I was hoping I’d be able to go enjoy the new Superman movie.
I was hoping Hollywood would do its key and primary job: entertain me by telling me a good story.
But alas, no.
I don’t go to movies so that I can be lectured in story form by delusional, self-adoring narcissists who imagine themselves to be morally superior to their audiences.
Maybe I’m naïve. But with a classic, beloved, time-tested story like Superman (and with the high stakes and potential of an entirely new DC superhero movie on the line), I held out some hope that Hollywood might get this one right.
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It isn’t hard. Tell a good story without preaching some barely hidden, barely implicit message from the insane religion of the modern left. Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy is a perfect example of how it can work. Or Tom Cruise’s Maverick. More recently, Brad Pitt’s F1. It genuinely isn’t some hard mystery to solve.
But they just can’t stop themselves.
Their need for moral preening for their imaginary virtues is apparently irresistible.
Groan.
The lack of self-awareness in Hollywood today is truly stunning.
They’ll blame “superhero fatigue.” They’ll blame audience bigotry. They’ll blame the fact that we rubes just aren’t evolved enough to understand that we should pay them to serve us leftist political propaganda wrapped in spectacle. “You see, I’m for kindness, and they’re not. I mean, those other people are against kindness itself! What bigots they are!”
It’s this kind of smug, self-adoring, shallow thinking that’s ruined several beloved franchises. Star Wars. The Marvel Universe. Indiana Jones. Pixar. Lord of the Rings. We could go on. (Let’s not even mention Snow White.)
Dear Hollywood: You don’t seem to know or understand us at all. We aren’t against kindness. We aren’t against legal immigration. We aren’t against “good things.” Stop it.
What we’re against is your simplistic, bumper-sticker-level, platitude-driven understanding of the issues, and your moral narcissism. We’re against self-righteous artsies who redirect their own self-hatred into hatred of their own country and call it “kindness.”
We’re against illegal immigration (not legal, a point they relentlessly obscure), because we’re a nation of law and order. If you care about something (like your own country, family, or even your own house), you don’t just leave the door open (or remove the door entirely) to allow everyone and anyone to do whatever they want with it and with them. (Reference the speed and efficiency with which Martha’s Vineyard ejected a grand total of fifty illegals that appeared in their neighborhood.)
We aren’t against (eyeroll) “good things.” We’re against substituting bland, meaningless, hollow platitudes for words that used to mean something—a phrase that used to define the “way” of a great country and which is now being not just forgotten but deliberately eradicated by people like you.
The Superman story was created by better people than you and entrusted to you as caretakers of a treasured cultural narrative that once had the ability to inspire, unite, and ennoble us.
Instead, you’ve once again decided to “inject politics”—your politics—into the mix.
Fine. If you want to make it political, we can make it political. But that cuts both ways. Enjoy your bomb. Good luck re-launching a good superhero universe after this fiasco-misfire, and with this band of pompous, out-of-touch knaves at the wheel.
As for the rest of us, we’ll happily enjoy skipping this version of Superman and will spend our dollars elsewhere.
We can only hope that Hollywood will one day smell some coffee and get a clear view of the situation. The problem isn’t superhero fatigue, bigotry, or that we rubes who live outside of Los Angeles and New York just can’t appreciate paying for an injection of your dazzling moral superiority.
Just be honest. You’re a bunch of leftists. If you want us to come to your movies, stop preaching at us with your terrible, simplistic, condescending leftist ideas.
Instead, tell good stories.