I’ll admit, when I went searching for an environmentalist blog post, I expected to find a series of whiny tree huggers complaining about how awful humans are, and how we should all renounce civilization as we know it and live amongst nature. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that this was not the case. Ironically, the environmentalist blog I enjoyed the most was called Treehugger. The site is very good about being informative about environmental issues without getting preachy, something I feel is unfortunately very rare. It took me awhile to find an article I liked enough to respond to, but I finally landed on an article by Josh Peterson reviewing five environmentally themed movies from 2008.
What I liked the most about this article is that the ratings that Peterson gave for each movie were based primarily on whether or not the movie was actually any good. This was refreshing because, let’s be serious, no one wants to sit through a terrible movie no matter how good its message might be. I also enjoyed the fact that he took some movies with no apparent environmental issues and found some way to spin them like they did; presumably just so he could review them. For instance, he reviews The Hulk by saying that it advocates the proper control of science and Twilight by saying that vampires that do not eat humans represent vegetarians. His favorite movie listed is Wall-E because in addition to just being an all-around good movie, it has a solid anti-pollution message without getting too preachy. My personal favorite though, was his review of The Happening, which I had the misfortune of seeing in theaters this summer. The premise of the movie is that the trees are pissed off at humans for pollution so they decide to kill us all with a poisonous cloud or something. The movie has its message to be sure. For instance everyone who was riding in an SUV dies, while everyone who was using public transportation survives (uplifting, right?). Peterson sums up the movie perfectly when he references a particular scene where a man goes insane and runs himself over with a lawnmower followed by a pan to a giant sign that says “YOU DESERVE THIS.”
“The Happening really seems to hate its audience. Who is going to want to watch a movie that thinks you deserve to get run over by a lawnmower?”
What I liked the most about this article is that the ratings that Peterson gave for each movie were based primarily on whether or not the movie was actually any good. This was refreshing because, let’s be serious, no one wants to sit through a terrible movie no matter how good its message might be. I also enjoyed the fact that he took some movies with no apparent environmental issues and found some way to spin them like they did; presumably just so he could review them. For instance, he reviews The Hulk by saying that it advocates the proper control of science and Twilight by saying that vampires that do not eat humans represent vegetarians. His favorite movie listed is Wall-E because in addition to just being an all-around good movie, it has a solid anti-pollution message without getting too preachy. My personal favorite though, was his review of The Happening, which I had the misfortune of seeing in theaters this summer. The premise of the movie is that the trees are pissed off at humans for pollution so they decide to kill us all with a poisonous cloud or something. The movie has its message to be sure. For instance everyone who was riding in an SUV dies, while everyone who was using public transportation survives (uplifting, right?). Peterson sums up the movie perfectly when he references a particular scene where a man goes insane and runs himself over with a lawnmower followed by a pan to a giant sign that says “YOU DESERVE THIS.”
“The Happening really seems to hate its audience. Who is going to want to watch a movie that thinks you deserve to get run over by a lawnmower?”
Never, ever watch this movie
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