MOVIE REVIEW - PAUL

Again I was compelled to watch a current movie against my desire and better judgment.  I need to stop agreeing to this for "Paul" was even worse than "Beastly."  As before, I feel compelled to warn the public against viewing this movie.  Below I give a summary of the plot and my comments.

Distributor: Universal Pictures

Directed By: Gregg Mottola

Rated: R – for language including sexual references, and some drug use

Running Time: 1 hr. 40 min.

 

The film was written by and costars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. This is ostensibly a science fiction fantasy that is a substantially degraded take-off of Close Encounters and E.T.  It stars Seth Rogen as the alien “Paul” (digitally reworked by Double Negative’s special effects) who crash landed in Wyoming in 1947.  After years of being a “guest” of the government, Paul escapes the military base where he has been playing the dual role of military guinea pig and consultant to the government.  Threatened with vivisection, Paul attempts to rendezvous with his own kind at Devil’s Tower (a shameless play on C.E.). 

Meanwhile two brits, Graeme Willy (Pegg) and Clive Gollings (Frost), are taking a wide ranging tour of the American sci-fi, alien, comic book, ninja sub culture.  They experience some predictable culture clashes with the locals and end up fleeing from a pair of angry good ol’ boys (David Koechner and Jesse "Landry" Plemons) whose monster truck they have accidentally damaged during panicked maneuvers of their oversized, rented motor home.

The headlong flights of both parties cross in the deserts of the southwest when Paul’s clumsy attempts to drive a stolen passenger car cause him to crash as he attempts to pass them in the road.  The meeting between the fugitive alien and the two ardent alien hunters goes rather awkwardly with some humorous but scatological moments.  After some difficulties, the two parties join in an effort to deliver Paul from his pursuers.

The plot is enhanced by the involvement of FBI agent Lorenzo Zoil [sic – a tasteless play on the stroy of ] (Jason Bateman) who directs two highly incompetent junior agents, Haggard (Bill Hader) and O’Reilly (Joe Lo Truglio), in the pursuit of Paul and consequently his conspirators. They are driven by characteristically ruthless demands of a mysterious “Big Guy” who is actually a woman played by Sigourney Weaver.

The plot is deeply marred by the introduction of the requisite heroine in the form of Ruth Trugg (Kristen Wiig), the daughter of stereotyped Christian fundamentalist who operates a trailer park where they hide from their pursuers.  

Ruth inadvertently confronts Paul, and having discovered his identity, ends up being kidnapped by the brits as they beat a hasty retreat from her protective,  Bible toting, shotgun wielding father.  Paul and Ruth have an inconclusive debate over the nature of God and creation that is conveniently ended when Paul performs an uninvited “mind-meld” and supposedly refutes all of Ruth’s beliefs with a torrent of universal facts.  Impressed, Graem and Clive submit to the same treatment, though predictably it helps none of the three to improve the quality character.  In fact this alien induced education causes Ruth to lower to the level of her profane, pot-smoking, fornicating abductors.  Paul is unimpressed by any of the better qualities of human kind and impervious to matters of faith.

The four-way chase: (1) Paul, Graem and Clive, (2) Zoil, Haggard and O’Reilly, (3) The GOBs and (4) Ruth’s father culminate in a rapidly expanding bar fight that is clearly borrowed from early western movie plots. The chase resumes after a narrow escape, a marijuana crazed camput and detours through a small western town. There the brits meet the FBI in a comic book shop brawl that involves a young, alien admiring karate student who aids the escape of the foursome in their improbable motor-home, get-away vehicle with a strategically placed kick.  The good ol’ boys leave the plot in the aftermath of the barroom brawl after they are shocked into a nervous breakdown by the appearance of Paul.  The add injury to insult, their pickup is again smashed by the errant motor home. The flight is briefly halted along the way when they stop at a fireworks shop where (due to low funds) they steal an expensive mortar display to be used for signaling Paul’s rescuers.  (Find one of those in gun-free, firework limited England!)

Haggard and O’Reilly shortly thereafter make their exit in fiery destruction ignited by their own blind obsession with capturing Paul and upstaging their superior.

Back on the road, the fugitives stop at the site of Paul’s original crash landing to make amends with the now aging girl who rescued Paul at the cost of social ostracism. She joins the band after a confrontation with the three agents results in the destruction of her home in a fiery blast and they temporarily elude their pursuers.  

