Kristine
Posts: 3061
Joined: Sep. 2006
|
Skatje has written a review.
| Quote | I'm trying very hard to be unbiased, but that's pretty difficult in this situation. Regardless of content, the movie was surprisingly unpolished and cheap-looking. It might be due in part to being unfinished, but how far off can they be when it's released in less than a month? The camera-work was shakey, obnoxious, and they seemed to like to zoom into ultra-close-ups. Ever wonder what's up Dawkins' nose? Here's your chance to find out.
The entire movie was interspliced with stock footage and older movies. A comment from an interview about "Big Science" picking on the little guys would be followed by a 1940's-looking clip of two guys slapping each other. A comment from someone who supposedly lost their job over ID would be followed by a clip from Planet of the Apes, with an ape water-hosing Heston and calling him a freak. While they were obviously trying to be funny, it just got so tiring and distracting.
It started out going one-by-one through the people who've had their jobs affected by their talking about ID. This was also pretty boring. You hear one, you basically hear them all. They asked Michael Shermer what he would say about people losing their jobs because of ID, and he said that as far as he knew, that's never happened, and if it did, it probably involved other factors than just ID. This was basically ignored, and Stein continued to assert that ID was the only reason they were fired.
There was also a part where Stein wandered around Seattle saying "Where is it? Oh, I'll just keep walking. Where is it?" He reaches a building and says "The Discovery Institute must be this entire building." Soon after: "Oh, but it has to be at least one of these floors." But no, it turns out it's only half a floor out of a 20-story building. They also point out the half-dozen people at the office, clearly making the point that IDists are the underdogs when it comes to money. You have to be kidding.
*snip*
Before I'd seen this movie, I was of the opinion that it would be worthwhile to see, but I'd pay money for something else and walk into the "wrong" auditorium. Now I realise that it really wasn't worth the hour-and-a-half of my time. I cannot emphasise how utterly boring this film was. Half of it was annoying clips of people knitting, people making toys, people laying bricks, tanks, Hitler, and people chipping at the Berlin wall. Half of the other half was different people saying the same things. |
She forgot a few things...like Ben Stein scratching his back in a classroom with a backscratcher (which produced hysterical giggles from the audience for some reason); Ben Stein interjecting a description from Michael Ruse about the idea of abiogenesis piggybacking off of crystals with a Swami bellowing, "Look into my crystal ball!" (huh?); and that fake "stock footage" of little boys kicking a ball over the Berlin Wall. (Gee, they could walk right up to it and everything! Gosh, this film is so realistic.)
As for Bruce Chapman and his "Dawkins is nervous" spiel, all I can say is, there's another Expelled trailer out there. No link yet. It's pretty funny.  (You won't believe what those wacky scientists are trying to censor this time!
--------------
Which came first: the shimmy, or the hip?
AtBC Poet Laureate
"I happen to think that this prerequisite criterion of empirical evidence is itself not empirical." - Clive
"Damn you. This means a trip to the library. Again." -- fnxtr
|
