Welcome to Durbania where I love looking deeper into movies. I'm Durban & I do movie reviews, trailer reactions, & rankings. I'm a follower of Jesus so something unique I love to do here is called a Theological Analysis. I breakdown a movie, or a part of a movie, and analyze where I see a Godly picture.
The inspiration for this channel started with my brother-in-laws & I driving home from movies and we would read so much into them from a Christian perspective. It was always a blast talking about movies this way, and we'd find we were building each other up by what we found pictured in them. So that's what I want to do here, I want to be an encouragement and build up whoever stops by to check out an analysis or anything else I do.
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I'm not religious, but the burning of the RAO towers definitely reminded me of the Tower of Babel parable, with Clark essentially acting as God and the Kandorians as the Babylonians who have become greedy for God's power. I'd love to know your take on that, though.
Hey Durban, I haven't read the books on years but it's great to hear your take. Good to see you doing well! Shout out to the Office spinoff coming! God bless!
I completely agree, although I would've loved that Clark would've Zod Lex a little more but in the end falling from inexperience. One of the things I would've improved in the show are Clark's fight scenes with beings like the phantoms. I don't like that his only move is to throw his oponent and that's it 👎🏻
It's hard to say which book I liked best. They each had interesting things about about them. Voyage of the Dawn Treader was the only book that didn't actually go to Narnia (although it did reach the Lone Islands, a territory of Narnia). The Horse and his Boy was interesting since there was no world-hopping in this one. The kids were born there and didn't come from anyplace else. But they're all good in their own way
After Jadis spoke the Deplorable Word, she put herself in a state of suspended animation, hoping that a traveler from another World would rescue her. This indicates that Jadis was aware of other worlds, but could not travel there herself.
Replicating my thoughts from one of the WOTW podcast videos: I find Season 4 to be a strange combination of some of the series’ best moments, with some of its’ worst. Seasons 1-3 were clearly a trilogy of questions: “Who am I?”; “Where did I come from?” and; “Where am I going?” (respectively). It seems that, going into Season 4, they didn’t know where to go next, so they cashed in five of the major chips that they had held back for some outstanding episodes: 1. They cashed in the no-fly rule to give us Crusade - a world-spanning action-packed episode. By the end of the episode, Clark was earth-bound and we would never see his flying look as good again (even in Finale). 2. They cashed in Lex’s slow descent into evil to give us a peak at the finished article in Onyx. By the end of the episode, Lex is back to normal and was never as compelling or ruthless again (even after he had finished his journey into evil later in the series). 3. They took Lionel to the extent of his desperation and ruthlessness to give us Transference. By the end of the episode, Lionel is “cured” of both his disease and his evil ways. Even after drifting back into the grey morality post-Onyx, Lionel is never the same again. 4. They brought in Lois Lane while Clark is still a teenager. 5. They gave us our first true non-Superman DC hero in Run. These big cash-ins are set against a backdrop of absolute trash: high-school teenage garbage (Façade, Devoted, Spirit, Forever etc.); the witches storyline (Spell etc.); a convoluted stones storyline (that just made us frustrated with Clark’s lack of agency or proactiveness) and; other random stupidity (Krypto, Ageless etc.). Season 4 is an anomaly - containing some amazing moments that the series struggled to live up to again along with some of the series’ worst ideas and character arcs. I would love to hear your thoughts!
Great ideas on the book , I liked the British tv story version too. Hope they make a good movie soon but with all the radical feminism and putting down of male roles, I don’t have much hope. There’s to much of this woke stuff going on which is evil , this generation is very deceived. But there is always hope.
Both most and least favourite. Most -- as a reader, for the reason you stated. Least -- as a fan fic writer, for the reason the dialogue Aslan with Bree underlines the concept of "parallel incarnation" which I find theologically objectionable ... making me wonder how to deal with it. But, again, as a reader, a very beautiful book!
So speaking of big questions. Here is one Ive been meaning ask you Durban if you see this: As a Christian RU-vidr that talks about a variety of movies some of which may be considered problematic or demonic by some legalistic christians, do you tend to get comments from those types of Christians from time to time 🤔? For example, I think in you recieved one like that in your Deadpool theological analysis from a long time ago lol. Nevertheless, love to see your respones or perhaps this could be a video topic one day 😎.
Thank you! Things are going well. The Chosen season 5 is going to be amazing. Right now I am experimenting with RU-vid shorts to keep Durbania going, and expanding Durbania to Instagram with reels. So I am working to keep the theological analyses going while working hard with The Chosen. How are you doing?
Okay. That take on the antichrist is very original and interesting. Another movie with an original take on the antichrist is Lost Souls. Well, not the antichrist, but the person before the possession.
Arsheesh gets a bad rap. Think how many years he fed that boy until he was able to do a hand's turn. I expect he felt that Shasta owed him, and he did. As to selling him, impoverished families down the through the ages have done such things. We Americans can count ourselves lucky that we need sell our children only for greed, rather than want.
Best is, when Marc in that terrible "room of objectivity" is resistent at the edge of abyss, spiritual abyss."That is damned nonsense!" We should learn this sentence and utter it many times, when we are offered to follow the mainstream.
My book is only loose papers for I did read it many times.Now I have it an E-book. But I will spare my book for I fear the great censor hunting for forbidden words. In the net you are naked.
