  
The Last MimzyMPAA Rating:
 for some thematic elements, mild peril and languageReviewed by: Maggie Hays Average
Moviemaking Quality:
Primary Audience:
Family
Genre:
Fantasy, Adventure, Drama, Family
Length:
1 hr. 30 min.
Year of Release:
2007
USA Release:
March 23, 2007 (wide—3000 theaters)
           Relevant Issues
Why I stopped following Buddha and started following Jesus Christ? Answer Ten Questions I’d Ask If I Could Interview Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) Today - Go Can mysticism lead to God? Answer Hares and rabbits in the Bible Should Christians be concerned about the environment? Answer What is man's responsibility to the environment? Answer 
“The future is trying to tell us something.” Here we have two children—brother and sister—who discover a strange box. Its contents are mysterious, and they begin to play with them, producing extraordinary effects. The children, themselves, develop hyper-intelligence and abilities like levitation. This is a fantasy tale—a science fiction story without nasty aliens. Mimzy is a “stuffed” rabbit in the box, who talks to the little girl and teaches her things, making her aware of her mission to save a lot of people. Looking at this from the perspective of a Christian Mom, here are the things I found objectionable:
Now, from the perspective of a Christian Mom, here are the things I found positive about the movie:
Violence: None / Profanity: Minor / Sex/Nudity: None See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.  Comments available:
Positive
Positive - I consider myself a VERY conservative Christian, and there’s really only a couple of things about this movie that bothered me. The main thing being the elementary school teacher and his fiance who are obviously into the eastern Dharmic religions (Buddhism/Hinduism). The lady is shown chanting to her god statue with incense burning. Her fiance, the school teacher, has dreams (visions). I guess to shed an appropriate light to keep it in context, her main concern isn’t nirvana… it’s winning numbers for the lottery from her fiance’s “dreams.” Positive - I really enjoyed this movie—the visual effects were great and the plot of the movie was cohesive and one of the better science fiction stories I’ve seen in years. There were only a couple of issues I had contention with—bad words were used a couple of times, and one of the characters is shown being into Buddhism/palm reading. In contrast, there is some great lines in the movie that could easily be tied into the Christian faith—for instance, one scene shows the dad reassuring his son that the boy doesn’t “suck” and that he is an awesome human being. This is something many children need to hear. In the end, the focus of the movie is really on the two children and the message from the future and not so much on its questionable aspects, so as long as younger children are helped to understand things such as palm-reading aren’t true, I would definitely recommend this movie. Positive - As I watched “The Last Mimzy,” I first had to chuckle, as they seemed to show the teacher and his fiance as boobs for believing in Eastern religions. But as the movie continued my heart began to sink and I became more and more disturbed as I saw Eastern religions become a prevalent source of wisdom. However, I decided to stick it through to the end, because there seemed to be something more to the movie. At the beginning, there is a simple phrase that is easy to miss. It was along the lines of 'Where are you going for Easter vacation?' EASTER VACATION?!?! Didn’t these kids know they went to public school??? So, I had to think the filmmaker had more in mind than Eastern mysticism. Positive - I’m big into sci-fi/fantasy stuff, so this movie is right up my alley. This movie is pure fantasy and is to be taken as that. It’s not to be taken literally. Yes, there is eastern religion and mysticism stuff, but I personally just add that into the fantasy. It’s sad that when a good, clean family movie like this one comes out, it’s almost immediately torn down by comments like “we have to protect our kids” or “they’re out to corrupt our kids, they must be stopped.” What exactly are we so desperately trying to protect our kids from? From having an imagination where they can fly or have super-human powers? What’s wrong with that? Kids should be able to get lost every once in awhile in their imagination where they’re part of a complete fantasy world. I think we as a society today get overly excited about the littlest things. I grew up with “Star Wars,” “Star Trek,” “Cinderella,” “The Little Mermaid,” “Lord of the Rings”, just about every sci-fi/fantasy story out there, and nobody thought anything about it. I knew the difference between what was real and what wasn’t. Kids today do to, but we aren’t giving them that credit. I loved all the fantasy stuff because I knew it wasn’t real. My favorite dreams were the ones where I was flying or could do incredible things, because I couldn’t do those in real life. Having an imagination like that helped me in the real world. Watching a good fantasy movie or reading a good sci-fi book before I got lost in the world of homework and chores helped me concentrate more on what was important. It cleared my mind. Kids’ imaginations today are so restricted that they have trouble concentrating. And people wonder why there are so many discipline problems in the classroom these days? Don’t get so excited the next time a kid thinks he’s superman! This movie is a great movie for kids with imaginations. There are a couple parts that could be a little