Spiderman III and another veiled attack on Catholicism

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Just saw Spiderman III today. Great movie overall, except for one scene that really bugged me .
In the movie there is a scene where Eric Brock (who later becomes venom), the photographer competition of Peter Parker goes into a Catholic church and prays for the strength to kill Spiderman/Peter Parker.
I thought that was awful and unnecessary, but what really got to me is that every time someone in a movie prays for something bad or something bad happens in a religious setting, It is ALWAYS in a Catholic church.😦 Anyone else notice this?
How come never do they show scenes where stuff happens in a Protestant church or Synagogue. Well the only thing they show happening in a synagogue is Nazi hatred ****. Overdone ,overused.
But that’s a subject for a different thread.What does Hollywood have against Catholics anyway? 😦
What do you guys and girls think on this subject?
 
Well I think anytime anyone prays for ANYTHING in movies it is a Catholic church.

When I saw that scene I was like “hey. I think I might be a little insulted” But then I looked at it this way: Dude was wrong and flat out evil to pray to Jesus for the death of a person: Things really didn’t turn out so well for him. 🙂
 
Sorry, but I respectfully disagree. I didn’t think it was an attack on Catholicism at all. People can pray for bad things sometimes (cursing). God obviously doesn’t listen to those prayers. It has been condemned as a sin. There are bad Catholics in this world, who do pray for such things. The movie wasn’t condoning it…it was showing how corrupt Eddy was. He eventually gave in to that evil. I don’t think that it was an attack.

Dominus Tecum
 
I think they might use a Catholic church because Catholic churches --in the eyes of Hollywood cinematographers–are more “picturesque” with their stained glass windows, vigil lights and statues. Notice how they always use a traditional church interior, not one of those sterile, bland modernistic churches. Also, have you ever noticed how in a crowd scene–for example, people walking through a train station–they frequently have a couple of extras in the background dressed in traditional nuns’ habits? They’re “picturesque.”
 
maria_rose said:
Just saw Spiderman III today. Great movie overall, except for one scene that really bugged me .
In the movie there is a scene where Eric Brock (who later becomes venom), the photographer competition of Peter Parker goes into a Catholic church and prays for the strength to kill Spiderman/Peter Parker.
I thought that was awful and unnecessary, but what really got to me is that every time someone in a movie prays for something bad or something bad happens in a religious setting, It is ALWAYS in a Catholic church.😦 Anyone else notice this?
How come never do they show scenes where stuff happens in a Protestant church or Synagogue. Well the only thing they show happening in a synagogue is Nazi hatred ****. Overdone ,overused.
But that’s a subject for a different thread.What does Hollywood have against Catholics anyway? 😦
What do you guys and girls think on this subject?
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I give that movie a 7. It was okay. I’m not into such strong action films, but my kids wanted to see it. I totally see what you are saying…I thought the same thing…My husband and I looked over at each other on that part…kids sitting between us…and just…did this…:rolleyes: LOL I mean…in V for Vandetta (GREAT FILM BY THE WAY) they had to portray a priest/Bishop in the worst possible light…but, it was still a good film. But, why oh why is it necessary to diminish the RCC???😦

It seems to be status quo to see this in the movies, lately.
 
Simply put, it’s because Eddie Brock is Catholic even in the comics. Incidentally, Venom is a hero/anti-hero in the comicbooks. He is solely against Spiderman, though he is also a sort of vigilante, much like The Punisher in that he sees violence as necessary in fighting crime.
 
AquinaSavio said:
Sorry, but I respectfully disagree. I didn’t think it was an attack on Catholicism at all. People can pray for bad things sometimes (cursing). God obviously doesn’t listen to those prayers. It has been condemned as a sin. There are bad Catholics in this world, who do pray for such things. The movie wasn’t condoning it…it was showing how corrupt Eddy was. He eventually gave in to that evil. I don’t think that it was an attack.

Dominus Tecum
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I agree. I’ve seen a lot worse in terms of veiled attacks on Catholicism in films.
 
In all this hand-wringing over Eddie Brock, don’t overlook the symbolism of the fact that it is the church bells that frees Spidey from the black costume.

