The World Doesn't Need A Saviour

"...but every day I hear people crying for one."


I just went to see Superman Returns today. I don't understand why people have bagged Superman so much. Yes it is cheesy and so sweet it hurts at times but that is just part of the charm. Superman to me is the archytypical superhero: he is iconic of all things that superheros are and strive to be. All other superheros are just weak copies of this all-American hero. His truth, justice, and a hard-boiled egg whilst they make us gag for the cliches are noble and true virtues that all people long for. I confess that I felt a thrill of excitment when Clark Kent doffed his mild manner guise and tore open his shirt to reveal that logo. And I found myself internally cheering at Superman's first heroic save since his return to Metropolis, unsurprisingly involving Lois Lane who in characteristic fashion faints afterwards (a la Superman the original). Yes Superman almost always predicatable and you can predict what will happen in a lot of the movie, but the film writers kept it interesting in spite of this. And how Superman managed to beat Lex Luthor's latest ingenious scheme I could not foresee. Some people thought poorly of the movie as it used audio and visual clips from the first movies (for the voice and image of Jor-El, Superman's father), however, I personally thought that it was awesome that they did so. It created a continuity with the old movies to see and hear Marlon Brando counselling Superman. I for one rate it as a movie a few laughs and a feel goodness to the movie that can only come from mum's apple pie.

For those of you that haven't yet seen it thebasic storyline is Superman had left and now has returned (can't get simpler than that). Astronmers had discovered what looked like the fragments of the planet Krypton and Superman left to investigate it for himself. However, he left without saying goodbye to Lois Lane and therefore while he was away she wrote a Pulitzer prizewinning article entitled 'Why the world doesn't need Superman'. He returns to earth to find her with a son and dating/pratically married to the nephew of Perry White. While this is going on Lex Luthor had been released from jail as one of the key prosecution witnesses, Superman, failed to show up for the arraignment. Once again Lex has a plan of feindish cunning to kill lots of people and make loads of money and Superman has to stop him.

In her article Lois wrote that "the world doesn't need a saviour". Its an interesting and very provacative statement. Superman responds to her when he returns "You wrote that the world doesn't need a saviour, but every day I hear people crying for one" (quotes from here). Its interesting looking back at the first movie and hearing what Jor-El says that his mission on earth should be, "Live as one of them, Kal-El, to discover where your strength and your power are needed. Always hold in your heart the pride of your special heritage. They can be a great people, Kal-El, they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you... my only son" (quote from here). Superman was sent to earth not so much to save people but to show them how to save themselves. Superman lead by example showing the world the way that people should live in relation to one another. Not trying to do what Superman can do but rather to give what they are able to give to one another without expecting recompense, to do justice, love kindness, and live together in harmony. But people became complacent and let Superman do all the work. Rather than looking to his example and trying emulate it they let him do all the work, worshipped him and praised him for what he was doing but then did not do anything in response. This is what Lois meant that the world does not need a saviour; this is not the type of saviour the world needs one that people look to but do not try to emulate. But Superman is correct the world is constantly crying out for a saviour and unless we all try to save the world and bring peace, wholeness and harmony on earth what is the purpose of the saviour. The saviour the world needs is a light shining in the darkness to show the world the way rather than a flamethrower throwing back the darkness causing the world to have no need to fight the darkness.

Job Prospects

I know I said that I would try not to blog about personal issues but resolutions are made to be broken.

As some of you are aware I have been looking unsuccessfully for a job as an engineer for the last few months. Anyway there was one prospect that came up at a Job expo at the local university that seemed very cool. It was with a consultancy company that works in waste water processing; which was exactly the field of Chemical and Process Engineering that I hoped to get into when I graduated but was beginning to despair of getting as it is commonly a Civil Engineering discipline. Anyway the expo was on Wednesday and on that Friday I emailed the guy I had spoken to (and given a copy of my CV to) with a coverletter expressing my interest in working for their company. I got an email back on the Monday asking for my CV (go figure). I emailed them back on Tuesday with an updated version of my CV and got an email back that evening asking for a telephone conference on Thursday. After the telephone conference I was told that within the next week they'd get in touch with me as to whether they wished to fly me down for further interviewing. The very next day I received an email from them with a flight tickets attached for the following Wednesday. After having the interview with them they told me that they'd get in touch with me within a week as to whether they were going to employ me. That was 2.5 weeks ago and I have been sitting on tenterhooks ever since. I emailed them last week thanking them for the opportunity of the interview (ie in business parlance, whats going on at your end guys?). Then yesterday morning I received an email from them informing me that they were interested in employing me and that I can expect an official offer from them in the next week or so. :)

