Superman: The Man of Steel

Look, there! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s SUPERMAN!!

Since I am doing Hollywood icons, I have to make sure I get in one of the biggest icons of all; the man who is recognized everywhere by merely his logo, the man who needs no introduction.

Ah, what the heck, I’ll give him one anyway.

Superman is originally from the planet Krypton, but was sent to earth by his father. He grew up as Clark Kent on a farm in Kansas with his adopted parents. His special powers include: flying, superstrength, laser eyes, X-ray vision (he can see through everything but lead), and running at the speed of light, to name a few. He is also a Scorpio who enjoys pina coladas and long walks on the beach. Basically, he is perfect in every way, shape, and form.

Superman is awesome, don’t get me wrong. But the fact that you know he’s going to win every single fight makes it a little boring. Plane about to crash? No problem. A missile is about to hit the city? Piece of cake. Stupid kid falling into Niagara Falls? No job is too small for Superman! It’s like he doesn’t even struggle to do the right thing, he makes it look so easy. Even when he has to choose between stopping two missiles in the first Superman film, he stops one, then flies around the earth so fast he spins it backwards and goes back in time to stop the other (How does that work?).

I think of it this way: Superman is the best original superhero, and I'll always love him, but you graduate to more complex characters like Spiderman and Batman. Spidey (a nerdy young man) and the Dark Knight (orphaned billionaire playboy) don’t win every fight and make mistakes. But both of those heroes use their powers for good and overcome their inner demons, giving us hope that, we too, can overcome our troubles.

One thing that always bugged me about the Superman movies was the fact that his only disguise are those glasses. That is, apparently, the only reason that no one recognizes him. No wonder he always had to save Metropolis from some evil scheme. Residents who are too stupid to realize that a famous reporter at the Daily Planet looks exactly like Superman obviously can’t take care of themselves. I mean, the people who work with him at the paper haven’t figured it out yet? They look at pictures of Superman all day, and Clark’s right there…put two and two together, people! There’s even a point in the second Superman movie where Lois (co-worker and possibly more(wink,wink)) takes Clark’s glasses off at Niagara Falls to wipe them off, leaving him totally exposed! She knows both Clark and Superman, how can she not notice?

But all in all, the Superman franchise is just good fun. He’s a good guy who just wants to help all the people he can, and does just that. He is an excellent role model for children, and they love him (I have never gone one Halloween without seeing one kid as a Superman).

So, cue that epic John Williams theme music and roll the credits, but don’t worry, Superman will fly again tomorrow.

God on TV

Television shows usually skirt around the issues of religion, faith, and God, in order to avoid insulting anyone, Christian, atheist, or otherwise. It is a touchy subject. Honestly, I think dialogue gets more attention when it mentions God than any sexual reference or violent act. I know I perk up when I hear someone say, “I prayed to God about it” but not when someone gets shot or if someone has sex. It’s more of an eye roll, like “Oh, they’re having sex again”. But when someone talks to God, either in anger at “what he’s done to their life” or if they’re begging for a second chance, it gathers attention, both negative and positive.

I’m going to take you through one of my favorite television shows, Supernatural, that has gone from basically “God-absent” to a very present God in nearly every episode.

Supernatural centers around the Winchester brothers, whose mother was killed by a demon when they were children. Their father swears that he will destroy the demon that killed his wife, dragging his boys across the country throughout their childhoods. Because their dad is so obsessed, they never had a home and stayed in one hotel room after another, changing schools just as often. Their father was never really there for his boys, and this caused the oldest son, Dean, to become a sort of father figure to his little brother, Sam. As the boys’ father constantly tells Dean, “It is your responsibility to look after Sammy. Protect him at all costs.” On the rare occasions when their father is around, he teaches his sons everything they need to know about hunting demons, shapeshifters, Grim Reapers, werewolves, wendigos (mutated flesh eating humans), Tricksters, and the souls of vengeful ghosts. Their father expects them both to go into the “family business”, but when the booksmart Sam graduates high school, he defiantly takes his full ride to Stanford to practice Pre-Law. Four years later, the Winchester boys’ father goes missing, and the boys team up and spend the rest of the first season finding him.

