Superman Returns Jesus Christ Superman -- The Messiah of Metropolis?

[The Kid]

I'd have his life parallel Chuck Norris

 

[Kevin Roegele]

The christ parallels were not the most subtle, I must say.

Yet still some posters will deny they are there.

 

[Kevin Roegele]

I'm not sure every death and ressurection is a clear christ parallel though. Is that exclusive to christ? what about robocop?

RoboCop is a Christ-like figure as well. Don't believe me? Watch the Special Edition DVD, Flesh & Steel: The Making of RoboCop. Paul Verhoeven talks about it in depth. Robo even walks on water at the climax.

Can't wait to see what Singer will do (if he does) with General Zod, because his similarities to Lucifer are numerous.

 

[HUMAN]

That was, IMO, the worst part of the movie, the all parallel with Jesus and stuff...

When Superman ascends to "heaven", to be bathed by the sun, when he returns, the fricking clouds open up and a ray of light comes down, and he passes. It´s ridiculous, i almost barfed.
After throwing New Krypton, he falls to Earth, with his arms open wide and legs hold together, like he was in the fricking cross. Superman, falling for our sins. UN...BE..LIE..VA...BLE
And, what about the all monologues from Jor-El, like he was God

I´m writting a script for what should be a Superman origin movie, and one of the lines that he says and i hold dear to my heart is:

I AM NOT A GOD!!

As long as they can´t seperate Superman from Jesus, Superman will be nothing more than a joke, because, above all, Superman is A MAN.

This from someone who calls themselves Isildur's Heir?

 

[Isildur´s Heir]

This from someone who calls themselves Isildur's Heir?

Themselves??
I´m more than one

Besides that, what do you mean?

 

[casketmouth]

Singers the man.. he actually made me believe a man could fly with this film. He sold it

If he made you believe that a man could fly then I'm scared that you believe that a fat guy can slide down a chimney with presents and hop right back up into a flying slay or whatever it's called.

This made me believe that CGI still needs work!!!!

 

[casketmouth]

I'm not a religious dude, but I loved the SPIRITUALITY of Superman Returns. IF in REAL life there was a "Superman" with his powers, wouldn't he seem CHRIST-LIKE? I mean, the dude is a SUPER hero, and is almost indestructable. The parralels are uncanny (Jesus to kal-El), but it is the STORY!!!

What else could Singer have done? He humanized Superman by having a child (Jesus didn't have a kid). I thought having sex out of wedlock was a sin too? He is an alien (Jesus was not). He is not one of us (Jor-El tells us), but Jesus is one of us.

If people are anti-christian I get it, but tell how you would portray a Super-hero?

I thought the gay similarities to Xmen was kind of obvious too, but I still loved the movies (Singer showing different can be cool).

I don't remember Jesus ever fathering a bastard!!

 

[Kevin Roegele]

I don't remember Jesus ever fathering a bastard!!

Or wearing a red cape. And being called Superman.

 

[HUMAN]

Besides that, what do you mean?

Do you not see the Jesus parallels in Aragorn, son of Arathorn, heir to the kingdom of Gondor?

 

[buggs0268]

Well, a wildly popular arc in Superman mythos was the Death & Ressurrection storyline back in the early 90's. So it's not just Singer and Donner portraying this idea, it's the comic writers as well.

Jerry and Joel brought inspirations from Moses, Hercules, and Jesus. There a grand mixture of do gooding Messiah/Saviour type figures. In fact, the Heroes Journey is based off of the life of Christ.

And plus, saviours are a very universal belief. Muslims have theirs, so do many other religions. Lois doesn't say, "You're Christ!" or anything like that. It's just handled real subtley in form of 'saviour.' I don't see how it was incredibly obvious to anybody besides us over analytical SHH members.

ONe of my roomates at the time the comic came out said that DC had ever intention of killing him because sales were not doing well. But when the final comics sold so much, they decided to bring him back. Now if it was planned or not, I am not sure, but I remember DC saying they were not going to bring him back as well. Once he was dead, he was dead. So the ressurection would be because of sales only if that was true, and not because of doing any christ parallels.

