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My wife and I went to see the latest man from Krypton movie last night.
Neither of us were big fans of it. But, I’m not going to go over it in detail, just talk about one of the main premises of the movie.

It is said over and over again, by several different characters that “humanity is not ready to know aliens exist”. They say it is better to let people die that to let them know there are aliens.
This is the core of the movie. And, I think it is fundamentally flawed for a few reasons.

First:
Superman as a character is not about alien invaders. Superman is about heroes. Throughout history there have been heroes that could do far more than an ordinary person.
Hercules was half god. Gilgamesh was 2/3 god. King Arthur had a fairy sword. Jack had magic beans. Prospero had an elemental at his command. George had his dead cherry tree. Abe had his tall hat.
Clark was really from the planet Krypton, he just grew up in Kansas.
The why really isn’t important to the story. It’s an excuse for why these people have powers and abilities far beyond mortal men.
So, to concentrate on the alien aspect I think misses the point.
It is like a Spiderman movie being crossed with arachnophobia. Yes, lots of people don’t like spiders. Therefore a human with spider powers would be creepy! People would run in fear! They’d try and squash him with a giant shoe!

Even in the Superman mythology, Superman is not a hero because he comes from Krypton. He is a hero because of the Kents. They raised him to be the hero he became.

I’m not saying that a movie with human aliens coming to Earth to let people know they aren’t alone couldn’t make a good movie. It totally did. 1951: The Day the Earth Stood Still. (Not the new one…)
But, that isn’t a Superman movie.

Second:
I think the idea that humans aren’t ready to accept they are not alone in the universe is totally wrong.
I think the opposite is true. I think you’d have to try really, really hard to find someone who really thinks we’re alone. And, I think that’s always been true as well.
It doesn’t matter if it is gods, heroes, fairies, angels, aliens, ghosts, or microbes under the ice on Europa.
People have ALWAYS believed there was something else out there. Look at all the time and effort spent trying to find those people.
If aliens really did land I think it would be much more a case of “what took you so long?” instead of “how can this happen?”
At the very least there would be a lot of “I told you so!” on people’s part.

It is vastly harder to get people to believe they are alone. I’ve seen all sorts of scientists make statements about how we are alone. No one is out there. We’re all there is.
And, few believe them. Even most folks sympathetic to that line of thought will say things like “there are no aliens that would actually be able to reach us” or “they may be too far away to ever communicate with them.” But, few even entertain the idea that in all the millions of galaxies with billions of stars and planets that there is no one else at all.

150 years ago, scientists thought there were folks on Mars and published drawings of the canals and such. Did folks freak out about it? If so, not enough to matter.
So, this movie would have us believe that humans are less ready for alien contact than in the years after the Civil War.
OK, that’s not fair. They’re saying humans were never ready.
Despite, SETI, probes with diagrams on how to come visit us bolted to them, radio pulses beamed on purpose out to the stars and all sorts of other ways people have gone looking for these aliens that the movie KNOWS we can’t handle proof of existence.

The movie itself, and so many other similar movies and stories, proves my point. People are so unwilling to believe that they are alone that they invent these visitors and tell their friends about them. The stories are popular, repeated often and often made into movies or the equivalent for people’s enjoyment. Again, this goes back to the beginning of history.

I’m not saying that no one would freak out if aliens landed. But, people freak out about sports scores, celebrity weddings and game shows. A percentage of people will freak out for any major event.

So, the idea that the whole world will have a massive freak out at the idea that there might be an alien on Earth saving people from drowning, fires or similar things is one I just don’t buy.

Finally:
Superman stories, even this one, are designed to inspire people. He’s not “alien power person”. He’s Superman.
This movie is an “alien power person” movie.

And, that isn’t a bad idea. How someone who looks human, but isn’t, comes to grips with the differences and reacts to them can be an interesting idea. Some of the ideas they put forward in this about it are interesting.
But, that isn’t Superman.

Superman is that guy with one really amazing power: To always do what’s right.
And, that isn’t this character in the movie.

So, while this movie does have some interesting points and ideas.
I just don’t like it as a Superman movie.
But, maybe that’s why it is called “Man of Steel” anyhow.
Maybe they know and it is on purpose.