The Narnia books were my favorite books to read as a child. As a young Christian, I saw Jesus in them from the start, but as an adult, I get more and more Biblical truths from them each time I read them. One of my favorite quotes in the Last Battle is when Jill (I think) says that even though they were trying to get to Narnia, Aslan "did it in His own way." My favorite section is to read about Heaven . I love what hope C S Lewis ends the series with. Makes me all the more wager for arriving in Heaven!
It is amazing how C.S. Lewis ended this series. So much hope and joy, even out of tragedy. I didn’t read these books until I was 18. When I did they had a major impact on me. “He is not a tame Lion.” Such an incredible line!
Asian telling the kids that He won't always be scolding and that they did the work He had called them to do reminds me of Ephesians 2:10. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.". In other words, God has already planned on certain things for each of His children (true Christians) to do. He'll be pleased when we do them, even though we'll still sin.
I haven't watched the Disney/Netflix versions of the Narnia series, but have been an avid fan of the books since childhood (decades ago), much because I love seeing the treasures of the Biblical truths hidden within the books. I'm also disillusioned by movies that supposedly are about a book, as the movies tend to eliminate a lot of important as well as subtle things. I really appreciate you bringing in the differences of the movies from the books and talking about the Christian principles/truths revealed in the books.
Thank you. That books have had a major impact on me. So I am nervous about these Netflix movies, and my prayer is that they tell Lewis’ story and try inject their own. But we’ll always have the books, and I’ll tell people “read the books.”
I read The Lost world before the movie came out and i was super excited for the movie when it came out. It was my first experience of disappointment with a movie being so different to a book it's supposed to be based on.
Rosetta is the foundation for The Veritas to catch their attention to welcome the Traveler or Clark to Smallville. Which is the long running theme throughout the show. With a lot of Easter Eggs included. Season 4 and the episode Kandor season 9 alongside Quest season 7 is building up towards. And we needed this episode Rosetta to set this all up to catch their attention. In which Clark did just that.
I watched you too a lot on your previous channel. But I’m so happy and blessed by how it led to a greater opportunity and ministry for you with The Chosen! This is truly God’s manifest favor upon you! ❤🙌🏼
Great ranking! Personally, my ranking would be this: 10. Season 7 (a lot of dumb episodes and plot points) 9. Season 6 (the triangle is all I remember other than the Justice League. This season is just very empty.) 8. Season 4 (a lot of pointless episodes. I didn’t like the stone arc or the Lana drama. I kind of wish she left for Paris in season 3 since people growing up and moving on was a strong theme in 3x21. There were some good episodes and moments though. Alicia’s arc was one of my favorites, I like the Simple Plan football field scene, and the season finale was honestly kind of terrifying at points.) 7. Season 1 (the pilot is one of the strongest episodes in the series, but other than that, this season was a lot of filler. A lot of great character setup though.) 6. Season 8 (I like the idea of giving the series a soft reboot after the bad season 7. Although, I don’t like the retcon of Doomsday arriving with Clark. Also what was the point of recasting kid Lex in the field from the pilot for one shot when in the series finale, they use the original shot from the pilot. But Darth Maul / Starkiller / The Son is in this season, so that’s enough to really enjoy it for me.) 5. Season 10 (a great origin story, but like the first season: a lot of filler. I kind of wish this season was shorter with a better distributed budget. Also I don’t like that we don’t see Tom Welling in the suit. Homecoming was great though.) 4. Season 5 (monumental Superman lore is included in this season. Not perfect because “Thirst” is one of the worst things I’ve ever seen, but other than that: very strong moments. But other than those things, there wasn’t much this season did for me. Maybe I need to rewatch it.) 3. Season 2 (Christopher Reeve. Also lots of filler, but REALLY FUN filler.) 2. Season 3 (Shattered, Asylum, Crisis, Legacy, Memoria, Forsaken. Amazing episodes are in this season. Even the filler ones are at least fun. This one is just amazing!) 1. Season 9 (the only season to have a clear beginning middle end story in my opinion. I love what they did with Zod and that we are pretty much in Superman: Year One. I know that technically began with season 8, but this season was just Superman with the methods of Batman. Also the light hearted stuff was done so well.) While the show was poorly written a lot, I genuinely felt that when it was strong: IT WAS STRONG. But when it was bad, it was…kinda garbage. I do find it funny that this and Superman & Lois are the only two to get Superman’s core right. I love Cavill as Superman and think Man of Steel is a good elseworld akin to The Dark Knight Trilogy, but it DOES NOT understand the character. I love Christopher Reeve, but his Superman was too boyscout to the point where he wasn’t human. I’m really hoping James Gunn’s Superman 2025 does the character justice.
Great ranking and great thoughts on each season. I agree when Smallville was bad, it was bad. But when it was great and it was GREAT! It was a show that was on that right time in my life and I really love it! It has my favorite live action Lex Luthor and Lois Lane. I also hope James Gunn’s Superman is good. The DCEU was just so disjointed and exhausting (and I like Man of Steel and the Snyder Cut), as much I want to be excited for it I’m kind of in a “wait and see mode.” So many reboots! But of course I will see it. I do like the photos from set of the Super S.