scary for really little kids, but any kid that’s in school should like this movie. As for objectionable stuff, all I saw was that the teacher and his fiancée were living together. But that’s something that can be straightened up in about 10 minutes after the film is over; if the child even catches that they aren’t married. Positive - This movie is not a movie about aliens, to quote the movie the people in the future are broken, they say we have what they need: Emma’s compassion and tears healed their brokenness their humanity and compassion are what the people lost in the future and it was killing them, they had bred out their compassion from their DNA through lack of using it. They weren’t using magic, they were using technology to send the items back and forth. The story shows that the eastern mysticism, alice in the looking glass were people misunderstanding and assigning magic to these ideas. Now if a person thinks sending back something technologicly in time to try to regain compassion is sinful then this movie isn’t for you. The movie shows that although advanced technology and intelligence can create marvelous things, if we lose our humanity and compassion for one another we become monsters. The movie actually states that eastern mysticism is a misunderstanding of a message that future people were trying to send. The movie is a parable. If you want a movie of everyday life most people will find it boring in my opinion. We love the movie, our grandkids and kids love the movie. Neutral
Neutral - In regards to profanity or blatant “dangers,” this film is exceptionally clean. The problems/concerns I had were the subtle undertones. This movie has a definite agenda, and although its references to the dangers of the things around us which pollute our bodies (the air, the way our food is raised/grown/preserved, etc) and our minds (our very growing dependence upon technology) are pretty accurate, the rest of it is way off. Neutral - I saw this movie yesterday with my son, I really wish that I had pre-seen it and not subjected him to it. Although this movie was very tame from the world’s stand point, I don’t want my son subjected to the magical/mystical world of aliens nor palm reading (witchcraft), which in the Bible—it is very specific about. I don’t like the fact that the movie portrays the way something other than God, can give you extrodinary powers and I really don’t like the fact that a non-marital relationship is taken to be so much of the norm, but again I do believe that is the acceptance of the world, however, as Christians I believe we need not compromise our beliefs for entertainment purposes. Neutral - I took my boys (9 and 11) to see this movie. I had already read the review on this Web site before we went and so I talked to them about the content that it was going to contain. It kept both of their attention throughout the movie, but here are a few things that happened towards the end and after the movie was over. When the little girl was talking to Mimzy about the end of the world, my 11-year old blurted out (very loud) “What an evil rabbit.” There were a few chuckles throughout the theater, but as we were leaving people’s comments were generally positive about the overall movie experience, which was sad to hear. Neutral - …a decent film, not unnecessarily bad, but not really great. Yes, eastern religion did play a role in the movie. However, my problem is not necessarily with the movie itself, but with the Christian reactions I’ve read in the reviews. We as Christians, need to realize that Hollywood does NOT hold the values that we hold, so when we see non-Christian content in a movie it should come as no surprise. We act as if Hollywood is trying to “corrupt” our children with eastern religion, there not trying to corrupt our children, Hollywood just doesn’t know any better. Christians today act surprised when non-Christians do and say things that contradict our beliefs. Non-Christians are living according to their nature, because it is in the nature of those who are not saved by Christ, to live by the nature of sin. We as Christians are no longer bound by our sinful nature, but by a heavenly nature. So when we witness these things in movies, we should not get angry at Hollywood, because they’re doing exactly what a non-Christian is supposed to do. People watch our reactions to the world around us, so we should show them Christ by not getting angered by the world, but by being understanding and showing compassion. Neutral - My wife and oldest daughter liked this movie, and me and my youngest daughter did not. I would not let your kids under 12 watch this movie unless you are watching it with them. Negative
Negative - If you are like us, extremely conservative in our faith and politics, you will NOT enjoy this film. This movie force fed us 2 hours of “people are bad, and how they’ve destroyed ‘mother earth,’” etc. You get the idea. This movie’s take on the creation of Adam and Eve is quite disgusting, as well. As if our children are not already being indoctrinated with the new age, environmentalist wacko theories during their school time, this movie now does it in the name of “entertainment.” My husband and I were totally fed up with this movie and its “people are bad, nature is good” themes. It was blatant and intrusive—not a few times, but throughout the movie. We were hoping for an entertaining, sci fi/fantasy film. Instead we got an “Al Gore wanna be for children” film. And to top it off, it wasn't even entertaining in the least. Waste of money. Negative - I guess I must have seen a