Thoughts on the New Superman Movie

Superman has just about always been my favorite superhero. Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to be the big, blue boy scout. Not just in terms of his powers, but to truly be like him. Of course I wanted the super strength and ability to fly, but I also wanted to live up to the example he set.

During my high school years I turned away from superheroes in general, but then The Dark Knight got me back into them again. I jumped on the Batman hype train like everyone else, but within a few years I was back to Superman being my favorite. Every time a big Superman project got announced, I was paying attention. Whether a show or movie, I was there- sometimes for better, sometimes for worse.

This time around was no different. The moment James Gunn's Supes project was announced, I was interested. As more and more came out about it, I was genuinely excited. Then, finally, the day came. My wife and I watched it last Friday. We wore Superman shirts to the theater; her with the new logo, me with the more classic one. 

Ultimately, I really liked the movie. The fun and sincerity James Gunn and everyone else infused into it brought me a lot of joy. For those who like straightforward movie ratings, I'd give it an 8/10 and call it one of the better Blockbuster movies in recent years. If you're a fan of Superman (or even just the genre in general), check it out. You'll likely have a good time.

When it comes to a Superman project, though, I can't just give a simple score and leave it at that. Especially for one like this- one where so many things work, but not quite everything. Like I said above, I really liked this movie- but I didn't love it. I've been thinking about it quite a bit since seeing, trying to sort through exactly what did and didn't work for me. This post is what I've come up with.

Note that I will not have any spoilers here, other than talking about stuff that either happens within the first couple minutes of the movie or stuff that was revealed in the trailers. With that said, if you haven't seen the movie and want to go into it relatively fresh, it may be good to hold off on reading this post anyway. I personally prefer to go into movies relatively uninformed so that I can be surprised (hopefully pleasantly) by what I see. So don't worry about spoilers, but maybe considering holding off anyway.

Either way, enjoy! 

 

WHAT DID WORK FOR ME

1. What We Get of Lois and Clark

A lot of Superman fans say that, despite the relative overall quality of any given Superman movie, Superman and Lois themselves are usually cast pretty well. I agree with that statement for the most part. Still, sometimes even a well-cast Lois and Clark duo have no chemistry (looking at you Henry Cavill and Amy Adams). Luckily, this pairing of Lois and Clark work really well, both individually and as a couple.

Very early in the movie we get a great scene of a date night turning into Lois interviewing Superman after she pointed out she's rarely gotten the chance to do so. The interview starts off well, but Lois completely transitions into journalist mode and grills him to the point it starts a fight between them. It's a perfect scene to show their dynamic, including how different they are and how Lois's dedication to being a tough, quality journalist can get in the way of her personal relationships.

Later on in the movie they reconcile and talk about what they love about each other. I'll leave it at that because it's further into the movie and therefore much more of a spoiler to talk about even in general terms, but what I like about it is that it captures why these two always fall in love with one another in every iteration of Superman. This and the previous scene are two of my favorite scenes in the movie. I wish they could've been built toward a little better, and that we could have had maybe another scene or two to trace out the arc of their relationship in this movie overall (consider this foreshadowing for later in this post), but the scenes in and of themselves are fantastic. 

2. Green Lantern and Mr Terrific

If you've seen any of the promotional material for this movie at all, you know that Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, and a guy named Mr Terrific are part of this movie as the "Justice Gang." Unfortunately Hawkgirl simply does not get much screen time or interesting things to do (other than one amazing moment at the end I won't spoil). Green Lantern and Mr Terrific, however, get plenty of shine in this movie.

Starting with Green Lantern, he's played in this movie by Nathan Fillion, probably best known for his role in the show Firefly. This Green Lantern he plays is named Guy Gardner, the most conceited and arrogant of the humans who have wielded the Green Lantern ring. In this movie, his high opinion of himself is played for effective laughs. He steals a lot of the scenes he's in with his big personality. Of all the times I laughed in the movie, Fillion's Green Lantern was usually involved.

