Spiderman III and another veiled attack on Catholicism

[AquinaSavio]

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 trow a ring into lava Not that two two are comparable!

 

[nichjake]

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…

Okaay…I loved the movie Dogma, it was stupid but thats what it was intended to be. The DaVinci Code movie sucked but the book was awesome. Its funny, people complain about DaVinci but I’ve hardly heard a word about one of Brown’s other books, Angels and Demons. I haven’t seen Peacemakers or that SNL skit you mentioned. I think people are over sensitive when it comes to religion on TV.

Maybe I’m being very simplistic but I think Hollywood uses Catholicism a lot because 1) Its very recognizable, moreso than any protestant demonination 2) The Catholic church is very old with a rich history and full of tradition… things like that tend to have more power behind their imagery 3) Catholic churches tend to be beautiful in both architecture and decoration. I don’t think Hollywood has anything against Catholics or any other religion, people tend to expect a lot of undeserved respect when it comes to religion and then they get upset when they’re treated like everybody else

 

[Katie1723]

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?

I think you are reading too much into it.
Kathy

 

[JButky]

I thought that this particular scene was quite interesting. Here you have two different people come to the church for two differing and opposing reasons. One seeks redemption and the other seeks revenge. (I rather enjoyed the imagery of Spidey as a gargoyle ).

The scene and those leading up to it display how attractive evil is. One sees what it has done to his life and wants to be rid of it. The other seeks it. Each got what that where looking for…The one who desired to be rid of evil succeeded and the one who embraced evil was consumned by it. I rather enjoyed how the themes of forgiveness and redemption permeated this movie while showing the workings of evil.

Joe B

 

[JimmyBoy92]

when peter parker said go find relgion thats when brock probobley did and thats why he asked for that

 

[colliric]

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…

Actually Daredevil is Catholic and this was very “suggested” instead of confirmed in the Theatrical cut of the film, there’s even a plot in the comic books where he considers becoming a Catholic Priest instead of a lawyer. That’s not a negative portrayal, In fact i’m told the director’s cut version shows him praying the rosary. This was apparently cut in the final version.

Meh you can’t have X2 every time in hollywood…

 

[MHalsey]

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!

Not following you here.

As for Spiderman, I didn’t have a problem with the scene in the church. I thought it was central to the theme. It points out that there is a definite good and definite evil. We can root for the good guy while rooting against the bad guy. A little cheesy perhaps, but much better than a movie that glorifies terrorists, or pirates for that matter.

 

[JoeyWarren]

It was not an attack.

Why do they show a Catholic Church in movies 99% of the time?

Well that is easy. Non-Catholic churches don’t have that Sacred and Holy look.

Most of non-Catholic churches are too sterile. If you are going to show the inside of a non-Catholic church, you could just as easily show a school auditorium to get the same effect.