For those of you that are interested the company is called Waste Solutions Ltd which is a subsidery of Duffill Watts and King. It seems like a very awesome company to work for. They all have a deepseated belief in the need to take care of our environment and our country. Wherever possible if they can install a waste processor that is as clean as possible then they will tend towards that solution. In other words they have philosophies very similar to my own and two of the ten or so employees are Christians (one of them is the boss). None of them smoke and few of them drink. They have a very flat management structure and operate as a team rather than a group of individuals working together. All up it seems to be exactly the environment that I wished to work in.

Thank you to any one who was praying for me in this, G@d has more than answered my prayers. If you would continue to pray that I can find a Christian flat with young professionals (as opposed to students) in Dunedin and can find a good circle of Christians down there that will accept me into their friendship.

I will be setting up another blog chronicling my adventures down south.

Xmen 3

Like most I have seen Xmen 3. If you haven't and you want it to remain a surprise stop reading now but when you do see it stay til the end of the credits.

I didn't anticipate much for it as a movie and it delivered. It was not gripping, it was not moving, it was not spectacular. It was a special effects playground showing off the imagination (or plagiarism) of the mutants abilities. That said I liked Juggernaut he was one of the redeeming features of the movie, and Vinnie Jones did a sterling job of playing a guy who charges in and attacks everything; it is the role he was born to play.

As a movie though it was trying to do to many things and ended up doing nothing. It had the main plot line of someone inventing an 'antidote' to mutanism and Magneto raising up an army to destroy the antidote. To exacerbate matters the government turns the antidote into a weapon which neither Prof X nor Magneto agree with. But that is just the beginning of the plots in the movie, they add in the most superfluious character yet in the person of Angel. I have yet to ascertain any reason at all for him to be in the movie except to give the inventor of the antidote incentive to create it. As well they had the love story between Rogue and Iceman going on. Rogue gets upset that her powers cause her to be unable to touch her boyfriend and he finds that he can touch Kitty (walk thru walls chick). In the end Rogue submits to the antidote (of her own freewill) and becomes normal. Also, they had the rise of the Phoenix as Jean Gray's suppressed alternate personality who was an unstable class 5 mutant (as powerful as you can get) and the continuation of the love story between her and Wolverine. Finally there is the enemity between Pyro and Iceman but instead of building it up there was one stand off and one major fight scene which was over in the blink of an eye. They should have had an earlier fight scene (in the third movie) where Iceman gets his arse kicked by Pyro and a few scenes showing him trying (and failing) to turn himself to ice. Thus in the final fight it becomes more built up, although this is adding to a movie that I thought was doing too much as it is. And there are probably another half dozen other plots that I have forgotten as well.

Storm and Cyclops throughout the series suffered from having no back story to understand them as characters. By the end of the series each of the other Xmen and Magneto is understandable to some extent because we learn what shaped them when there powers first manifested (except Prof X). What happened when Cyclops' powers first developed being a kid at school shooting firey lasers out of his eyes isn't exactly optimal? What about Storm whaen she learnt she could have a snow day any day she chose? As it stands their characters have no depth.

The series also suffered from killing off mutants by the bucket load. By the end of the trilogy all that is left of the original mutants (from the first movie) are Storm, Wolverine, and Prof X and maybe Magneto. They have added to their number but also lost some. Also, the addition of what seem to be main mutants to the movie only to kill them off or ignore them in following movies is kind of wasteful, whatever happened to Nightcrawler? And the loss of Mystique while a major point in the movie happens and is done with without barely any comment.

Finally, in my opinion the trilogy suffered from not being a trilogy. It was a series of three movies that built off the previous ones box office success and the success of the comics and the catoon series. In order for them to work properly they should have started the antidote subplot at the start of the first movie and made Angel come to the University sooner (maybe in the second movie) as he is quite a cool character. Throughout the course of the first two movies keep their main plots but especially in the second one have them find as well as the mind control experiments have them find them trialing (and failing with horrible side effects) the anitdote. Then in the final movie less time needs to be wasted on the development etc of the antidote and let it just focus of Magneto raising an army, the rise of the Phoenix, and the Pyro and Iceman antithesis.