A typical Ron Howard warm fuzzy

Rating: 6/10 (2 October 2011)

This movie is similar to Deep Impact. It packs a lot of emotion into an okay film. The film is a little long and a little boring. There is little in the way of character development and the action is at a minimum. In essence, Apollo 13 is a disaster movie and these types of movies generally don't come out as much. Apollo 13 is based on a true story where a luna expedition experienced an explosion in space and had to be brought manually back to Earth. It is about the fear and the hope and the obstacles that are overcome to bring the astronauts back. Apollo 13 is a movie about hope. It tells us that no matter what the obstacles are we can over come it. No matter what the problem is, there is always a way out, all we have to do is trust ourselves. That is all well and good except that God is left out of the picture. Basically we believe that we are so great that we don't need God. There is a scene in the movie where everybody is praying, and a priest is present in the house, but they are only for comfort. When the astronauts are saved they forget God and praise themselves. This move reveals our instinctive superstitious nature. 13 is the unlucky number and thus when this spaceship breaks down we see it is because of the number and nothing else. When everybody prays, it is not because they want a relationship with God but because they are superstitious and believe that by doing so will help the astronauts. People don't understand prayer because it is not an answer to problems but rather it is talking with God. Yes we do ask God for help but that is because we know that he wants to help us. Prayer is more like talking to God and God is always wanting to hear from us. But prayer without belief is nothing more than superstition. Apollo 13 I found okay. It is not a movie that I would raise to the heights of brilliance, nor is it one that I will attack. I probably won't want it again because it was dull.