Edward
 
The truth is whenever Hollywood thinks ‘Church’ they think ultratraditional stained glass and statutes, fancy vestments and incense - namely Catholic. I don’t think they usually even know what the heck denomination the church is they’re filming in!
 
MrZoom said:
In all this hand-wringing over Eddie Brock, don’t overlook the symbolism of the fact that it is the church bells that frees Spidey from the black costume.

Edward
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Very excellent point!
Lily, you’re probably right , but I do wonder sometimes what is going on in Directors/producers heads.
BTW if they really researched impartially they could find nice looking Protestant churches as well.
In Spiderman II for the almost wedding scene they either used a protestant church or a set. It certainly didn’t look catholic.
I just noticed that church scene in SpideyIII and it bothered me . that’s all.
Your comments everyone are excellent as always.:cool:
 
I think the scene with Eddie praying was good in that it showed that even Catholics can pray for the wrong things. I appreciated the fact that Spiderman, who thinks he killed a villain and revels in it, briefly, realizes that he was going in the wrong direction later on. And says, “We always have a choice.” A good reminder that each one of us gets to decide, daily, to do what’s right or what’s wrong.

God bless,
Ed
 
It’s realism, everyone.

First of all, very few Protestant churches are open for the public to come in and pray. Not all Catholic churches are open, either, but many of them are. They’re certainly more likely to be unlocked than a Protestant church.

**Second, no Protestant church that I’ve ever seen has kneelers. **

I agree that they are looking for beauty and stained glass, but in many cities, ours included, many of the older Protestant churches are just as ornate as the Catholic Churches.
 
This was an interesting obsevation Maria, if any one keeps in touch with Indian movies you may notice that none of the movies of the past ten years have been permiited to be shot inside an Indian Catholic Church. Very often therefore Indian film producers shoot the scenes required to be in churches in European churches which discourages some of them.

This was because very often we were typecast in Indian society, and this is one policy decision of the Indian Catholic Church which was very good particularly for our image. One cannot barter away our self respect for money. Very often the media for many reasons tries to degrade our image, by wrongly potraying Catholics. Thankfully India does provide some rights to minorities to protect themselves in these cases and in any case the local Bishop should exercise some discretion when such permissions are granted.
 
Actually I think Hollywood knows exactly what they are doing when picking on the Catholic Church. Lets review a little history. First you have the awful “Dogma” attacking the church, “Peacemakers” has a scene where a bomb goes off in a chapel, the movie where Ben Afleck is a superhero he fights in a Catholic Church, Saturday Night Live had a Catholic school girl as a main character, the horrible Divinci Code, the TV show about priests…forgot the name, The Last Temptation of Christ movie, any mob movie of course they are Catholic, … I can go on. I have a friend who was an actress. In fact she had the same agent as Jim Cavezel. The agent said she shouldn’t become Catholic because Hollywood hates Catholics and won’t hire any. Jim had a tough time for a while until Mel Gibson hired him for Passion. My friend would go party after party where she would be made fun of because she was thinking of becoming Catholic. So anytime they can attack us, they will, even if it is something small like in Spiderman. Take a little at a time and no one will notice…
 
