Left Behind

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The '''''Left Behind''''' novels are a series of apocalyptic novels written by evangelical [[Christian]] activist Timothy LaHaye and writer Jerry Jenkins. The series attempts to portray the [[end times]] from a premillennialist perspective and are often lumped in with most [[science fiction]] novels. It has been a wildly successful franchise since the launch of the first book in 1995 and spawning a series of children's novels, prequels, sequels, movies and one rather odd computer game. However, they are among the worst novels ever written - the series has mostly served to line the authors' pockets with cash, and line the reader's minds with Rapture-based fluff.
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The '''''Left Behind''''' novels are a series of apocalyptic novels written by evangelical [[Christian]] activist Timothy LaHaye and writer Jerry Jenkins. The series attempts to portray the [[end times]] from a premillennialist perspective and are often lumped in with most [[science fiction]] novels. It has been a wildly successful franchise since the launch of the first book in 1995 and spawning a series of children's novels, prequels, sequels, movies and two rather odd computer games. However, they are among the worst novels ever written - the series has mostly served to line the authors' pockets with cash, and line the reader's minds with Rapture-based fluff.
  
 
==Films==
 
==Films==
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==Left Behind: Eternal Forces==
 
==Left Behind: Eternal Forces==
  
On November 7, 2006, ''Left Behind: Eternal Forces'', a real-time strategy game for PC, was released by [http://www.leftbehindgames.com/index.html Left Behind Games].  The game received generally negative reviews, with an average rating of 45% on gamerankings.com.<ref>http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/928956.asp?q=Left%20Behind</ref>  The general concept of the game was relatively warmly received, but the majority of the criticisms came from the execution of that concept, including numerous bugs, badly coded AI, poor graphics and the tendency of the game to want to push religious [[pseudoscience]] down your throat and sell you religiously themed products.<ref>http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/745/745956p1.html</ref><ref>http://uk.pc.gamespy.com/pc/left-behind-eternal-forces/749748p1.html</ref><ref>http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/leftbehindeternalforces/review.html</ref><ref>http://arstechnica.com/reviews/games/leftbehind.ars</ref><ref>http://compactiongames.about.com/od/reviews/fr/leftbehind_rev.htm</ref><ref>http://www.wired.com/gaming/gamingreviews/commentary/games/2006/11/72071</ref> There was also some mention of the gameplay leading to the possibility of simply killing all unbelievers rather than trying to convert them as a valid way to win.<ref>Wired.com review, can't be bothered to look it up at nearly 2 in the morning.</ref><ref>That, or it simply encourages believers to sing in front of soldiers who are shooting at the believers, <s>in an attempt to kill themselves</s> in order to convert the soldiers ([[User:K61824|I]] actually played the game that far!).</ref>
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On November 7, 2006, ''Left Behind: Eternal Forces'', a real-time strategy game for PC, was released by [http://www.leftbehindgames.com/index.html Left Behind Games].  The game received generally negative reviews, with an average rating of 45% on gamerankings.com.<ref>http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/928956.asp?q=Left%20Behind</ref>  The general concept of the game was relatively warmly received, but the majority of the criticisms came from the execution of that concept, including numerous bugs, badly coded AI, poor graphics and the tendency of the game to want to push religious [[pseudoscience]] down your throat and sell you religiously themed products.<ref>http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/745/745956p1.html</ref><ref>http://uk.pc.gamespy.com/pc/left-behind-eternal-forces/749748p1.html</ref><ref>http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/leftbehindeternalforces/review.html</ref><ref>http://arstechnica.com/reviews/games/leftbehind.ars</ref><ref>http://compactiongames.about.com/od/reviews/fr/leftbehind_rev.htm</ref><ref>http://www.wired.com/gaming/gamingreviews/commentary/games/2006/11/72071</ref> There was also some mention of the gameplay leading to the possibility of simply killing all unbelievers rather than trying to convert them as a valid way to win.<ref>Wired.com review, can't be bothered to look it up at nearly 2 in the morning.</ref><ref>That, or it simply encourages believers to sing in front of soldiers who are shooting at the believers, <s>in an attempt to kill themselves</s> in order to convert the soldiers ([[User:K61824|I]] actually played the game that far!).</ref> A sequel was recently released, with effectively no hype or fanfare whatsoever, and seems to be simply more of the same.
  
