Nikolas Rex's Blog, page 3

Determining Fact from Fiction

Although I am not on Facebook I do still keep up with news in several different areas through other avenues. This particular Facebook Post came to my attention and it both shocked me and made me sad.

Uchtdorf is a member of leadership with the Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Mormons give him the title of Apostle. He is well known and well liked among Mormons and up until now was actually a part of what is named the First Presidency of said organization.

In the past Uchtdorf has been known to appear more liberal in his positions regarding hot button issues that have confronted LDS members. As a Mormon myself he was the Apostle I enjoyed hearing from the most during the General Conference bi-annual broadcasts.

That was, however, until he started preaching “Doubt your doubts”. This Facebook post in particular, which I will quote in full.

Never in the history of the world has it been more important to learn how to correctly discern between truth and error. If you experience a moment of question or doubt, remember that in this age of information there are many who create doubt about anything and everything, at any time and every place.

Sometimes untrue claims or information are presented in such a way that they appear quite credible. However, when you are confronted with information that is in conflict with the revealed word of God, remember the parable taught in this video.

We simply don’t know all things–we can’t see everything. What may seem contradictory now may be perfectly understandable as we search for and receive more trustworthy information. Because we see through a glass darkly, we have to trust the Lord, who sees all things clearly.

A comment under this post responds with thoughts that ring true with my own feelings, which I’ll quote in full as well:

This is an unfortunate post. The first paragraph is great–healthy skepticism is critical to determining fact from fiction.

The rest, however, is a mind virus. Rather than trust what logic and evidence yields, we are to ignore it and trust in authority? This is openly fallacious and scary.

Let’s make it simple. A Jehovah’s Witness starts to doubt the validity of their leaders’ word about blood transfusions. They will lose their child by refusing the simple medical procedure. It was taught to be a great evil. They come to you, their friend, to determine whether or not the teachings of their church are in error. Do you 1) Tell them anything in conflict with the guidance from their leadership should be immediately discarded & ignored or 2) Help them realize that blood transfusions are a life–saving medical development and that just because they were told something by someone in a position of authority, claiming to represent God, doesn’t make it true. What if their church taught in Young Earth creation, or suicide as a way to achieve a higher state, or that they should marry into polygamous relationships to achieve exaltation? Do we help them reconcile an obviously false belief system, or do we help them determine the truth?

Similarly, things about LDS doctrine dont stand up to scrutiny in a historical or scientific context. Our testimonies are built on a na

rrative that might not be factual. Do we listen to the message saying we can’t ever understand it and just keep on no matter what the evidence is? “Doubt our doubts?” Or should we try to “discern between truth and error” and use our agency to our utmost ability? Those aren’t simultaneously compatible.

I appreciate the great kindness and tolerance taught by Elder Uchtdorf in his tenure as a leader of the LDS church. He is, by far, my favorite of the apostles. But this message today is destructive and insidious. It teaches members that they can’t even determine fact from fiction and must rely on their authority. This is wrong. We wouldn’t tolerate it in any other aspect of our life, or in any other religion, so why should we tolerate it now?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viruses...

What I find most ironic is in Uchtdorf’s statement is this line: “Sometimes untrue claims or information are presented in such a way that they appear quite credible…”

Why do I find this ironic? Because for almost 30 years I was fed a specific narrative from the LDS church. Entire truth claims and information presented to me in such a way that they appear quite credible or at least I thought so when I was young and naive and blindly obedient. The reality was a narrative and foundation built on untruths.

Take Joseph Smith’s First Vision for example.

The first written version of the account by Joseph was not given until 12 years after it supposedly took place. When he first penned the account, Joseph only mentioned one person visiting him, which is no small detail to be mistaken about. There are now known at least nine different accounts relating the First Vision with varying degrees of changes and circumstances. If this vision was so important, why are there discrepancies?

