Faith & Film

Wakanda forever! If you haven't had a chance to yet, I highly recommend going to see Marvel's new Black Panther! Until the past year or so, I was starting to worry that Marvel would continue to put out new movies with the same plot formula that they have succeeded well at, but also, in my opinion, played it safe with. I'm excited to say that I think Marvel has recognized this, and are changing the formula to allow new and fresh ideas into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). For Black Panther, Marvel brought in Ryan Coogler as director; who is known for taking something well known and respected, like the Rocky franchise, and giving us something different but just as good with 2015's Creed. It is because of his vision and direction, that Black Panther is not only an excellent Marvel film but also a high quality and in-depth piece of cinema. Black Panther is the story of T'Challa, the now king of Wakanda who we first met during Captain America Civil War. He has...

Finally, we come to my favorite movie when I was growing up: Tarzan! I don't even know how many times I've seen this movie, but it has always been one that I loved. I can sing along (not well though) to all the songs by Phil Collins, and without even seeing a thing, just based on a line of dialog pick up on where someone is in the movie and what's on screen. There is so much from this movie that I love, that I had to watch it again to refresh my memory, and I still picked up on some new details and aspects I hadn't before that I am eager to share with you! I'll also note there will be some mild spoilers for the plot in this post. For those who haven't seen Tarzan, it came out in 1999 and is the story of a man who was orphaned as an infant in the jungles of Africa and raised by a group of gorillas, who he has come to believe is his family. That is until one day, on an expedition, a trio of explorers come to the area where Tarzan and the gorillas live. Tarzan...

Treasure Planet was another one of my favorite movies as a child, and even today is still one of my favorites. The story itself is a futuristic twist on Robert Louis Stevenson's classic Treasure Island, and is set in outer space with various planets and alien races. Though I had not read the original growing up, I loved the science fiction spin on the tale. Science-fiction and fantasy have always been some of my favorite genres whether it be books, shows, video games, or movies. I admire the creativity it takes to create such worlds. In hindsight, I see this movie as a great coming of age story for any young/tween boy. Looking back, the main character Jim is someone I could relate to. I may not have been as rebellious as he was, but like him, I was adventurous and desired to be selfless, caring, and loyal towards others. Most of all though, I thought he had the coolest rocket board. I mean, look at this thing, it's awesome! The story of Treasure Planet starts off by i...

Hi everyone, I hope your new year is off to a great start! I thought that since I'm still new to this blog, I would come up with a way to tell you guys more about myself. After some brainstorming, I realized what better way to do that than by talking about some of my favorite childhood movies and why I love them, since ultimately, movies are meant to shape and impact us, and these certainly did for me as a child! Starting off with a truly classic masterpiece, we have The Iron Giant! The Iron Giant takes place in 1957 and tells the story of 9-year-old Hogarth Hughes who lives in Rockwell Maine with his widowed mother. Hogarth is a brave and adventurous boy, and one night, while his mom is at work something from space crashes down near his house. While investigating, he discovers it is a giant robot. He sees the robot wander into a power plant and get electrocuted. Hogarth runs in and shuts off the power saving the robots life. From then on, Hogarth and the Giant begin to form...

Here we go with part 2 of my top 10 favorite movies from 2017! The list got much more difficult to narrow down from this point on. Clearly, there are still many great movies that I haven't brought up yet, and what's left needed to be narrowed down to only 5! But worry not, it has been done, and I am excited to share my thoughts and insights with you all! One last note, know that I was not able to watch every movie I wanted to this past year, so a movie that may still be great might not have made it onto this list since I haven't seen it yet. For example, I never made it around to seeing Thor: Ragnarok, Murder on the Orient Express, and a few others that I still very much want to see. Alright, let's finish this up! 5 Picking back up at number 5 we have Christopher Nolan's latest masterpiece: Dunkirk! Christopher Nolan's is probably my favorite moviemaker today. He has such a keen eye for detail and good storytelling in all of his films. Unfortunately, I...

This past year was another great year for movies! In this weeks post, I'm going to go through my 10 favorite movies from this past year and why they are my favorite, as well as some good takeaways from each one. But before I get into my top 10, I want to talk briefly about a couple of my honorable mentions.  Honorable Mention 1 First is the live-action remake of "Beauty and the Beast"; it didn't quite make my list but it was a very heartfelt and enjoyable movie to watch. I really like seeing what Disney can do with all of the remakes of their classics that I grew up watching. I gave Beauty and the Beast a 7 out of 10 as it kept the charm of the animated classic while bringing deeper development and new life to the story and its characters. I saw the main takeaway from this movie to be similar to a verse in the bible. It is stated in 1 Samuel 16:7 that "God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart....

I finally got around to seeing Justice League this past weekend, and I will definitely say, it has been worth the wait! The movie is a fun ride, with some really good lessons along the way. Reviews have been overall mixed but positive for the movie, I avoided most of the trailers, wanting to go in with a clean slate and no real expectations. The result was great satisfaction and a few good takeaways from each league member; now let's get started! Batman & Superman To start off with Batman (Bruce Wayne) and Superman (Clark Kent), I have to talk about the Batman vs Superman (BVS) Dawn of Justice movie, so spoilers for BVS to follow. Many reviews for BVS were not great, but overall I personally liked the movie. Throughout the beginning of Justice League, we followup with Batman and what he has been doing since the end of BVS. Both he and Superman's stories in this movie teach us about redemption and forgiveness. When we are first with Batman as Bruce Wayne, see that h...