Superhero movies: Superman

If I didn't see much criticism of the two Marvel movies, I saw plenty of criticism of Superman.

I don't know whether that was because Superman is just bigger. It could be fair to call him the quintessential superhero, though that is also used as a reason to call him boring: too perfect, too good, etc.

It could also perhaps be that this movie was more blatantly "woke". There were definitely commenters who did not like that.

I have also seen some people complain about the dog.

Look, I believe I have made it pretty clear that if you use "woke" as an insult... maybe you are not yourself an irredeemably bad person, but you are listening to the material of people who are; it's a bad sign. 

However, if "wokeness" was your problem with the movie, I might still be able to have a more productive discussion with you about that than if the issue is your not liking Krypto. 

The dog was great!

I mentioned in the first superhero comics post that it was clear to me that James Gunn loves comics. It was also clear to me that he loves animals.

That was not just Krypto, but also the squirrel and the woman evacuating the city with her turtle. Your emergency plans should always include your pets, and there may be ways where it is easier to clear out with one small turtle than six cats, hypothetically.

(That did remind me of an old Barney Miller episode where Wojo realized there was no evacuation plan for New York City and how impossible it would be.) 

As it is, I do agree that Superman can be too perfect. Krypto added an element of chaos. With no bad intentions, the dog caused problems -- sometimes solved them too -- but it kept things unpredictable. It reminds me of Shuri in Black Panther, knocking T'Challa off balance and humanizing him, while adding some humor.

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2018/08/black-panther-as-adaptation.html 

I wasn't sure about the movie at first. When Clark's parents called, they were not just the opposite of tech-savvy but very easy to look down on. They were also beautiful. 

Clark knew it sooner than the audience did, but we got to see it too.

Is that the real punk rock?

Well, is the real punk rock the DIY kids with the can-do attitudes, or is it the rich kids who dress down, walk through literal crap and then put their feet up on your coffee table? Or is the real punk rock just music based on three power chords played really fast?

I mean, maybe it's more complex than that.

This may be the more important thing from the movie.

When Superman is at his lowest, and Metamorpho decides to help him -- largely to save his son, but also I think because the suffering bothers him -- the other prisoners of the pocket universe start trying to draw attention and stop them. While that is their best chance for rescue (and does ultimately get them out), their first thought is fear, and cooperating with their abuser.

That felt terribly real and applicable.

I thought the movie was very entertaining. I enjoyed that, and I wasn't sure that I would, which I will get into more in the next post.

There is the potential for well-made movies that I would not enjoy. One path to that is if the message of the movie was wrong.

There was a lot of caring in the movie, and intention to do right, even if things don't always work out, like when the Justice Gang swoops in and kills the kaiju that you were hoping to capture peacefully.

You can keep trying to persuade your attackers (one of whom is your clone) that they don't need to do this and then fail to convince them and it leads to the clone's demise.

It is still so important to try. Then sometimes, when you do that, you can save the dog and the squirrel.