And in Donner's Superman Lois calls him a God in the way that the Egyptians had Gods, or beings with power that came to earth. And I think in Superman Jor El was saying those things about sending him to save earth as it was his planets arrogance that they let themselves be destroyed, and he wanted his son to protect his new home from the same stupidity that Kryptonians had.

 

[Isildur´s Heir]

Do you not see the Jesus parallels in Aragorn, son of Arathorn, heir to the kingdom of Gondor?

No.
There weren´t hobbits back then
I see much more Jesus parallels in Superman.

The problem is not the parallels, the problem is people for Superman to be a Jesus-like figure, when it´s not, nor should it be.

 

[Kevin Roegele]

ONe of my roomates at the time the comic came out said that DC had ever intention of killing him because sales were not doing well. But when the final comics sold so much, they decided to bring him back. Now if it was planned or not, I am not sure, but I remember DC saying they were not going to bring him back as well. Once he was dead, he was dead. So the ressurection would be because of sales only if that was true, and not because of doing any christ parallels.

That's not true at all.

What happened was this; instead of getting killed, Superman was supposed to mary Lois as the big event at that point in time. However, the TV show Lois & Clark was getting started, and there was a general agreement that the marriage should occur in both mediums at the same time. Sales were good enough at that point - there were FOUR different Superman comics a month (Adventures of, Man of Steel, Action Comics and Superman).

It was originally planned that Supes would return from the grave much quicker, but the creative teams came up with so many ideas that it took quite a while before his return. But there was never any intention for him to stay dead. Not even minor superheroes stay dead, so Superman of all people is not going to.

Source: Superman - The Complete History by Les Daniels

 

[Kevin Roegele]

Why do some posters have so much problem with the Christ parallels?

How can you deny what's right infront of you? Even if Bryan Singer says it.

I suppose you won't see any Christ imagery in this...

 

[HUMAN]

No.
There weren´t hobbits back then
I see much more Jesus parallels in Superman.

The problem is not the parallels, the problem is people for Superman to be a Jesus-like figure, when it´s not, nor should it be.

Are you kiding me? Gandolf and Aragorn makes one HUGE Jesus allegory. Just look at Aragorns face and tell me that he doesn't look like a Jesus-type figure. Also, not to even mention the title "Return of The King."

The only thing more obvious would be the parallels between Jesus and Aslan in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.

 

[Steelsheen]

first off, Tolkien didnt like allegories being drawn between his fictional characters and real life religous figures. he feels uncomfortable by it and found it ludicrous. he even wrote a letter about that. its long. dont make me type it up , just trust me i say Tolkien doesnt like the allegories.


and like Tolkien, i dont like allegories drawn between Superman, Aragorn, Frodo, Anakin or any other fictitious character to religous figures either. it just doesnt feel right. there is a reason why religous figures are held with that level of respect. to me fictious characters are at the mercy of whichever writer/ artist that are assigned to them, they can be interpreted whichever way that suits the story, ultimately in the end they are tools, a means to getting to a set objective, usually financial. religous figures on the other hand, who were real people once upon a time, should not, preferrably never, be treated that callously.



well look at that, post 5k! w00t!

 

[Alonsovich]

Why do some posters have so much problem with the Christ parallels?

How can you deny what's right infront of you? Even if Bryan Singer says it.

I suppose you won't see any Christ imagery in this...

Off topic... but Viggo would play a kick ass Jesus...

 

[Kevin Roegele]

first off, Tolkien didnt like allegories being drawn between his fictional characters and real life religous figures. he feels uncomfortable by it and found it ludicrous. he even wrote a letter about that. its long. dont make me type it up , just trust me i say Tolkien doesnt like the allegories.


and like Tolkien, i dont like allegories drawn between Superman, Aragorn, Frodo, Anakin or any other fictitious character to religous figures either. it just doesnt feel right. there is a reason why religous figures are held with that level of respect. to me fictious characters are at the mercy of whichever writer/ artist that are assigned to them, they can be interpreted whichever way that suits the story, ultimately in the end they are tools, a means to getting to a set objective, usually financial. religous figures on the other hand, who were real people once upon a time, should not, preferrably never, be treated that callously.

