X-Men and Last Exorcism, Essay Example

X-Men: First Class

The first thing that came into my mind after watching the X-Men: First Class was the 007 of James Bond because the two have certain similarities such as the cold war tensions between communists and superpowers of the western world and the setup of an advanced technology of an earlier era. Nevertheless the movie can pass as ok for me, not that I hate the 007 but neither do I become thrilled watching it at this moment in my life. However the case was not the same while a child as I loved watching action movies and though I did not get the chance of watching all of the James Bond masterpieces, I liked those that came my way. Now that am an adult, I guess am more into real comedies and horrors than the rest of them.

Back to X-Men: First Class, I especially did not like the Mystique character because I thought of it as being too exaggerated. It looked too fictional to be real. The changing of shapes as a result of mutation mutant is what baffles me a lot because it looks too unrealistic. To top it all, the fact that this character is not the antagonist tends to make it worse since its traits would have better suited the adversary of a hero in a film and not it being the protagonist. I am just trying to say that Mystique is too ugly for a hero. Another thing that in think would have made the film to be even more appealing is if Mystique’s body shape would have stayed a bit more permanent that shifting to and fro. I know that maybe kids will not have any problem with this trend but as for a rational grown up, it is not that exciting since we understand that genes exhibiting their traits phenotypically are relatively permanent. If I had Mystique’s capabilities, I would have taken my chances without shifting my shape now and then since after all, I have the supernatural to deal with the evil. That would be a true proof of courage beyond doubt as it will show that am not afraid of revealing my true identity in my quest for justice. It is almost impossible for people to perceive or treat a character like Mystiques’ equal to human beings. Mystique is better off being a beast rather than changing to take the form of a human being. Evidently, it therefore goes without saying that I also suffers from the same bias (in case you had forgotten, I am also a human being!). On the contrary, the mutant goes in line with Freudian concept of uncanny which he described as something that looks familiar but foreign at the same time. The blue form of Mystique will make people scramble for their lives if they ever chance to see her passing across the streets.

Sebastian Shaw thinks that he is the hero in this movie. Being so conversant with science due to his association with Nazi and chairing the Hellfire Club, he is more than convinced that he will take over the world. For the simple reason that good will always triumph over the evil and Shaw represents that evil, you always have this strong anxiety as a result of waiting for his downfall. You tend to get a mixed filling after watching Magneto who is a childhood friend of Xavier kill Sebastian. The difference he has with Xavier does not make one jump into worry that he is going to wipe off the human race.

I have to confess that if I had the option of choosing, I would go for Mystique’s mutant power because of her mammoth size, therefore commanding a sense of greatness. The powers that I wouldn’t want to have would be Sebastian Shaw’s since he has no to trace of goodwill but evil alone. It does not attract me since it is meant to do evil and I wouldn’t want to erase the human race.

The Last Exorcism

It is quite evident that Marcus’s faith dwindled since his wife delivered a son who has a grave illness. Nevertheless, he continues to minister to his congregation thus taking advantage of their faith. This is very ironical since Reverent Marcus does not strongly believe in God himself because he has not come to the aid of their sick son. The desperation of his congregation is what blinds them into believing the sermons of Reverent Marcus who does not even believe in what he says (he preaches water but takes wine!). He cannot tell his subjects the truth of the matter since he risks losing them. On top of that, he needs their money. This creates a feeling of laughter amidst tensions from fear, after all this is a horror movie and its flavor is best presented by a taste of fright.

It is funny knowing that Marcus perceives exorcism as false and yet he goes ahead to carry it out with the pretense of casting out the demons. The reverent uses his tricks accompanied by his crucifix to make seem real but at the back of his mind he knows that he is just fooling them. What he is doing is pure fraud. It then leaves you to wander how the victims are cured since neither God nor exorcism seems fruitful under this context.

The Last Exorcism has two moments; the silly ones and the terrifying ones. This is what drives it creating an atmosphere of anxiety starting from the beginning of the movie to its conclusion. When I first laid my eyes on the trailer, I swore to myself that I was going to watch the movie as soon as it was out and I was true to my word. The good thing is that I was not disappointed. If I had both the two keys of heaven and hell, Reverent Marcus would not have found a place in either of the two. Instead I would have created a third world that is intermittent between the two. That is where he belongs!

It becomes more apparent towards the end of the movie that the occult in which Pastor Manley is a member is responsible for making Nell( daughter of Louis Sweetzer who is a farmer) pregnant. The fact that Marcus tells we the audience that it is Louis who is responsible for that pregnancy only serves one purpose and that is to ridicule him for his spuriousness. This revelation comes late toward the end of the movie so we are left hanging with our guesses as to the genesis of her pregnancy for quite some time during the movie. I tend to think that Nell’s lies about her pregnancy are as a result of the demon inside her so as to hide its true identity of the demon in power. It is the demon Abalam that gets rid of the livestock to quench its thirst of taking lives. The death of Nell’s mother is what underlies Nell’s psychological disturbances as portrayed by Reverent Marcus although as we see toward the end of the movie, this is not true. When see Nell bound as she gives birth, we can only guess that she was an involuntary messenger of Abalam, the demon.

Marcus tells the documentary crew that if they believe in God they must also believe in demons. This creates a lot of confusions in our minds (we the audience) since you cannot serve two masters at the same time i. e Satan and God. The confusion is heightened by the abrupt ending of the movie since it reaches its peak with Marcus running towards the fire to conquer the evil while Daniel is decapitated by Caleb thus the camera falling to the ground. We can only yarn to see more of the events that followed the dropping of the camera. We can only draw our own conclusions independently and wish at the same time that we could have seen more of the events that followed the stillness and the silence.

References

Botko, H. (Director). (2010). The last exorcism [Documentary]. USA: Studio Canal.

Stamm, D. (Director). (20112010). The last exorcism [Documentary]. USA: Blitz Film & Video Distribution.

The Last Exorcism – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (n.d.). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved January 27, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Exorcism

Donner, L. (Director). (2011). X-men first class [Documentary]. UK: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.

Vaughn, M. (Director). (2011). X-men: first class [Documentary]. UK: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.