As far as the dissemination of Joseph’s vision, there is scant evidence that it was referenced in any published material in the 1830’s and it was left out of the first publication of the Church’s history written by Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery. It was also left out of the Book of Commandments (published in 1833, it was the precursor to the Doctrine & Covenants) and the general Church membership did not receive information about the First Vision until the 1840’s and even then, the story did not hold the prominent place in Mormon thought that it does today. For an event of such import, why wasn’t it more widely known? And if Joseph’s telling of the event was the cause of such persecution to himself, why doesn’t the historical record bear this out?

I struggled on my mission in Brazil, not with any sins, not with a lack of desire to do the missionary work (I was ready and eager to do that, because I believed in mormonism full-heartedly back then) but with the foreign language. It was so bad in my early days on the mission that I would say little to nothing for days at a time. I felt that I was disappointing the Lord, that I was letting down God Almighty, and that I was a failure. To rectify that I decided I would memorize the First Vision in Brazilian Portuguese, no matter how long it would take or how difficult the process. I agonized daily over memorizing it until I could recite it perfectly in Brazilian Portuguese. I was proud to recite what I thought was such a miraculous and important event in human history.

Fast forward several years and I find out that there is more than one documented version of this “First Vision”, all with conflicting details. The more I research about the issue, the more it becomes clear that the narrative the LDS church wants to press upon their members is not true.

The most damming evidence? Joseph Fielding Smith, as historian of the church at the time (before he was promoted to be an Apostle), when it was discovered there was a First Vision account penned by Joseph Smith himself in his own journal that differed from the account the LDS church had been using as cannon up until that point, Joseph Fielding Smith had the journal entry torn out of the journal and hidden in his personal safe.

Somehow someone got word it existed, one of the Quorom of the 12 Apostles with more power than Joseph Fielding Smith at the time forced him to open the safe and share it, but no copies were allowed. It was described as a “strange account” of the first vision. Once too many people knew it existed, they let it leak through someone’s master’s thesis at BYU (not the actual account, but rather a mention of it). This allowed the LDS church to claim they knew about the account all along and that it was publicly accessible for any member to learn about. Plausible Deniability.

So yes, Ucthdorf, I do agree, “Sometimes untrue claims or information are presented in such a way that they appear quite credible…” Just like the LDS church did all my life.

Here’s a few more pieces of evidence that verifiably disprove LDS truth claims:

King James Translation errors are found in the BOM – There a numerous examples of errors made by the translators of the KJV in the early 1600’s and these errors are copied word for word into the BOM. How could a book that was supposedly written a millennia prior contain errors made by 17th century scholars?
Anachronisms in the BOM – There are dozens of references to things in the BOM that simply did not exist in pre-Columbian America. Elephants? Steel? Chariots?
Native American DNA – For over a century the church taught that Native Americans were the descendants of the Lamanites. The introduction to the BOM even said they were the “principal ancestors of the American Indians”. As evidence to the contrary has built the church had to admit Native Americans are descended from Asian ancestors and they changed the introduction of the BOM.
Lack of archaeological evidence – There are accounts in the BOM of tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of people dying in battles (e.g. Hill Cumorah) yet there has been no evidence found to support these civilizations.
Tower of Babel – The Tower of Babel and associated events being literal are a staple story of the Jaredite history in the Book of Mormon. The Tower of Babel has been discredited and regarded as a myth by almost all.
No death before the fall – See 2 Ne 2:22 or Alma 12:23-24. There is massive fossil evidence for life going back millions of years. There are not only animal deaths but multiple hominid species a couple hundred thousand years before Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden. D&C also lists the age of the earth as being only a few thousand years old.
Doctrinal changes to BOM regarding Trinitarian views – Many changes have been made since the original 1830 publication of the BOM. These changes were not just simple grammar edits, many of these changes show an evolved view of the godhead, shifting from a Trinitarian view to a separate God/Jesus relationship.
Book of Abraham – I’ll just share a quote from the LDS.org essay on this topic, “None of the characters on the papyrus fragments mentioned Abraham’s name or any of the events recorded in the book of Abraham. Mormon and non-Mormon Egyptologists agree that the characters on the fragments do not match the translation given in the book of Abraham, though there is not unanimity, even among non-Mormon scholars, about the proper interpretation of the vignettes on these fragments. Scholars have identified the papyrus fragments as parts of standard funerary texts that were deposited with mummified bodies. These fragments date to between the third century B.C.E. and the first century C.E., long after Abraham lived.” To summarize, we have several of the papyrus fragments and they do not match the Book of Abraham.