different movie than the rest of the reviewers. This movie is very offensive to me and my family. (1) Eastern religion was shown in a very positive light. (2) It talks about people from another planet. (3) At the end of the movie the little girl is described as the mother to all the other planets people. (4) The teacher and his girlfriend were living together. (5) The teacher’s girlfriend was also a palm reader. (5) The children got special powers from someone other than god. I want to end this review by saying this movie leads non-believers to think that other religions also lead to heaven, they don’t. Negative - I was also offended by the film. The quality of this film was superb, as was the science fiction aspect. Thus, leading to the extreme offense I felt. The underlying tones of Buddhism were very subtle and being fed to our children unaware. Although I agree with the comment posted by the first viewer about children are often unaware of such things, it is my place as a parent to protect them from being submerged in such lies. I am not a person who believes in censorship or even really feels a movie should be off limits because of language necessarily, but the infiltration of mystical beliefs to my children through a so-called children’s movie is appalling, and I want to the get the message out. Parents be careful what you let your children watch. Hollywood is out to corrupt them, and this is a prime example. I am just a mom who loves the Lord with all her heart, and this movie is filled with cultic symbols and beliefs. Something my children just don’t need to know about yet. Although it definitely opened the door for great conversation about the one true God and the false religions of the world. Negative - My family and I went to see this movie thinking that it would be a good family movie, based on what the previews seem to indicate. What we didn’t realize is that this movie contains thematic elements that we find very offensive to our Christian faith. One scene depicts the main child star’s teacher at his apartment with his live-in girlfriend sitting and meditating before a buddhist statue and burning incense. I walked out halfway through the movie, because I felt very uncomfortable with where the story was heading, including multiple references to Eastern religions and mysticism. After the movie was over, my family agreed that we all intensely disliked this movie. I would not recommend this movie to any family or young children as it is blatantly contrary to the fundamental principles of the Christian faith. Negative - My family and I went to see this movie as soon as it was out, as it seemed like a cute family movie, the children were dying to see it, and there was no review on this site yet. I admit I had reservations about the theme to begin with, and it was only proved to be too accurate. While I can see how many people would describe it as a nice and innocent movie, I think there needs to be more caution in what our children view and protecting them from “worldly” views. The mysticism, the meditation, the constant references to Middle Eastern beliefs and complete lack of belief in God was all very disturbing. I was still hovering in my feelings about the movie until the end really tipped me over the edge into complete disillusionment and frankly revulsion of the entire film. Depicting a little girl as the Mother of their newly reborn future life, not to mention a “new” Adam and Eve is all very disturbing. And certainly innocent children may be unaware of these undertones, but I don’t believe they even need such things in their minds conscious or otherwise. My husband and I both left the movie with a sour taste in our mouths, and it was not helped by the fact that our children just love the movie. I really don’t believe we can be too careful about protecting our children’s innocence, purity, and Godly views of the world around us. Allowing them to be desensitized by such subtle themes in their TV and movie viewing is not going to help that. This film may have excellent filmmaking qualities, but PLEASE think twice and more before allowing your children to see this film. Negative - I have just seen the film and then read the reviews. All of them contains some truth. This film fails for me on technical aspects. It does seem as if the makers of the film has had a strong social/religious motivation. They try to pull as many things as possible into this film : Hindu/bhuddisim, palm reading, mind powers, aliens and gaian philosophies abound. This leads to a muddling of the plot and gaping holes in the continuity leftd my children not understanding what exactly was supposed to happen. In the middle we see the benevolent future scientist shot by “aliens” only to later see him retrieve the last mimzy. Other questions also arise—but you have to see the film. Otherwise I will have to explain too much here. Basically the scriptwriter was clearly too focused on his agenda and not enough on the story. Ian Flemming (the creator of James Bond) said: The story should move quickly enough so that the inconsistancies are not noticed—or something to that effect. Sorry Mr/Ms Scriptwirter. Your story does not move fast enough. Technically / effects wise the film is very much run of the mill and none of the sets, camera angles, acting, design or otherwise was really outstanding. Sorry Mr Producer—you did not try hard enough. From a christian perspective I am bothered by the subtext as well as some of the visual sybolism and Imagery. I feel that the future images are too scary for younger viewers. Furthermore there