As in “E.T.,” our government agents are after them, because of the assumption that they’re unfriendly. As it turns out, their alien race did plan to take over the earth, because their planet is dying, but the kids are trying to find a hidden device that will save both themselves and our own planet, with the help of our muscle-bound, muscle-brained earthling. Predictable ending, harmless fun.
Monsters vs. Aliens is the animated story of a young woman on her wedding day getting hit by a meteor from outer space and instantly becoming gi-normous. Our officious government agents capture her, and throw her in their secret remote facility with the other monster mutants, but instead of rotting away in isolated obscurity, their unique skills are suddenly needed to fight the alien invasion on behalf of the poor helpless ordinary humans. The message about accepting those who are different from us is pretty well hidden among all the bizarre life forms.
In Knowing, the bizarre life forms are humans who only whisper, but it turns out they are really aliens, or maybe angels of destruction, here to rescue a couple of kids from the certain annihilation of earth, so they can escape in a Noah’s ark-kind of spaceship and land in a Garden of Eden complete with a tree of life in the middle. I guess the sequel will feature the talking snake.
In Taken, the talking snake is in the form of a really cool-looking French dude who charms a couple of naïve American girls into trusting him enough to let him in their hotel room. Bad mistake. He brings the evil kidnappers with him, who drug the hapless teenagers and then sell them as sex slaves, and now it’s the angry father, Liam Neeson, who just happens to be retired covert ops, to the rescue. By the time the avenging angel arrives, the girls are already illegal aliens in a foreign land, and to think all they wanted to do is be innocent groupies for U2 on their European tour.
RONALD P. SALFEN is pastor of Grace Church in Greenville, Texas.