I don't consider it callous. The fact is, all fiction is inspired by things, be it people, events, and other fiction. Superman, the primary fictional hero figure in the western world, would naturally be influenced by Christ, the primary hero figure in the western world.

 

[vibeke_T]

I think he might have gone overboard. To me anyway, Superman's more of a survivor of a long gone civilization than a christ-like savior of mankind. He'd have never been sent if his planet wasn't self destructing.

So...this is more like Singer's Ode to Scientology?

 

[vibeke_T]

I know this is a thread dedicated to Supes...but on the Tolkien thing...Tolkien was very much inspired by Christianity and dubbed his creation (or subcreation) a testament to what he called the Evangelium (the making known to mankind of the Gospel of Jesus Christ) anyway...law-tee-daw

 

[HUMAN]

first off, Tolkien didnt like allegories being drawn between his fictional characters and real life religous figures. he feels uncomfortable by it and found it ludicrous. he even wrote a letter about that. its long. dont make me type it up , just trust me i say Tolkien doesnt like the allegories.


and like Tolkien, i dont like allegories drawn between Superman, Aragorn, Frodo, Anakin or any other fictitious character to religous figures either. it just doesnt feel right. there is a reason why religous figures are held with that level of respect. to me fictious characters are at the mercy of whichever writer/ artist that are assigned to them, they can be interpreted whichever way that suits the story, ultimately in the end they are tools, a means to getting to a set objective, usually financial. religous figures on the other hand, who were real people once upon a time, should not, preferrably never, be treated that callously.

Did you know that the Hero's Journey is based off of Jesus' life? There's no way around it. There's a reason why they call it The Greatest Story Ever Told. Jesus is everywhere, whether you want to deny him or not. But that doesn't mean you have to purposefully seek Him to degrade Him in a SHH forums.

Tolkien didn't like his stories being allegorical of todays world, or in his case, in yesterdays world. People wanted to make the Ring, Saruman, and Saron look like Hitler and his regime and that wasn't Tolkein's purpose. But he did make certain characters and places in his stories directly parallel to what his interests were. Gandolf and Aragorn were two Jesus figures. Numenor is Middle-earth's Atlantis. We can go on and on.

 

[Kevin Roegele]

Did you know that the Hero's Journey is based off of Jesus' life?

Based ON, based ON Jesus' life.

 

[HUMAN]

I worked all night and I'm tired. Sorry for my grammatical error on a board that's infamous for grammatical errors.

 

[Kevin Roegele]

I worked all night and I'm tired. Sorry for my grammatical error on a board that's infamous for grammatical errors.

Sorry dude, that one just annoys me.

 

[Isildur´s Heir]

Are you kiding me? Gandolf and Aragorn makes one HUGE Jesus allegory. Just look at Aragorns face and tell me that he doesn't look like a Jesus-type figure. Also, not to even mention the title "Return of The King."

The only thing more obvious would be the parallels between Jesus and Aslan in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.

So, basically, every single character and story is a Jesus allegory
Every hero is Jesus and villain is the Devil, and if you return from the death you are done for it.

Aslan and Neo i can buy, all the rest is just reading too much on it.
It makes me remember the reviews i´ve read back in the days, where The Lion King was a fascist movie and Batman Forever was the first gay bigbudget movie.

Yeah, Superman is based on the story of Jesus, everyone can see that, but not on Jesus himself.
So, stop making parallels between both figures, it becames stupid after a while (and that is not to you, HUMAN, but to Singer and all the rest), more even when you make a movie where the parallels are so in-your-face.

 

[explode7]

Who's Isildur???