Do We Really Need to Look Like the World to Reach Out to It?
Why Christians Shouldn’t Support Movies Like DEADPOOL
By the Editorial Staff of Movieguide®
This conversation isn’t new. We’ve written about it in the past (here and here). Yet, DEADPOOL 2 is still poised to have a huge box-office haul due to a major marketing push, specifically targeting young people on social media. Movieguide® has seen the newest sequel, and we can say that the new DEADPOOL is not as bad as the first one, and you can read why that is in our review. However, the character of Deadpool is nonetheless marred by character traits and attributes that are absolutely despicable, and any parent would be horrified if their children picked up those scripts of behavior.
For example, one character is inspired to become a murderer in the first movie, and this same character has dreams of murdering more people in the sequel, and his dream gets fulfilled by the end. Christians are portrayed as nut-job pedophiles, whom DEADPOOL is happy to kill, yet in the first movie, he jokes about child molestation. DEADPOOL even attempts suicide on screen. Littered with f-bombs, the characters are snarky, condescending, rude, and unashamedly vulgar.
DEADPOOL fans may claim that the movie is R-rated and is only meant for adults, but there’s no getting around the fact that the movie is marketed to children with the hopes that it will be a hit. The Movieguide® staff has seen children watching DEADPOOL on airplanes, children dressed up in DEADPOOL costumes and hears from parents who say that their 7-year-olds are peer pressured at school to watch the movie. You can say the movie is for adults, but you won’t see the distributor 20th Century Fox, the director, or any of the actors actively trying to keep children from seeing DEADPOOL. In fact, they embrace it.
This is a shame. Children pick up scripts of behavior based on the content they consume, and if the content they consume says it’s ok and even funny to engage in violence, many children will believe that, and some may even copy it in little, or big ways. For those that are skeptical of this, turn on the news and see for yourself. School shootings committed by teenagers, children in elementary school committing suicide because of bullying, rampant drug use and sexual promiscuity in high school and even middle school. This is what we’re seeing on the news almost every day. Yet, when Deadpool shoots up an orphanage, attempts suicide, snorts cocaine, and sleeps with a prostitute, our culture calls it “harmless entertainment”.
It’s time for a change! It’s time that movie studios care about what behavior is being condoned in their movies. It’s time parents take an active role in both limiting what their children consume, but also discipling and training them in Biblical values so that when their children grow up, they can address real-world problems with real biblical solutions. It’s time we stop caring about what the world wants us to watch and start caring about what God would want us to watch. If we’re influenced by our entertainment, like so many studies have proven, then DEADPOOL is the last thing that any us, especially children, should be watching. They deserve better than that.
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