And so many more…

So, do we “doubt our doubts” and continue to blindly follow these men standing as an unnecessary intermediary between us and God? Or do we use our upper cognitive faculties and actually reason for ourselves.

Personally, I have found truth in reason.

 

Believing in Santa – A Christmas Analogy

Can you feel it? The biting chill air; the crisp crunch of frozen crystal white snow. Can you smell it? the strong, heady, cinnamon and pine scents. Do you hear it? The jingling of sleigh bells. Do you see them? the bright flashing multi-colored lights! That’s right, Christmas is just around the corner, and it is in the spirit of this season that I write today’s entry.

You see, this year’s “Happy Holidays!” is a little bit different for me. After giving almost 30 years of my life to the LDS church, it was to my great shock when I stumbled into and read several essays published on LDS.org (fully endorsed by the LDS Prophet and Apostles, highest mormon leadership) which admitted to many ugly facts about mormon church history which I had been taught growing up were anti-mormon lies. This ultimately led to what I have come to view as my awakening and journey of enlightenment. (The whole story can be read in more detail in my book of memoirs titled Truth in Reason).

I am now on a much happier path after leaving mormonism, and am enjoying the mysteries and wonders this world has to offer, instead of hunkering down in my previously extremely limited cave. Exploring my feelings since my worldview was completely flipped around earlier this year has been, although sometimes difficult, oft times quite rewarding.

Christmas has a special place in most of our hearts. It is a time of joy and giving. Many of us have wonderful memories of sledding with friends and siblings, of warm cups of cocoa with marshmallows slowly melting in the chocolaty goodness and heating up frigidly cold toes and fingers in front of the heater, of frustrating Christmas house-lights hanging moments, and dinner with family around a large table piled high with a holiday ham and traditional christmasy foods.

And speaking of tradition, Christmas is certainly a time when we honor traditions the most.

One such tradition is that jolly old saint Nick.

I would like to talk about our good friend in red and white from the North pole. His is a fitting analogy for helping explain some of my thoughts I have come upon on my journey of enlightenment. You see, growing up as a mormon I was taught to rely heavily on my feelings whenever I had a question or needed to make a decision, regardless of how big or small; To pray to God, to ponder, and to seek the answer to my question or make my decision based on how I felt afterwards.

Looking back, with the knowledge I have now, it is so easy to see that this is such a poor indicator of truth, and a very unreliable way to conduct ones life. Playing a passive role in the identification of thoughts and feelings as they arise to your conscious mind, and then acting solely on that? This is no way to find truth.

So what does that have to do with Santa?

This year, the next time you are at the mall and happen upon the section of the mall cordoned off for getting pictures of your child taken on Santa’s lap, pause for a moment and reflect on this while you observe the scene.

First, you will see the babies and toddlers who, being too young to fully understand the context of the situation, will likely be crying and screaming in fear. Although you and I know that this costumed character means the children no harm, this rather large bearded man is a stranger and their instincts default to “danger!”

Second, among the crowd of young ones will be a slightly more mature group of kids, ages 5 – 10. This age group knows, that although this man is a stranger in some sense, they understand the context now, and may even believe him to be the real deal. Some may be shy, but many will be eager and animated at the prospect of sitting on his lap and letting him know their Christmas wishes. Likely they have done this in the past, at the prodding of their parents, and know the tradition matters. Furthermore, after telling Santa what they wanted, they likely received the very same gift on Christmas morn, encouraging them through experience.

