Movie Review
Mayhem and Meaning: What's Missing from War of the Worlds

(AgapePress) - Teleology is the philosophical study of purpose -- for example, in nature, design, or morality. Rick Warren's best-selling book, The Purpose Driven Life, would have been considered an unnecessary title at the beginning of the 20th century because people already believed that they had a purpose. The malaise that infected the late 20th century, and which continues unabated, comes from the loss of a sense of purpose among many in the West. We have become an a-teleological culture, but, I think, not an anti-teleological culture. We may not have a purpose, but we certainly are looking for one.

Lack of purpose is why so many people are leaving Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds (DreamWorks) remake with a hollow, unsatisfied feeling that I predict will dampen box-office receipts. What makes a movie a blockbuster is that people want to see it more than once. I cannot imagine wanting to sit through War of the Worlds again. And that is a shame, because Spielberg was given a story tailor-made for his kind of retelling. Unfortunately, in shifting War of the Worlds from a film about an attractive culture with transcendent underpinnings threatened by an unstoppable invasion to a film focusing on a self-centered derelict dad just trying to keep himself and his kids alive, Spielberg robs the films of catharsis and meaning -- no community, little love, and scant hope of transcendence.

An excellent read! More here: http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/7/12005a.asp