Mr Terrific is a very different character. He's also a much more obscure one. He's basically a super genius inventor, but his costume is a cross between a tech genius and a cool 1970s black guy who would probably say stuff like "dig this, cool cat." The outfit reflects the character more broadly; he has all the smarts of the former, but all the style of the latter. It makes for a really compelling, original character. The fact he gets much more screen time than his teammates (and even many of the main cast) gives him even more room to shine. Ed Gathegi takes advantage of the opportunity in the role and creates one of the most memorable superheroes in years.

3. The Sincerity and Kindness

The sincerity and kindness of this version of Superman was a focus for James Gunn in the beginning. Gunn said in one interview: "for me, the center of it was about kindness in a world that isn't kind." In another interview he points out Superman is "an immigrant that came from other places and populated the country, but for me it is mostly a story that says basic human kindness is a value and is something we have lost."

Those quotes really set the tone for what's at the heart of this movie. Superman doesn't just defeat bad guys. He interactions with the people of Metropolis, remembers their names, cares about them, and tries to save everyone and everything he can- even a squirrel! In fact, this Superman is earnest to a bit of an embarrassing degree. He's teased more than once in the movie about what a boy scout he is. This is not a movie that views Superman the figure with the same sort of reverence the Richard Donner movies had for Superman.

But there's something lovely about that. Reeve's Superman is almost a guardian angel for humanity. This Superman is an overly earnest, vulnerable, borderline dorky human being who happens to have powers. It's so corny it goes back around to being cool again (which is part of why this movie has inspired so many people to say "kindness is the new punk rock"). I think that's great. Heaven knows we could use more kindness in this world. Especially in some of the areas on Earth suffering most right now. Speaking of which...

4. The Message Against Warmongering

The beginning fight happens in this movie because a fictional country called Boravia wants to invade another fiction country called Jarhanpur. Superman, who doesn't want people to die, rightfully stops Boravia from invading Jarhanpur. That ends up being a controversial move for him to make, however, especially considering Boravia is "an important US ally." Superman, though, defends his actions and continues to oppose Boravia's continued attempts to invade Jarhanpur.

Audiences have understood this message to be a criticism of Israel for their invasion of Gaza and a criticism of Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. James Gunn has disavowed the Israel/Palestine comparison, if not the Russia/Ukraine one, but that doesn't seem to matter too much. Maybe it shouldn't. Sometimes art reflects reality so precisely that it doesn't matter what its creators intended. Sometimes art can point things out that are so relevant to our moment in history that it can channel and comment on that moment even if an overt, direct connection wasn't intentional. 

The similarities to Israel/Palestine and Russia/Ukraine start out only in a general sense, but throughout the movie there are some oddly specific parallels that make it hard to believe there weren't at least a couple people involved with the movie who wanted to make a direct comparison. Again, though, we cannot know true intent. All I can say is that this movie unapologetically opposes wars of aggression. Even if watching this movie is not some sort of act of anti-war resistance, it is nice to see a major blockbuster directly, earnestly make that point. 

 

WHAT DIDN'T WORK FOR ME

1. Lack of Time Building Key Relationships

Earlier I said that I really liked the Lois/Clark relationship in this movie, but wish the key moments had been built toward better. That's where this entry comes in. As much as I liked that relationship, it just didn't feel like it was given the attention it deserved. Neither did a number of other important relationships in this movie.

Take Jonathan and Martha Kent, Clark's adopted parents. They are barely in this movie for two scenes. I won't talk about those scenes in detail. I will say this, though: like the Lois/Clark scenes, they're lovely. But they're just not built toward at all. For as perfectly executed as those scenes are, I just didn't feel much emotion in them. Because there is no groundwork laid by getting to know these characters, how they relate to one another, and what they have done for each other. In writing, you can't just have big, meaningful, cathartic scenes without setting them up. The first scene we get with the Kents is supposed to be a powerful one, but it's also basically the first time we meet them as characters.

