Summer Movies: The Great Stories

The unmistakable smell of buttered popcorn; the slurping of an ice-cold Coke in a darkened room as the tales of great mythology unfold before your eyes . . . obviously, summer is here!

Wait a minute! It's only the beginning of May, and summer is still several weeks away. Tell that to Hollywood, which kicked off the summer movie season in grand style last week with the new blockbuster hit, Iron Man.

Great mythology? What else would you call this season's menu of superhero movies? Joining the Golden Avenger are such heroic stalwarts as Speed Racer, Indiana Jones (yay!), the Incredible Hulk, Prince Caspian (from Narnia), Batman, and Maxwell Smart. (Okay, maybe not the last one.)

In another age, people would gather around a campfire as a master storyteller regaled them with tales of the great Ulysses, the trials of Hercules, or God's deliverance of his people from slavery in Egypt through the bravery and faith of Moses. Every generation in every culture needs its great stories and myths to inspire them as they consider life's larger questions.

Comic books have always been a great venue for juvenile storytelling. I fondly remember rushing to the local drugstore on my bike every Saturday to plunk down my hard-earned cash for the latest issues of Green Lantern-Green Arrow, Mister Miracle, and The Fantastic Four. It's awesome that these colorful stories are now the lucrative source material for today's Hollywood blockbusters.

These movies could be a great springboard for youth group discussion on what it takes to make a difference in this world. But as you enjoy these fanciful tales of make-believe, don't forget to also go back to the great stories of our faith that are found in the Bible. With a little creativity and imagination, it's not too difficult to relate the Gospel message to the summer superhero movies.

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Great God is a cool song that celebrates God as Hero.

Note: I'm going to try and get Robert Feduccia to write a guest Pop Culture Spirit Spot on his favorite cartoon-character-turned-movie: Speed Racer!