One of the things I despise when reading movie or music reviews is the unwanted and ill-informed insertion of a political opinion into a piece that ought not to be even a little bit political. That sort of intrusion is a lot like finding a cockroach baked into a delicious brownie that you’ve already half-eaten, then learning that the person who gave you the brownie put it in there on purpose. It is an act of arrogance that’s almost never warranted. The writer is forcing you to accept an opinion for which you didn’t ask and which he certainly didn’t earn the right to give you.
I say that because of this review of Roland Emmerich’s latest blow up the world flick, “2012″. About all I get from it is that the author likes it because he’s a scientist and a secular humanist and take that you mean old Religion! Well, every religion gets blown up real good except for Islam because they blow you up right back, and the Mayans who called it all along but apparently don’t appreciate the publicity today (Who knew the Mayans had a lobby?).
Here’s the cockroach in what wasn’t a very good brownie to begin with.
I interviewed director and cast of “2012″ for LiveScience.com; you can see the videos of the interviews at Newsarama. Of particular interest is my interview with Chiwetel Ejiofor, in which he discusses how his character struggles to maintain scientific integrity in the face of political influences. After the Bush administration’s well-publicized anti-science stance and overt attempts to bend scientific research for political ends, this point seems especially relevant.
Ah yes, that old canard. Look, I’m not going to spend any time debunking this bit of poorly-informed tripe. I’m not likely to change his mind any more than he’s going to change mine and I’m not inclined to try. Who can argue a matter of faith with a zealot?
Why do I say he’s a zealot? Well, here’s his follow-up paragraph.
Though 2012 is not a great film, it does have some interesting pro-science aspects that skeptics and science folks should take note of. While John Cusack is the lead star, the hero of the film is really a black scientist, Adrian Helmsley (Chiwetel Ejiofor). Helmsley is the president’s chief science advisor, and it is he who first discovers the impending danger. The film somewhat realistically portrays the difficulties of scientific uncertainty—how sure do you have to be to sound the alarm? This is not an academic question, and arises in discussions of scientific prediction on a wide range of topics ranging from asteroid impacts to global warming.
Yeah…consider that a beam in the eye completely missed.
Look, if this guy wants to wallow in the delusion that George Bush was just one step away from staffing the National Science Foundation with witch-doctors and faith-healers, that’s up to him. However, he can’t simply drop that steaming pile of progressive dung then go skipping tra-la past the blatant politicizing of science we’ve gotten from our current administration in service of the Church of Global Warming and not expect to be called out on it.
Better that he stuck to the science, like these guys.
Tags: Movie Reviews, Science