MollyF said:
Actually I think Hollywood knows exactly what they are doing when picking on the Catholic Church. Lets review a little history. First you have the awful “Dogma” attacking the church, “Peacemakers” has a scene where a bomb goes off in a chapel, the movie where Ben Afleck is a superhero he fights in a Catholic Church, Saturday Night Live had a Catholic school girl as a main character, the horrible Divinci Code, the TV show about priests…forgot the name, The Last Temptation of Christ movie, any mob movie of course they are Catholic, … I can go on. I have a friend who was an actress. In fact she had the same agent as Jim Cavezel. The agent said she shouldn’t become Catholic because Hollywood hates Catholics and won’t hire any. Jim had a tough time for a while until Mel Gibson hired him for Passion. My friend would go party after party where she would be made fun of because she was thinking of becoming Catholic. So anytime they can attack us, they will, even if it is something small like in Spiderman. Take a little at a time and no one will notice…
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There was another discussion about this a while back already, however I did want to address some of your points. I don’t doubt that there are people in Hollywood that dispise Catholics, however let’s pu this in perspective, both Dare Devil and Eddie Brock (in Spiderman) are catholic in the comics… Dare Devil was semi raised by a catholic priest and went on to fight the good fight.
Eddie Brock although Catholic symbolizes all that can go wrong when you leat greed , ambition and jealousy get in your way. The scene it the movie is so small, that it is almost insignificant and it directly shows the character of Eddie, that he had fallen so low as to pray for the unthinkable. It directly shows the correlation that his priorities are in the wrong place. This helps to solidify that Eddie has turned down a pathe that will not be easy to return from.
I don’t understand why so many people are having an issue with this… It wasn’t a commentary on his religion, it was a commentary on his individual character.
 
Hm, I don’t think that the director was necessarily trying to make Catholics look bad. From the way he prayed, I got the impression that he didn’t pray very often: “It’s Brock sir, Edward Brock Jr. I’m here humbled, and humiliated, to ask you for one thing…I want you to kill Peter Parker.” See how he’s sort of “introducing” himself? My thought is that he was sort of trying this as a last resort.
Just my humble opinion!
 
I guess this why I like supernatural movies, because they always use the Catholic Church to represent good verses evil. Like Van Helsing and Consintine. Van Helsing worked for the Vatican, Consintine was a exorcist.
 
maria_rose said:
Just saw Spiderman III today. Great movie overall, except for one scene that really bugged me .
In the movie there is a scene where Eric Brock (who later becomes venom), the photographer competition of Peter Parker goes into a Catholic church and prays for the strength to kill Spiderman/Peter Parker.
I thought that was awful and unnecessary, but what really got to me is that every time someone in a movie prays for something bad or something bad happens in a religious setting, It is ALWAYS in a Catholic church.😦 Anyone else notice this?
How come never do they show scenes where stuff happens in a Protestant church or Synagogue. Well the only thing they show happening in a synagogue is Nazi hatred ****. Overdone ,overused.
But that’s a subject for a different thread.What does Hollywood have against Catholics anyway? 😦
What do you guys and girls think on this subject?
Click to expand...
I didn’t see the movie, but it would make sense his character would do that. Peter Parker would pray for wisdom to use his powers responsibly. But from what you have said, this Eric Brock prays for his own will to be done rather than God’s.

If you remember from the first movie, there were many “Catholic” things in the Parker home like a holy water font, a cross with a body in it, and when Parker’s aunt finishes the Our Father, she does not continue with “for thine is the kingdom…”

In that regard, you can say that it had a positive view on religion and Catholicism, for where would Peter Parker learn that “with great power, comes great responsibility?”

You are right that Hollywood does portray Catholicism or Religiosity as a negative way too much, but in this case, I don’t think it was anti-Catholicism.
 
whatevergirl said:
I give that movie a 7. It was okay. I’m not into such strong action films, but my kids wanted to see it. I totally see what you are saying…I thought the same thing…My husband and I looked over at each other on that part…kids sitting between us…and just…did this…:rolleyes: LOL I mean…in V for Vandetta (GREAT FILM BY THE WAY) they had to portray a priest/Bishop in the worst possible light…but, it was still a good film. But, why oh why is it necessary to diminish the RCC???😦

It seems to be status quo to see this in the movies, lately.
Click to expand...
Off topic, but what makes a movie about a terrorist blowing up parliament such great film??
 
Off topic, but what makes a movie about a terrorist blowing up parliament such great film??
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Haha, if you start looking at it this way you will end up turning Lord of the Rings into a trilogy about a small curly dude who is trying to melt a fancy-looking ring in lava 😃 Not that the two are comparable! 😛

But back to the actual topic. I’ve seen the movie and during that scene I felt a little uneasy. At that moment it gave me an impression that the director is showing how a person can pray to God for evil and that God will answer them. Of course Spiderman didn’t get killed so this is actually not what the scene implies.
 
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