Lastly, is the rest of them: bored older siblings, teenagers, and the parents. They aren’t excited to go and sit on Santas lap like the children (and it’s not because they fear him like the babies and toddlers) but it’s because they understand that it’s all make believe. The truth is… Santa, although a long time honored Christmas tradition with a few little gimmicks like “Elf on the shelf” “naughty and nice list” etc., in his pocket, isn’t real. No matter how good the jolly old elf makes you feel inside because of his association with a Holiday that makes you feel good inside, he is only make believe.

Hopefully this analogy will help  demonstrate how feelings, regardless of data and context, aren’t reliable spotlights that “burn through the darkness”. Our feelings may simply reflect our current understanding of a topic or interpretation of a situation. To progress and grow we must allow our interpretation (and thus our feelings) to change as we get more data.

“If we don’t change, we don’t grow, and if we don’t grow, we aren’t really living.” – Gail Sheehy

Now here’s a flowchart because I love flowcharts!

And WHO DOESN’T WANT TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THE UNIVERSE!?

This is why people leave the LDS church. They keep getting more data that suggests it isn’t true, and soon their interpretation about what’s going on in the church changes, and those warm happy feelings they used to have there go away as they see the real truth: Mormonism’s claims to be “The Lord’s restored Gospel and God’s only true and living church on the Earth” are false.

This is one of the reasons why I left the LDS church.

But does that mean I’m going to leave the wonderful joys and traditions of Christmas? Of course not! Bring on Santa! Bring on elf on the shelf! bring on the Grinch! Bring on the stockings and decorated tree! Bring on all the good fun, and the laughter, and the joy of the season. Spread the happiness and cheer! Give the gift of giving! For that’s what Christmas is all about!

Jesus taught: “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Outdo yourselves in honoring one another.” – Romans 12:10

And I think that is great advice for how to spend your Christmas!

Happy Holidays!

To Write or Not to Write

TO WRITE OBVIOUSLY!

It’s Nanowrimo everybody! (Day 9 to be exact) Have I been keeping up? YES! How? I DUNNO! It’s a miracle obviously. I have decided to turn here to my blog to help keep up my writing everyday goal. The biggest hurdle I have is my current job. I’m working 60 hour weeks, it’s a killer! (Time killer that is).

Most nights I get home around 23:30 and then wake up with enough time to grab some breakfast and go back to work, it’s a brutal cycle. If anyone is still interested YES I am still writing the sequel to Wielder of the Flame. I had a pretty solid first draft but felt that there were too many side plots taking over and had to cut a bunch of stuff. Not back to square one, but just a lot of content lost and it didn’t feel like a strong book anymore, so I’m reworking a lot of things and trying to keep the main plot going strong throughout.

Meanwhile I AM working on two other titles Truth in Reason and Truth in Reason: The Lost Two Years. Both titles are books of memoirs of my own life. I recently had a major change in perspective regarding my belief system this year. I stumbled into some essays written by leadership in the religion I grew up in that contradicted all of the stuff I was taught growing up and that completely demolished my faith not only in the church I held dear, but in organized religion in general.

I am on my own spiritual path now and living life authentically. I first thought of what happened to me as a “faith-crisis”, but I realize the term “awakening” is a much better descriptor; a journey of enlightenment. I am trying to focus my energies on passions I previously suppressed due to the limited worldview I operated under. This is difficult because I am coming to these passions late in the game. I finally graduated from WSU and got my B.A. in Digital Technology and Culture. I’m not exactly in the position I want to be in at work, but it is better than my previous position and all I see is a way up. Once I’m comfortably in a job I can be passionate about I’m sure I will feel better about my situation… That kind of went nowhere. Sorry, my thoughts are a little scatterbrained at the moment.