is the image of the evil warlike aliens removing their suits and becoming a beautiful couple (Adam and Eve) walking into a brave new garden like future. Here we literally see good being “born” from evil. This film has some highlights as we see the usual absent father figure choosing to lay down his work and spend time with his family in a time of crises. At last someone in Hollywood has realised that there are men out there who cares for their families. So even though I criticized you earlier, thank you Mr/Ms Scriptwriter for standing up for the fathers. To misquote Lucy—a Wishy washy film that left us feeling confused and cheated. Rather get a DVD from the Pixar range and at least see how it should be done. Negative - …This was the most blatant attempt to introduce children to the occult that I have ever witnessed. My family and I rented this movie without knowing the entire plot. We were thinking it was a fun, children’s story ala “ET”. How wrong we were! The bunny communicates to the children, but never adults. It tells them the future. The scene when the parents come into the children’s bedroom and the little girl is levitating above her bed was straight out of demon possession 101. And did anyone notice the 2 children sit down in front of the rug in their bedroom that had a circle on it. Then the object they place in the circle makes a pentagram like image in the circle. Shortly after the girl places her face in “image” and she goes into convulsions! I am not making this up!… Negative - Intended or not, this movie was chock full of anti-Christian, anti-biblical messages, subtle though they were. Throughout the movie there is eastern mysticism, talk about aliens, how people are harming the earth, and subtle references to the occult and “magic.” One of the main characters (little girl) speaks to a stuffed bunny rabbit through telepathy. She and her brother also used telekineses to move objects. The really offensive part comes at the end when we find out that the little girl’s mission is the salvation of humanity by sending her “pure” genes to the future via some type of vortex to the future. A scene is shown where a young male and female shed their alien like suits and can live freely again without them because of the restoration that came through this “innocent” child. As they walk out into the “light” we see a silhouette of two naked bodies (reminiscent of Adam and Eve). They are in effect, the new Ad am and Eve, the new beginning of mankind. Negative - I would not take a young child to see this movie. MY own sister, 10, had nightmares for days after seeing this. The movie is filled with Scientology undertones which can be difficult to explain to a young child. Some of the subliminal themes which do not coincide with biblical principles include: Comments from young people
Negative - Do not watch this movie!! I watched much of it on DVD and I am glad that we did not go to the theater. I finally had to turn it off because it scared me so bad. There was a lot of magic and gets at times very scary. Aliens start shooting at the scientist which was very scary. When the rabbit goes back in time the scientist and his inventions are so so scary that I could not get it out of my head. I screamed and got my mom and I could not get the scientist out of my head. I am having a hard time getting over it. My mom could not even calm me down at first. I never usually am scared by normal movies. I wish that I would have never ever rented this movie. Comments from non-viewers
I have not viewed this movie, but I read a review about it having hinduism and mysticism…. I also read a few of your previous comments and the review from this site… We are fighting a battle against spiritual forces here, especially with our children, the worshiping a statue comment blew my mind, how impressionable our children are, why would we pay money for their minds to be altered with lies from the enemy. Let’s step up and give this movie the review it deserves… Our children rely on us to make the right choice. Choose not to take your children to see this. And for easter my child will not have a bunny named Mimzy, but an experience with JESUS her saviour! My comments are not based on my own viewing of the movie, but the trailers I have seen and the comments I have read from others. To a Christian, this movie obviously has some particularly offensive materials. It is interesting that some people find these characteristics damaging while others do not. I would say that in viewing the movie, it would be best to keep in mind that each person’s heart is a garden, whether child or adult. EVERYTHING that comes through your eyes and ears is seed. Adults are just as affected by seeds as children (although they don’t always think so). A little seed will affect you, and a lot of seed will direct you. Since we are supposed to guard our gardens (and parents need to do this with their children until the children are able to assume that task themselves) it is in your best interest to decide whether the seeds of this movie will be edifying or detrimental to you as a believer. The difficulty in walking by faith is not usually that we don’t have enough faith, but that we allow too much other junk to influence us. Although a fan of sci-fi when young, I’ve determined that the impact of this type of seed is not worth the trouble I have to go through later to extract erroneous thinking which develops from it. I’d rather guard my garden from these particular weeds than let them in for the sake of entertainment. |
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