Their final destination is in Wyoming at Devil’s Tower National Monument. There they use the fireworks to signal for Paul’s rescue ship.  Meanwhile, Agent Zoil has tracked them down as has The Big Guy, who arrives in a helicopter the landing lights of which initially appears to be the rescue ship. It turns out that Agent Zoil is the inside man helping Paul to escape and in a confrontation between him and his superior, the fivesome are left to face the gun-toting mystery lady alone.  They try bravely if ineffectually to protect Paul, temporarily incapacitating her just as Ruth’s father arrives, displaying the Bible that stopped the bullet intended for him.  He declares Paul a demon and attempts to blast him with the shotgun, hitting Graeme instead and wounding him fatally.

The Big Guy regains consciousness, and since no one had the presence of mind to disarm her (the effects of being stoned?), she holds the fugitives at gun point.  She is about to fire on Paul when unaccountably unnoticed, a massive spaceship lands directly on her as it did Paul’s namesake sixty years earlier.

Predictably, Paul intervenes and uses his “evolutionary advanced powers” to resurrect Graeme and heal the wounded agents. There is an emotional if disjointed farewell as Paul takes leave of his rescuers.  In parting, he is dismissive of Ruth’s father’s faith and contemptuous of Clive’s literary efforts.

The movie concludes with a return to the Com-Con scene where Graeme and Clive are hailed as first-contact, sci-fi author heroes and accorded the adulation of their fellow fantasy lovers.  Ruth is there in the audience as a devoted convert to the sci-fi crowd.   The scene is distinctly marred by Clive’s nod to a devoted and sexually exploited fan and a lesbian admirer hitting on Ruth.

My reaction to the film is twofold.  It was definitely entertaining and funny enough to extract several episodes of laughter from me. The special effects were convincing and the plot was remarkably well spun considering all the campy devices that were employed.  That’s the positive side.  

The ongoing profanity, crude vulgarity and openly anti-Christian elements thoroughly erased any entertainment value in the movie for me.  This movie is advertised entertainment by geeks and for geeks.  I’ve been labeled a geek, and can’t relate to it. It is more than entertainment.  It is blatant attack on truth.  Its origins are in the fantasy world of pulp comic books, low-grade science fiction and unthinking alien lore.  It is also a vehicle for the anti-establishment drug culture, sexual perversion and their occult origins.  

The character of Paul is an archetypal anti-hero, lacking only a violent nature to complete the type. He is a mendacious, arrogant, bisexual, irreligious, pot-smoking, anti establishment, uncultured, self-centered slacker. His only superior qualities are supposedly advanced intelligence and extrasensory powers, which he chiefly uses to his own advantage.  His role in healing those injured in his escape is clearly an artifice to endear him to the audience and gloss over the shallow nature of his character.

In writing the screenplay of this movie Pegg and Nick Frost make a general stereotypical attack on American culture from GOBs in pickups to gun-toting state troopers.  They are especially vicious in their treatment of ordinary Christian folk, painting a stark and undeserved picture of oppressive, small-minded control and violent intolerance for the followers of the Prince of Peace.  Their only positive concession to the faith is to perseverance.  It’s an ugly, undeserved and crudely drawn caricature.

I contrast they promote the culture of fantasy and self abuse that is fostered by the extreme elements of the comic book crowd.  Their movie implies that this subculture is liberating and fulfilling whereas it is actually deceptive and exploitative.

Such images could only find a welcome home in the microcosmic fantasy world of comic books and conspiracy theories.

The movie is further compromised with it’s unapologetic pandering to the homosexual and drug cultures.  This is without doubt an attempt to profit from those spiritually bankrupt groups.

While I could see a way to redeem the Movie “Beastly,” I do not see how any effort could redeem this one.  The only merits the plot has is the thin thread of helping a stranger in need and the beauty of self-sacrifice for another.  That alone can not hold the weight of its other flaws.

I don’t know if the authors are aware of it, but this is a vehicle with elements calculated to cause viewers to reject the Christian faith and become comfortable with occult and demonic themes.  It portrays the power of the cross a oppressive, ineffectual and limiting.  In reality, the faith is truly the only sources of liberty, power and freedom. Drug abuse and sexual promiscuity are portrayed as liberating and fulfilling when in reality they are both a degrading trap and a defiling exploitation of the soul and body.  Factual knowledge is painted as supreme, when truly facts without divine wisdom lead only to fruitless pride.

I cannot recommend anyone watching this movie and regret that I watched it.  It is an unmitigated paean to irresponsible use of drugs, demeaning fantasy and perversion of many kinds with a vicious assault on the dignity of Christ and His church and the good qualities of American culture.  I dearly hope it is no more than the high-water mark of its kind.  I hope by writing this review I prevent others from watching or endorsing it.