authors who don't recognize Christ, I can find remnants, echoes, and traces of the common knowledge of God's law that He has written on all of our hearts. The concept that the truest love is that which sacrifices itself for the sake of another; the sentiment that love conquers all, that good ultimately triumphs and evil is ultimately punished, that there is more wonder in the Universe than our finite, self-oriented minds are aware of. But in the creation of a heart embittered and hardened against God, what can I expect to find except hollow, fruitless rebellion against all that I love? What warmth can a cold corpse offer? To reiterate, I'm passing on "The Golden Compass." Call it a boycott if you like.

Instead, I'll just save my money for "Prince Caspian" in May.

EDIT: Totally off-topic, but we happened to watch an episode of "Numbers" tonight, which I don't usually watch. I was rewarded for tuning in tonight, as this episode was all about comic books, and it seemed to me that whomever wrote the script really knew what they were talking about. Not only did it feature Christopher Lloyd as an old-timer comic artist (with the appropriate "I'm no artist, I just drew comic books to make a buck" attitude), but also famous brother-in-geekhood Wil Wheaton as the episode's apparent bad guy. Yay!