I guess what I’m trying to say is life has been pretty bumpy for me this year, but I’m clawing my way through it and hoping to come out on top.

Arrival

My review for Arrival can be summed up in three words: GO WATCH IT! I try my best not to watch movie trailers anymore (except maybe a teaser or two) or if I do I limit myself to the first 10 or 15 seconds of a trailer before I watch anymore. Trailers these days just spoil the plot. I was glad I did not watch more than a few seconds of the Arrival trailer before stopping myself because they reveal a lot of the movie in it. Suffice it to say that Arrival was an incredible film with an intriguing new twist on the “Aliens-visiting-Earth” premise. Stunning cinematography and an entrancing score go hand in hand with the sci-fi mystery setting presented here. More of a thinking mans sci-fi than action, but that’s just fine in Arrival. Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, and Forest Whitaker play their roles well with Amy Adams taking the lead for most of the film and quite capable in the spotlight. It is unlike any other sci-fi movie I have ever seen and a superb pick for date night with the wife and for our Anniversary.

Enfin – 5 out of 5 Stars

Better than: The 5th Wave (2016)

You might also enjoy: Gravity (2013)

The Year of Time (cont.)

The wheels of my car turn and the books in this series come and pass, leaving a bad taste in my mouth that become legend-ary-ily bad. I turned to Wheel of Time series to eat up time during my commute to and from work. It was going fine for awhile, I was even interested in (most of) the intricate side plots weaving together… but then… finally… I got tired of it. Very tired of it. Especially when I found out that most of those side plots never go anywhere. I almost stopped at Book 5 The Fires of Heaven when it is described AT LENGTH how Nynaeve, Elayne, Thom, and Juilin travel as part of a circus performing in different acts of the circus. Seriously? By the way (spoilers) It ends up having NOTHING to do with the main plot. I should have stopped then, really, but I kept on going because I’ve heard such good things about this series and really I myself am a fantasy author and aspire to writing many books in a series just like Robert Jordan…

Eye of the World Full Cover

So then there is all of Queen Morgase’s side plot that SO MUCH TIME is devoted to and ultimately (spoilers) ends up not amounting to much at all, with little affect on the main plot (and at times I think, “what even IS the main plot anymore?”). It’s like reading a slightly narrative version of a history book at times and I find myself tuning out frequently only to tune in again and realize I haven’t missed much at all, but at the same time I’m completely lost because every other chapter he introduces ten completely new characters who only have one or two chapters of time before they disappear in the background again, never to be heard from again. And can’t really go back and read it because I’m in the card driving, neither can I jump online and research who the characters are, and even if I could I think I shouldn’t have to to enjoy a book series. Sure it makes for an interesting and “deep” world, but no fantasy novel should be so thick in the world building department.

Robert Jordan is by no means a bad author. He has so many good qualities in his descriptions and characters and things that I can’t even compare myself to him in those areas, but in other areas I have weighed and measured and ultimately I have found those areas wanting. Seriously, if I have to read even one more sentence describing yet one more woman’s skirts and how they are divided skirts for riding I’m going to yell. I’m on book ten now and the only thing that keeps me going on is to see how Brandon Sanderson’s style is going to blend into the series. I hope there are no newly introduced characters. In my opinion, there isn’t enough action to keep things interesting either. It’s like playing Star Craft but you never get to leave the base to direct your troops, it’s all Macro and no Micro. You have to sit through all the traveling across land and trudging through chapters and chapters of talking and meetings and politics, which would be all fine and good if there was some pay off. I’m not saying I like those books that are all action and no character development and world building, I like books that mix both and the Wheel of Time series is not both, it has way too much politics and not enough fighting. Sure there are plenty of war stuff but you never really get to see the fighting, it’s mostly just Rand or some other higher up directing troops.

