Yesterday, while waiting for Flushed Away to begin, we saw a trailer for the upcoming Christmas film, The Nativity. I'll wait for the reviews on this one before deciding whether I'm going to see it, but I had to laugh at the trailer. (Head over to the videos link from the above link to check out the theatrical trailer.)
We get the requisite brief glimpses of scenes from the movie, followed by scrolling text and that oh-so-dramatic Mr. Moviephone voice-over, intoning "A message foretold in the heavens… a prophecy that would threaten an empire."
Now, there's no denying the truth to that statement… Christianity ultimately did shake Rome to it's core. But it's the sensational treatment of this that had me laughing. All we needed was the listing of Academy Award® nominated actors playing Joseph, Mary and Pilate to complete the feeling of "big… Hollywood… blockbuster!", a seemingly inappropriate approach to a story such as this one, I would think. (And, while I'm mocking the faux sincerity of it all, let's not forget the movie's tagline: "One Couple. One Journey. One Child… who would change the world… forever.")
Rest assured, there are no such Academy actors playing any of the roles in this film (at least none mentioned in the trailer). And it does look like it has potential to be an interesting retelling of the story of Christ's birth.
But seriously… can we lose the hype and hyperbole, just this once? I'm kinda thinking it's not the sort of picture that's going to need it, you know?
We get the requisite brief glimpses of scenes from the movie, followed by scrolling text and that oh-so-dramatic Mr. Moviephone voice-over, intoning "A message foretold in the heavens… a prophecy that would threaten an empire."
Now, there's no denying the truth to that statement… Christianity ultimately did shake Rome to it's core. But it's the sensational treatment of this that had me laughing. All we needed was the listing of Academy Award® nominated actors playing Joseph, Mary and Pilate to complete the feeling of "big… Hollywood… blockbuster!", a seemingly inappropriate approach to a story such as this one, I would think. (And, while I'm mocking the faux sincerity of it all, let's not forget the movie's tagline: "One Couple. One Journey. One Child… who would change the world… forever.")
Rest assured, there are no such Academy actors playing any of the roles in this film (at least none mentioned in the trailer). And it does look like it has potential to be an interesting retelling of the story of Christ's birth.
But seriously… can we lose the hype and hyperbole, just this once? I'm kinda thinking it's not the sort of picture that's going to need it, you know?
Comments
'Nuff said. It's just so...wrong.