Man of Steel

I just watched the “Man of Steel” reboot of Superman. I was hoping for something at least semi-intelligent - as I’d expect from the Superman franchise. That was a big mistake. The movie is visually gorgeous and the story has its moments, but anyone who actually thinks about the story being told will have serious reservations. I am one of those people, and so I’m going to rant about this for a bit.

Spoiler alert - after this point I talk about the actual plot of the movie. You might want to stop here if you haven’t yet seen it but want to.

Let’s start with the smoking gun.
Faora: [Beating up Kal-El] You are weak, Son of El, unsure of yourself. The fact that you possess a sense of morality, and we do not, gives us an evolutionary advantage. And if history has proven *anything*... It is that evolution always wins.

What the hell is that supposed to mean? Really, this belies two really important pieces to this puzzle: first, the writers of this movie have no idea what “evolution” really means. Second, it’s an obvious play to the creationism movement in the US.

This is a movie that prizes military procedures more than have any concept of physics. Sure, I get it, there are super beings. But you know what? Consistency counts. Pounding someone through a building does nothing, but a bit of jiujitsu is killer? This makes no sense. The bad guys only die when it’s convenient for the plot.

That’s really the part that gets me the most. Think about it for a moment: what was the point of this movie? It’s laden with morals, so what moral are they trying to teach? As best I can discern, the moral is that if you’re on the good side and you just want it badly enough, then you’ll win.

The “bad guys” represent technology. The “good guys” are the hard working farmers doing it with their bare hands. The good guys just dig deep enough, and despite the fact that the forces of evil have better training, technology, and skill, the good guys win.

What a crock of lies.

This one goes in the bin with Prometheus as having a huge amount of potential, yet despite being visually stunning the movie is dragged through the mud by American-Christian dogma. The story is against technology, science, evolution, and any kind of progress. Movies like this should come with the Republican Party Seal of Approval so that anyone with half a brain will avoid it.

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