Other things that bother me: (spoilers) Rand and his personal harem, what’s that all about? He’s in love with

three girls and all three are cool with it? Not only that but they all share a special bond meaning when two characters have intimacies all characters within that bond share the same feelings of those intimacies, so basically it is like everyone in the bond is participating, weird. I’m all for love triangles but a love quadrangle thingy? I’m not buying it. Especially with Robert Jordan’s whole taking the idea of a patriarchy (our world) and spinning it the other way (women wield the one true power) with Rand’s personal harem it completely goes against that idea and doesn’t make sense in the world he himself has constructed. It’s like a spanish telenovella on the scale of bad writing silliness.

(more spoilers) The whole plotline with Padan Fain? A perfect villain to square off against Rand but after 9 novels practically NOTHING has happened in that avenue. Instead we have weird villains that we have no connection to fighting Rand. It’s like the publisher told Robert Jordan (Uhm, you can’t have Rand kill Ba’alzamon so soon, come up with some other bad guys for Rand to fight through 10 or so books, that will work) And suddenly we have the 12 Forsaken/Chosen for Rand to fight. But we don’t care about them. Padan Fain, on the other hand, has been with Rand since the beginning of Eye of the World and has a personal vendetta against Rand, but it’s tossed to the side for no apparent reason (like many of the plots in the series).

I have come to realize that Wheel of Time is not for everyone and I may be among those in the “not-for-me” camp. New Spring and Eye of the World? Fantastic books both. The Great Hunt got a little weird, and not in a good way, the whole hunt for the horn feels dragged out to the max, Dragon Reborn felt exciting again, especially in the last battle,

I don’t know, do I really want to continue this torture? A year of time might turn into 2 years at this rate (my commute’s to and from work aren’t as long as they used to be). We’ll see. I’m so far I might as well finish at this point.

Final Days of an Alliance

Sully Movie Review

Although I already knew the ending to this incredible true story this was not a deterring factor for Sully. Clint Eastwood did an amazing job directing this film. As the plane was careening out of control, headed towards a crash landing, I was actually afraid for the passengers and wondering if they were about to meet a grueling fate. My wife especially must have been at the edge of her seat because although she knew the gist of the story she didn’t know if (minor spoilers) all of the crew and/or passengers made it out alive. The filming and editing, together with a solid performance from Tom Hanks, and Aaron Eckhart as a great supporting actor, really kept me engaged and invested in the plight of the characters presented (I even teared up twice). One of the most intense movies I have seen in a long time. A movie worth the big screen and resonating surround sound. As I said before, Clint Eastwood’s direction really shines here. 5 out of 5 stars,  would watch again.

The year of time

This was the year that I decided to read all of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series. I didn’t start in January, otherwise I realize I would have been closer to finishing than I am now. But that’s okay. I’m on book 6 now, Lord of Chaos. I will have to say this: Since the first one I read (New Spring) the book I have liked best is The Eye of the World. The Great Hunt wasn’t great, in my opinion. It differed greatly from The Eye of the World in all the wrong ways. The Dragon Reborn aimed to recapture a little bit of The Eye of the World, but still had a bit too much “filler”. Then I got to The Shadow Rising and the Fires of Heaven and… oh boy… there was SO MUCH filler. I thought The Shadow Rising could be re-named The Sub-plots Rising and Fires of Heaven could be Fires of Sub-plots. Following Nynaeve and Elaine joining a circus and wandering the world of dreams was SO BORING and POINTLESS! It took the better part of 5 novels just for ONE character (Nynaeve) to have SOME character development and realize what a stubborn, controlling, pretentious jerk she had been since being The Wisdom of the Two Rivers. And don’t even get me started on the time waste on the Aiel and their whole history and all those pointless scenes in the Wise Woman’s sweat tents. And making Egwene do all those silly tasks made me just want to scream. If I was in Egwene’s, or Elain’s, or Nynaeve’s positions I would tell the old hags to screw off and go off and learn magic myself. None of the Aiel Wise Women or even the Aes Sedai ever seem to teach the novices anything anyway. It’s ALL “Do this, do that, do my bidding” 24/7. That doesn’t seem to teach, but to enslave, just as much as the Damane enslaves. So stupid.