 
==Eternal kudos==
 
==Eternal kudos==

Revision as of 18:09, 10 December 2010

The Left Behind novels are a series of apocalyptic novels written by evangelical Christian activist Timothy LaHaye and writer Jerry Jenkins. The series attempts to portray the end times from a premillennialist perspective and are often lumped in with most science fiction novels. It has been a wildly successful franchise since the launch of the first book in 1995 and spawning a series of children's novels, prequels, sequels, movies and two rather odd computer games. However, they are among the worst novels ever written - the series has mostly served to line the authors' pockets with cash, and line the reader's minds with Rapture-based fluff.

Contents

Films

Our Feature Presentation

Films

Icon film.svg
Starring:
The Left Behind series includes three films. Kirk Cameron is the lead actor in the series - which says everything you need to know, really. The entire idea behind the films was parodied in The Simpsons when Homer watched an apocalyptic movie called Left Below - you know, people will have watched that episode thinking "what a shit movie, I'm glad they don't make stuff like that in real life". Grace Hill Media was the PR firm behind the movies.

Left Behind - The Movie

Left Behind - The Movie was released in September 2000. It was almost universally panned, with only 14% Fresh reviews at RottenTomatoes, and 15% Fresh from the Cream of the Crop.[1] During the airplane scene—the entire flight crew is raptured: what are the odds of that? This is likely based around an urban legend that airlines won't allow Christian or evangelical pilots in case such as situation happens for real. Also, look for a corpulent, bespectacled, balding white guy - that's John Hagee in a cameo.

Left Behind II: Tribulation Force

The second film was released direct to DVD in 2002. It was generally ignored; only 2 ratings of 6 on RottenTomatoes were Fresh.[2] The second movie focuses on what happens after the Rapture, and the rise of a so-called antichrist, who just so happens to be head of the most hated organization in the right-wing fundie world: the United Nations

Left Behind: World at War

The third film was released on DVD on October 25, 2005 after being given premiers in Churches - an interesting way of avoiding the "direct-to-video" smear, at least. The movie is based on the last two chapters (50 pages or so) of the novel Tribulation Force and gets even weirder than the previous films. It was given even less attention than the second; only two reviews are listed on RottenTomatoes.[3]

Left Behind: Eternal Forces

On November 7, 2006, Left Behind: Eternal Forces, a real-time strategy game for PC, was released by Left Behind Games. The game received generally negative reviews, with an average rating of 45% on gamerankings.com.[4] The general concept of the game was relatively warmly received, but the majority of the criticisms came from the execution of that concept, including numerous bugs, badly coded AI, poor graphics and the tendency of the game to want to push religious pseudoscience down your throat and sell you religiously themed products.[5][6][7][8][9][10] There was also some mention of the gameplay leading to the possibility of simply killing all unbelievers rather than trying to convert them as a valid way to win.[11][12] A sequel was recently released, with effectively no hype or fanfare whatsoever, and seems to be simply more of the same.

Eternal kudos

Slacktivist, a liberal evangelical blogger, became something of a minor hero by going through the whole book, page by page, and writing an exhaustive commentary on the theology, underlying ethics, and awful writing. His archive is not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach.

No Child Left Behind

The Bush Administration funded a controversial faith-based initiative to make sure all American children were ready for the rapture.

No Child's Behind Left

Many religious educators, led by the Catholic church, have their own way of answering the age-old, but rarely asked question, "Is our children learning?"

See also

External links

Conservlogo late april.png
For those living in an alternate reality, Conservapedia has an "article" about Left Behind

Footnotes

  1. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/left_behind/
  2. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/left_behind_ii_tribulation_force/
  3. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/left_behind_world_at_war/
  4. http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/928956.asp?q=Left%20Behind
  5. http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/745/745956p1.html
  6. http://uk.pc.gamespy.com/pc/left-behind-eternal-forces/749748p1.html
  7. http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/leftbehindeternalforces/review.html
  8. http://arstechnica.com/reviews/games/leftbehind.ars
  9. http://compactiongames.about.com/od/reviews/fr/leftbehind_rev.htm
  10. http://www.wired.com/gaming/gamingreviews/commentary/games/2006/11/72071
  11. Wired.com review, can't be bothered to look it up at nearly 2 in the morning.
  12. That, or it simply encourages believers to sing in front of soldiers who are shooting at the believers, in an attempt to kill themselves in order to convert the soldiers (I actually played the game that far!).
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