re: The Cabin in the Woods. TulaneLSU's 2011-12 movie review thread

Despite the childish palaver here, I am a chaste individual and always have been. Take not umbrage, my friends, the reviews are my gift to the board to enjoy or dismiss and mock as members please. Let the badinage go on!

Arthur Christmas I confess that when I saw the trailer, something I try not to do, for Arthur Christmas, I was not thrilled. It seemed to be a movie that militarized Christmas. Is there anything more anathema to the birth of the Prince of Peace? True, it was done in jest, but even in jest, I thought it to be of bad taste.

As the movie opened, I was uneasily awed by the display of military precision and force used by Santa's elves. The computer graphics, especially of S-1 and the chthonic North Pole HQ, are incredible and its degree of creativity is rare. Had the movie continued on this line, I would have been entertained, but would have left upset that Christmas had been so corrupted. Surprise, as unsurprising as Hollywood has been lately, was knocking at the door, and I left the theater with new ideas and new thoughts. I always consider such movies that have this type of power to be good movies.

Arthur Christmas is chock-full with classical themes we find throughout literature: sibling rivalry, megalomania, progressivism vs. reactionaryism (pardon these neologisms, if they are that), and finding one's calling, a theme that is making a comeback in Hollywood, and which is notably present in the recent Hugo. I think it is this last theme that will be this movie's calling card to me. In one sense, the ending is predictable. I realized it would happen before I walked in the theater, thanks to the trailer, but its predictability did not diminish its force. Speaking of a tour de force, before the movie begins, the viewer is treated to one of the most fantastic and hippest renditions of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" ever performed. The kicker? JUSTIN BIEBER performs it!!! My soul, being of paltry capaciousness, was stirred and I was dancing in my seat. The audience was not quite as wild as the one at Never Say Never, so I restrained myself.

"Blessed are the meek," says Jesus, "for they shall inherit the earth." After you uncover all the other wonderful themes found in the movie, I walked away with this wondrous beatitude. Blessed are the ones who are obedient to the Suffering Servant. Blessed are those whose hearts, though pierced and wounded, with grief and shame weighed down, remain pure. Blessed are the ones who walk in the clouds of doubt and ridicule, yet remain obedient to remain pure and of a childlike nature. Arthur's dark night of the soul cannot destroy his faith in what is right. Individuals and joy will win out against numbers and duty every time. Blessed are the ones who carry on the Christmas spirit in a world of doubt and cynicism. Blessed is Arthur.

Arthur Christmas is the best Christmas movie I have seen in the theater. It deserves to become a classic and I think it will. Families and adults alike will profit from a viewing. Blessed be you and your viewing.9/10