Then, FINALLY in Lord of Chaos some interesting things happen. So, yeah, books 2 – 5 could have been summed up into one book and just skip right to Lord of Chaos.

Independence Day: Recrapgence

Independence Day: Resurgence was an abysmal, sloppy, lazy, charmless, witless, sophomoric, trainwreck. It was like Star Wars… The prequels… Everyone delivered their lines like little Anakin in The Phantom Menace when he finds himself locked into a fighter pilot. “Qui-Gon told me to stay in this cockpit, and that’s what I’m going to do!” *audience eye-roll*

The tension and thrills that the first movie delivered were entirely absent here. The script was laughable, the dialogue cringe-worthy. Plots involving characters from the first movie felt more than shoehorned in, Judd Hirsch reprising his role as Julius Levinson (Jeff Goldblume’s Dad) as one good example. And Bull Pullman’s character, ex-President Thomas J Whitmore, inexplicably went from half crazy mad-man on pills in the beginning of the film to fighter pilot extraordinaire and “only one” fit to carry out mankind’s last-ditch crazy plan to fight off the 2nd alien invasion.

Furthermore, trying to bank on Nostalgia (I assume) the writers used almost shot-for-shot scenes from the first film that just felt like lazy rip-offs than “proper nods” to the first movie. For example, in the last battle, they showed quick cuts of different people in varied parts of the world gathered around campfires and short-wave radios (just like the first movie). Another way this movie failed is in the diversity department. Sure there were actors with various ethnic background, but despite the entire world having “joined forces” from the events of the first movie, this very much felt like an “America, defenders of the Earth and the only ones capable of doing so, saves the day again!” kind of deal.

It tried to take itself seriously but without any real gravitas from well-known actors (Jeff Goldblume I’m looking at you) or even half-hearted attempts from the large array of B-list of actors present, the whole movie fell flat and ended up failing to entertain in any way whatsoever.

Enfin – Better than: Pixels (which isn’t saying much)

Instead, Watch: Independence Day (the first movie) Trust me, it’s a thousand times better…

or try: Battle Los Angeles

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Snore

The only thing that kept me watching to the end was the magnificent cast. If it weren’t for Benedict Cumberbatch, Mark Strong, John Hurt, Gary Oldman, Toby Jones, Colin Firth, and more (Tom Hardy even had a minor role) I would’ve stopped watching after the first 20 minutes. (I usually give a movie a solid twenty minutes. If twenty minutes in fails to capture me, it’s usually not worth my time).

How could they make such a boring movie with such an amazing cast? Maybe because they spent all their money on a bunch of top tier actors and didn’t pay enough attention to the writing and the editing. Seriously, the editing. I don’t mean to say there were errors in dialogue being slightly off when the actors are speaking, or a scene fades for too long, or something like that. What I mean by editing is that the sequence of events shown to the audience is purposefully cut so that it starts in a flashback and then jumps around to different times, also known as “In media res” a classic latin term that literally means “Into the middle of things” and although this works amazingly for movies like Memento, in Tinker Tailor, Soldier, Spy, I was completely lost. In fact I had to pause the movie about half an hour into it and look up the plot on Wikipedia just to get a sense of things.

Sure, going into the movie, I knew that it would be more of a “thinker” movie than usual, but I honestly just felt lost, not like, “Ahhhh, cool, I GET it!”

Ultimately not worth the time spent on it. (Luckily I got to watch it for free on Netflix)

Enfin – Better than: The Monuments Men

Instead, Watch: A Most Wanted Man (Also adapted from author John le Carre who wrote Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy)

or Imitation Game

or Bridge of Spies