Review of The Invention of Lying (2009) by Loganst.cloud — 11 Oct 2009

I've seen a couple of Ricky Gervais' comedy routines and I'd always thought he was a pretty funny guy. I saw the ads and trailers for this movie and I thought that it seemed like a pretty unique and original idea so I went into this movie with decent expectations.

Now to be fair, I didn't read any of the reviews for it because, quite honestly I hate reading reviews beforehand and having the plot of the movie ruined, which is why I have made sure not to include them in this review.

The moral of this movie is that you shouldn't judge people so quickly; which is what really aggravated me so much about it. You see, I'm not an overly religious person like a lot of the folks that have posted reviews here, but I was incredibly offended by what I saw in this movie.

The movie started off with a few decent laughs but then went downhill fast. A significant portion of this movie was directed solely towards a ruthless, sacrilegious, mean-spirited attempt to sell people on atheism that added in no way to the story and served only as a cheap attack against religions.

I did read the warnings that they have in the previews though and I'm not an easily offended person. I saw it mentioned that there were references to drug usage and sexual innuendo, it ended there and it really shouldn't have.

If they had simply said that this is what this picture was about or that it had contained these elements, then I don't think as many people would have went to see it or have felt so upset at it. It just amazes me that in this day and age we would sooner bow down to the wishes of terrorists who are upset with seeing the words of the Koran or the image of Muhammad, rather than having even the tiniest bit of sympathy for the freedom of religion that this country was founded on.

I respect the studio/producer/director/writer's rights to free speech, but if that's the primary message of the movie then you should really let people know that beforehand. Of course that would cut down on the amount of money that they would willingly take from the people they are mocking here, so I don't expect that to happen anytime soon.

To those who are wanting to compare this on a religious level to movies like "The Golden Compass" and "The Chronicles of Narnia", allow me to clue you into a few things. First, the reason why "The Golden Compass" fared so badly didn't have anything to any religious connotations, it was because the movie was so incredibly BAD.

I've tried watching that movie three different times and have yet to stay awake throughout the entire film. Second, "The Chronicles of Narnia" is NOW a classic in children's literature and while the same may be said on a certain level in regards to "The Golden Compass", it was nowhere NEAR as well known before the movie came out and even if there never HAD been a film of Narnia, it would probably still be more well known that that load of crap which is "The Golden Compass".

BUT when Narnia was first released, it wasn't widely accepted by members of the Christian religion because they believed that rather than it being an homage to the crucifixion of Christ, it was a blasphemous portrayal of it.

And to those wishing to change this from a simple reviewing of the movie itself and to a debate on the validity of atheism vs. religion as a whole, allow me to remind you of one simple thing. Beyond the questioning of faith and beliefs, and despite the atrocities that have occurred in the name of religion, without religion humanity would have taken a FAR less civilized route than the one it did.

Religion was the basis of morals. Morals were the basis of laws. Without religions to set guidelines common sense dictates that we would have had no reason in which to act moral and consequently would most likely be still clubbing each other over the head, and that's if there would still even BE a human race at this point.

TO ANYONE WHO'S ALREADY PAID TO SEE THIS MOVIE: YOU CAN TAKE YOUR TICKET STUB BACK TO THE THEATER TO GET YOUR MONEY BACK. PERSONALLY THOUGH, I'M TAKING THIS ONE STEP FARTHER AND FILING A COMPLAINT WITH THE STUDIO ITSELF.