Before I watched the movie I scrolled through the user ratings and it was about the most bipolar I have ever seen.
Clearly a lot of that is people judging it based on ideology. My take on that: I am nonreligious, and certainly was not sympathetic to the fundamentalist, but for secular reasons- namely, that he was psychologically messed up and for me it is incidental that it happened in his particular case to be manifested in the form of religious extremism. I believe religion for most people is something that helps them live a better life. That's at odds with the opinions the atheist expressed, so I didn't feel an ideological kinship with him either.
Stripped of ideology and just looked at as a drama, I thought it was pretty good. Gripping story, decent acting and directing. Unfortunately I generally don't feel competent to elaborate my basic impression of a movie beyond that sort of general impression.
Clearly a lot of that is people judging it based on ideology. My take on that: I am nonreligious, and certainly was not sympathetic to the fundamentalist, but for secular reasons- namely, that he was psychologically messed up and for me it is incidental that it happened in his particular case to be manifested in the form of religious extremism. I believe religion for most people is something that helps them live a better life. That's at odds with the opinions the atheist expressed, so I didn't feel an ideological kinship with him either.
Stripped of ideology and just looked at as a drama, I thought it was pretty good. Gripping story, decent acting and directing. Unfortunately I generally don't feel competent to elaborate my basic impression of a movie beyond that sort of general impression.