Paspro

Why is it that TV and movie producers are under the impression that they can improve a classic book written by highly intelligent, talented, beloved by the readers, acclaimed by the critics writers of the past? Why do they need to present their own ideas by hijacking the work of others instead of making their own thing?

This series is the complete antithesis of the original Asimov's ideas best expressed by the words of Salvor Hardin in the book:

"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent."

The book is about intelligence, science, politics and the long term manipulation of a whole universe of people through the application of these principles in subtle and deeply thoughtful ways. The series instead is about violence, magical thinking, supernatural powers and heroes. Not only this storyline is in complete contrast to that of the original books but it is poor science fiction as it stands on its own.

This movie is based on a great science fiction concept of a futuristic society which uses "life time" as money. This idea could have resulted in a superb movie, an intelligent critique of the Darwinian nature of the capitalist system which is very relevant to today's artificial financial crisis. This is something that only science fiction can accomplish so effectively and in a manner that shocks the viewer, in this case exposing the absurdity of the monetary system by linking it with the fundamental concept of life itself. One can see how successful this approach can be with other science fiction books/movies like "1984" and "Fahrenheit 451". A thinking director and script writer would have taken advantage of such a brilliant basic idea and they would have created a great science fiction movie. Instead we get the typical Hollywood treatment of a Bonnie & Clyde action flick, with gangsters, car chases, shooting and running, all under an uninspiring direction and no substance. What a waste of precious time this movie is!

This is a typical religious movie designed to promote illogical supernatural fears, unquestionable submission to the authority of the church and belief in imaginary entities of good and evil that have tormented the psyche of people kept in ignorance by design throughout the history so that a few people in power could enforce their will and rule on the uneducated masses.

Religion is a form of control mechanism that presents the people with an eternal afterlife in stupid bliss and love by force for the creator versus a severe punishment for those who prefer to think rationally and for themselves rather than blindly follow the nebulous commands of a celestial dictator as conveniently and cunningly interpreted and re- interpreted by his representatives on Earth to suit their desires, ambitions, thirst for power and delusions of grandeur.

And the key word in this is "afterlife" because no promises are made for the real and only life we people ever have because the earthly life should be devoted to the service of the celestial dictator and in particular his earthly representatives and all other types of artificial authority figures our society has invented to satisfy people's pursuit of power and domination.

The movie goes to incredible lengths to persuade us of the existence of both the benevolent and malevolent supernatural religious entities by exposing a rational person who made the wrong decision to waste his life by becoming a priest to a wild variety of extraordinary events that cannot possibly be interpreted in any other manner than the supernatural and in particular the delusional preachings of the Catholic church.

Therefore, the message of this movie is this: when coming face to face with extraordinary events suspend your logic and rational thinking processes, run to a library and read an ancient 1st century book written by illiterate bronze-age people suffering from psychotic episodes and everything will be explained for you in full detail, including the name of the supernatural entity responsible for the harm.

If there is something that can be described as sacrilegious in this movie it is not the display of upside down crosses but its great offense against the billions of people who lived and worked and died for our civilization to reach its current level of knowledge and quality of life fighting against the superstitions and irrationality of our primitive past.

This is a great movie mainly for two reasons:

1. The script is not a typical Hollywood storyline. It's very realistic and powerful.

2. The performances of all actors are superb. In contrast to Hollywood movies, the actors in this movie are not models who decided to move to the film business but real actors.

Fortunately, there are still cinema people who do not see movies as commercial products for sale with the purpose of bringing enormous profit to the producers but rather works of art. There is still hope for cinema.