Film Preachy
So...I can't enjoy this movie. I'd like to. It's a good satire and all that. But it's too Preachy. There's too many scenes of people sitting around rambling the message of... rationality, perhaps, or maybe self-awareness. It's a bit like preaching the Atheist Agenda, but that's definitely not it. It wouldn't be so bad if it was being said without any hint of flare or creativity. You could fine any of the concepts it throws out in any secular or pagan forum, or even an episode of Supernatural.
For instance: There's a scene where a Muse rants about women and their representation in the bible. It's not a hugely long scene, but it drags on for too long. It doesn't need to be that lengthy, could have been a line or two, leaving time for character development. Or perhaps better actors.
That said, there are some good parts. Alan Rickman, Silent Bob, and the "Buddy Christ" concept. When the movie is being cleverly satirical, it works. When it rams its message down the viewer's throats, however, the exposition drags down the enjoyability of what should have been a much better movie. Brevity is the soul of wit, and this movie should have learned that.
Film An Incredible Satire
Dogma is the only movie in the View Askewniverse I have ever seen, but I've heard it is a somewhat more raunchy sort of universe. Of course, I didn't know this when I saw Dogma, so I was able to view it as a stand-alone movie. I was very pleased with what I saw.
I'm going to admit right off the bat that I'm a Christian, albeit from a low-liturgy denomination, so I watched this movie with a Christian viewpoint. Some of the historical details and Christian views (the dogma, if you will) were almost painful at times. God is not a female (technically not a male either, even though we normally identify Him as male), and Jesus was definitely not black—Jesus was ''Jewish''. I really can't say what Catholics believe, since I'm not one, but there were probably some mistakes there too.
At the same time, Dogma got a lot of things right that many Christians don't. While God isn't female, and Jesus wasn't black, it wouldn't diminish anything scripture says if they were. And while the details may have been wrong at times, the message was dead on. In fact, it sounded a lot like what Christianity is supposed to be. While the movie is often perceived as an attack on Christianity, it has an almost scholarly view on what it was supposed to be attacking.
In conclusion, if you look past all the crude uneducated humor and language, you find the perfect example of a satire: an intelligent movie that does more than just attack it's target. It criticizes it, finds the flaws, rips it apart, yes, but then it builds it back up. It's a criticism, but a constructive criticism that remains in line with Christian theology and philosophy. This is what a satire is supposed to be.
I would highly recommend this movie to all Christians out there (non-Christians as well, but for different reasons). It's a movie with a very wise message. Even if you have a different reaction and don't agree with the movie like I did, it still gives you a lot to think about.
Film An Incredible Satire
Dogma is the only movie in the View Askewniverse I have ever seen, but I've heard it is a somewhat more raunchy sort of universe. Of course, I didn't know this when I saw Dogma, so I was able to view it as a stand-alone movie. I was very pleased with what I saw.
I'm going to admit right off the bat that I'm a Christian, albeit from a low-liturgy denomination, so I watched this movie with a Christian viewpoint. Some of the historical details and Christian views (the dogma, if you will) were almost painful at times. God is not a female (technically not a male either, even though we normally identify Him as male), and Jesus was definitely not black—Jesus was ''Jewish''. I really can't say what Catholics believe, since I'm not one, but there were probably some mistakes there too.
At the same time, Dogma got a lot of things right that many Christians don't. While God isn't female, and Jesus wasn't black, it wouldn't diminish anything scripture says if they were. And while the details may have been wrong at times, the message was dead on. In fact, it sounded a lot like what Christianity is supposed to be. While the movie is often perceived as an attack on Christianity, it has an almost scholarly view on what it was supposed to be attacking.
In conclusion, if you look past all the crude uneducated humor and language, you find the perfect example of a satire: an intelligent movie that does more than just attack it's target. It criticizes it, finds the flaws, rips it apart, yes, but then it builds it back up. It's a criticism, but a constructive criticism that remains in line with Christian theology and philosophy. This is what a satire is supposed to be.
I would highly recommend this movie to all Christians out there (non-Christians as well, but for different reasons). It's a movie with a very wise message. Even if you have a different reaction and don't agree with the movie like I did, it still gives you a lot to think about.
Film Kevin Smith's askew view of Catholicism
People familiar with Kevin Smith's View Askew movies won't really need a review for Dogma, as they can safely predict what they'll get here — a darkly humorous and potty-glorifying off-kilter look at the world from the perspective of ordinary working-class New Jersey stoners and their circle of associates.
What Dogma brings to the table that distinguishes it from the other View Askewniverse movies is its religious theme; this movie makes it very clear up front that it's going to take a long, unblinking look at religion in general, Christianity in particular, and Catholicism especially. That, unsurprisingly, caused the movie to draw the ire of Moral Guardians who (in the fine tradition of religious films everywhere) condemned it without actually watching the movie or knowing any details.
Needless to say, such reactions are overblown; Dogma is less of a criticism (or even analysis) of religion as much as it's a buddy road trip comedy with a religious purpose, and the only reason it wasn't called Jay and Silent Bob Go To Church is because it wasn't as marketable. Sure, the end of the world (and the rest of creation) is at stake, but the movie never really gets bogged down with the weight of the responsibilities; when the Forces of Hell are defeated with a can of Febreeze and two stoners with attitude, the viewer knows this endeavor is as serious as Jay's entrepreneurial dreams.
Besides providing some cheap laughs, however, Dogma's secondary objective is to give Kevin Smith a platform to pontificate on assorted religious topics. Mind, this is not necessarily a bad thing; aside from some rather lighthearted tongue-in-cheek jokes about God being a woman or Jesus was actually black, most of it is fairly non-controversial stuff about the dangers of zealotry or the joys of tolerance. Smith saves his harshest dings against Catholicism, but even then he approaches it with mild disappointment rather than any sort of full-blown anti-religious wraith. The end result is that Dogma doesn't really have much of a religious message at all; the movie simply strings together a collection of jokes, observations, and random thoughts about religion, but no one will mistake this movie for Martin Luther's 95 Theses.
As a comedy, Dogma is a crass and irreverent bit of entertainment, a case of Kevin Smith gathering his friends together to have some fun making a movie. As a religious tract, it's a breezy grab-bag of random observations that vaguely urges people to be excellent to each other. Whether or not it's worth watching should depend more on your tolerance for Toilet Humor and lowbrow comedy than your religious beliefs.