Although this series deals with very evil things such as demonic spirits, and the boys use crucifixes and holy water to ward off spirits, there is only one episode in the first season that mentions God. It centered around a “faith healer”, who was a pastor at a church. Dean was dying, so the boys went to visit him, hoping that he could be cured. However, the man ended up being a sham, although he really did think he was working through the power of God. A Grim Reaper was the one taking the ailments and transferring them onto another person.

In season two, there was only one episode that had a God centered theme. It was about the soul of a priest who may or may not be killing “sinful” people, and this caused the Winchester brothers to confront their feelings about religion and faith. Dean remained adamant that there was no God who would allow such horrible things to happen to people. Sam followed up with his ideas on faith. “There is a God. How can you not believe after all we see?” Dean says something snarky about Sam praying about them solving the case, to which Sam says, “I do pray. Every day.”

Season three is about Dean trading his soul for Sam’s life (long story), and the process of him going to Hell. But it’s in season four where things really pick up in the “God” department. An angel (Castiel) drags Dean out of Hell (yes, they couldn’t get him out of the deal), and says that God has a special plan for Dean. Whoa. This came out of the blue. They want the guy that has firmly said that he doesn’t believe in God to work for the Man Upstsairs? In the rest of the season, the angels are constantly there, guiding Dean and Sam, the latter of whom, in a twist of irony, seems to be headed on a darker path.

Some other shows that have religious references are Kings (sort of a reimagining of David and Goliath) and Heroes (last week had a main character had a whole conversation with Jesus on the cross in a church). What do you think about shows having religious references? Are they not respectful enough? Too respectful? Should they have more or less religious references?

I will leave you with this clip from Supernatural: Dean vs. Cat

Bond. James Bond.

It’s the longest running movie franchise in history, running from 1962 to 2008 and beyond. The main character has been played by six different actors to date, another one taking over when the present one becomes too old. But no matter who he is played by, he gets his bad guy and his girl (or several girls). I think I’ll let him introduce himself:

Bond. James Bond.

I’m going to say right off the bat that I have not seen all the films; I am not a crazy Bond fan. The action is pretty awesome, but all the movies are what I like to call “Blicks” (Boy flicks, the opposite of a Chick Flick). A blick can be defined with the following criteria:

1) The main character is male and impossibly cool. They are usually employed as a cop, a detective, a secret agent, an athlete, or any other kind of loner.

2) Something explodes within the first 10 minutes of the movie

3) There is no female character development. They are there for eye candy and are strictly two-dimensional.

4) The plot line is forgettable.

5) The moral of the story often is: the government isn’t going to do anything about it, so you better do it yourself.

Don’t get me wrong. I like blicks on occasion. I love the Die Hard movies, Lethal Weapon, and even the oldie blicks with Humphrey Bogart. The thing that bugs me most about blicks is the lack of awesome female characters. I mean, they give the girls names like Pussy Galore , Plenty O’Toole, Octopussy and Dr. Holly Goodhead (No, I’m not making this up). Way to not objectify the ladies, Hollywood.

I might not like the James Bond movies because I didn’t grow up watching them. I tried watching Goldfinger this summer, but stopped when Pussy Galore flew in with her plane posse and proudly declared her name for all to hear. Even Sean Connery didn't believe it ("I must be dreaming"). With all the implied sex scenes and deaths by bowling hat, I kept checking the ratings with disbelief (This is PG?!) I finally just assumed that Bond did not die, since he has a gazillion sequels, and stopped watching. And James Bond got over the deaths of his precious Bond girls quite easily. I mean, is this guy even human? He just stares in disbelief at his brightly rainbow colored (dead) girls and then moves on with life, hunky dory. (Oh, did I forget to mention that the Bond girls are usually killed by dipping them in oil or gold or something like that? Do all these completely different villains get together and just decide to kill the girls like this just to screw with James and make things emotionally traumatic for him? I don’t think it’s working, it doesn’t affect him that much) . Also, in the beginning of Goldfinger, why don’t the intruders in Bond’s hotel room just kill him? Why bother knocking him out?

These movies present many ample opportunities for James Bond to die, why don’t the filmmakers just go with it? (Oh yeah, because the Bond movies have grossed nearly $5 billion worldwide. Bond = $$$).

All this Bond talk has made me thirsty. I’m going to go make a martini, shaken, not stirred.