undeniable how far from us Superman has been in past Superman movies, and how flat he is as a typical superhero hero. We can tell how Superman saved trains and planes, fell in love with editorial boss Lois Lane in front of the Daily Planet reporter, and couldn't escape the deadly kryptonite. However, the way Superman participates in these events is by actively participating in the resolution, not by being forced into it. We have never seen Clark Kent have unbearable memories of growing up, but we expect him to be proud of his life because he can catch up with the train, and of course we have not seen the confusion he encountered on the road Difficulties and choices. It seems that the film team's hope for this film this time is also a breakthrough point for surpassing previous film attempts. It is such a reverse thinking, how can we accept a god-like alien that we don't understand at all? That is to say, to highlight the identity of Superman as an alien. After all, our familiarity with Superman and our need for a sense of security make us forget that he is not actually an earthling.
The question of whether Superman can integrate into the earth was raised by his biological parents, and the completion of this question was undertaken by his adoptive parents. The previous movies (including animated movies) more or less revealed such information, the reason why a god-like person did not move towards self-centeredness and contempt for human beings, and the reason why he had a sound moral concept, completely depended on his parents being a pair of food and clothing. They are simple and simple peasant couples, and they are fortunate that they still have the concept of freedom and great tolerance. Martha Kent, Superman's father in the film, had a decisive influence on whether Superman could fit into human life. Martha Kent's patronage of Clark Kent imprinted in Clark's mind the idea of being a part of humanity and gaining human understanding. His belief in his son's ability to integrate himself into everyday life through self-restraint was so strong that he could face death head-on. It is this courage and firmness that realizes Superman's active restraint on his own abilities, so he does not become a violent fanatic driven only by emotions and desires. Old Kent's ambivalent attitude towards Clark Kent explains the roots of Superman's later choices. Such a rich portrayal of Superman's adoptive father has never been seen before. He realizes that Clark's existence will eventually affect the human world. Clark has what he needs to do, so he also encourages Clark to find his own mission, but he does not stipulate that it is to guide human beings. Superman's father Jor-El's expectation for his son to be able to live a free life was perfectly handed over from Superman's adoptive father. Superman has indeed achieved a balance between Krypton and the essence of Earth civilization.
On the other hand, the attempt to dig into the depth of the film is pinned on the depiction of the Kryptonian civilization. This part of the screenwriter, as a member immersed in Western culture, relentlessly brings out the ancient wisdom of the beginning of civilization. By grafting the political cycle and the ideal country, the film's ideological level is forcibly raised. When the Kryptonian civilization encounters a major crisis, the weak and slow decision-making of the conservative Senate will only lead to a high level of calls for a powerful tyrant. The transition from democracy to tyranny happens too much, with Caesar, with Napoleon, and with the Star Wars prequels. This time, the villain, General Zod, assumed the role of the tyrant. Unfortunately, his coup did not succeed. Besides, he is also a protector of the country. The identity of the protector comes from Plato's ideal state. In order to illustrate this point, the screenwriter simply spread it directly to the audience on the screen. Clark's childhood reminiscence shot with a white-bound book in hand
Plato's idea of an ideal city-state is that the city-state is composed of three types of people: craftsmen, soldiers, and philosopher kings. They represent the three virtues of temperance, bravery, and wisdom. The three types of people perform their duties to achieve justice. Soldiers and Philosopher Kings act together as protectors of the country. The children of the protectors are not raised by the parents, but by the city-state. Kryptonians were originally a highly expansive civilization. According to the prompts in the dialogue, it is speculated that the reason for the continuous expansion is because the population is constantly expanding. The higher the civilization, the stronger the carrying capacity of the population, at least on the real earth. But at a certain period Kryptonians realized the technology of population control. Therefore, they stopped the exploration of space and cut off the connection between the parent star and other colonies. It is precisely because of this cut off that each colony unfortunately cannot continue to survive, so the Kryptonians outside the home star died. Earth is just an uncolonized planet that has been partially explored. However, due to the stagnation of exploration activities, when Krypton self-destructed, only Earth could be selected as the next inhabited planet.
However, the key technology of population control also enables human customization. The mechanism of the origin of life room is equivalent to the mechanism for the city-state to undertake public raising of children. It is not difficult to understand that Zod as a soldier has a racist concept, because soldiers as protectors of the country are inherently superior to people as craftsmen. However, the most important thing in the conception of the Utopia is the Philosopher King as the ruler. Obviously, Krypton does not have a Philosopher King. It has been said before that in a democratic republic at this time, decisions are probably made by the Senate or Parliament. And then does Krypton actually have anyone who can take on the role of the Philosopher King? have. That's Jor-El, Superman's father. He is the only person other than Zod who realizes the crisis of Krypton's destruction and proposes to colonize the planet. I am afraid that his temporary ideal living place candidate planet is also the earth. It's just that there is a difference between him operating the immigrants and avoiding violence and Zod operating the clear humans. Jor-El threw his son Kal-El to Earth in the hope that Superman would become a communicator between the two civilizations. Zod's only mission as a soldier and protector is to preserve civilization and race, as he says, so it's not hard to understand Zod's motives, and his motives drive the plot. But Zod was designed from the start as a soldier rather than a wise ruler. Therefore, it is the idea of the Utopia that caused the Kryptonians to face the crisis of extinction, that is, the destruction of civilization. At the same time, this idea also brought disaster to the earth through Zod.
Compared with the first method of deepening the connotation of the film, the second attempt is too straightforward, and compared with "Batman: The Dark Knight", it is not as obscure and superb as the latter.
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