A big problem is that this movie starts with Superman already facing down the main villains of the movie. You're basically thrown into the middle of the action. The advantage of this approach is that you start off on an exciting foot and can get to the action more quickly. What you lose, though, is setting up the world, its characters, and- once again- the relationships between them. It's not the most glamorous parts of most movies, but it is the setup that allows for bigger payoffs later. We just do not get enough of that in this movie. Hell, the Daily Planet staff (other than Jimmy Olsen) are basically just background characters.

I think the reason the movie doesn't take time to develop its world, characters, and relationships better is because, well... 

2. It Was Pretty Crowded!

This movie has a lot going on. As we already covered, it starts already after the conflict that defines this movie has popped off. By skipping all the setup, we start off with a bang. The movie still needs to set up it world and introduce its characters, though, even if they don't start at the "beginning" per se. And wow is there a lot in here! We have Superman, Lois, Krypto, three members of the Justice Gang, a couple additional heroes who get introduced throughout the film, the Daily Planet staff, the Kents, and a whole stable of villains. And those are just the central characters! It's a lot to balance. Frankly, it's too much.

Some people have said that this movie almost feels like watching the second or third entry in a Superman film series, rather than the first. I think there's a lot to that take. Because what they're getting at really combines this entry and the previous one: things aren't fully set up, yet a ton of things are introduced. I think if this were the sequel to a previous Superman movie that had fully brought in Superman, Lois, Krypto, the Daily Planet staff, the Kents, and maybe Lex Luthor, and defined their relationships and done the less flashy but necessary legwork to build our connection to them as an audience, then this movie could be one of the greatest superhero sequels of all time.

But it isn't. Instead, the first movie we get with this version of Superman is so crowded that no one character has full room to breath. Each character gets some great movies, and sometimes great scenes with other characters, but very few threads are woven throughout the whole thing because no character other than Superman can get the necessary attention to be fully fleshed out. This issue also pairs with...

3. The Lack of Emotional Gravity

 

A problem with a lot of Blockbusters over the past decade is that they don't have the dramatic weight they should have in order to make their more emotional moments hit harder. This movie doesn't fully have that problem (I've already made allusions to big, sincere moments that work really well), but it does have it to an extent. It's not helped by the previous two issues, either. The fact that the movie is so crowded it has trouble fully developing character relationships (and therefore, deeper emotional stakes for when those relationships are tested or those characters are put into danger) means sometimes things aren't felt as strongly as they should be.

A related problem to all of this is that when something serious and potentially impactful does happen, that thread is not woven into the fuller story beyond the next couple scenes. In writing, creating conflict is something that's supposed to build upon itself and have ripples throughout the story. Bad or important things that happen should accumulate throughout the story, and consequences should continue to mount. I don't just mean in terms of the action, like the consequences of a villainous action or mad science experiment gone wrong. But every character's inner conflict, every strain in a relationship between people, and especially every death should reverberate throughout the story. Again, this movie isn't totally absent any of that stuff, but it's much less fleshed out than it could. Often it's pushed to the wayside so that we can get more fun comic book moments, silly jokes, and big action set pieces.

The fun, airy, action-focused approach of this movie makes for an enjoyable time. Without better developed emotional stakes, though, it's almost designed to be surprisingly forgettable beyond the few standout moments. Again, I liked the movie. I think creating a story that is fun with a few genuinely memorable moments of sincerity and real emotional impact is a good thing! I loved a lot of what Superman did on screen! I just can't help but feel we could've gotten something more.

4. Lex Luthor is Too Interesting to be a Billionaire

This entry is, of course, not actually a problem I had with the movie at all. I just can't help but compare how compelling Lex Luthor is as a billionaire mega-villain compared to the more banal villainy and lamer personalities of our real life billionaire baddies. He's not nearly as dull as the off-putting Peter Thiel, the deeply unfunny Elon Musk, or the black hole of humanity Jeff Bezos. Where Lex Luthor is driven by an interesting blend of different motivations, resulting in some of the best villain monologues in years, these guys are driven by pretty mundane combinations of greed and egomania.

I'd rather we not be oppressed in real life by villainous billionaires. But as long as we are, couldn't they at least be a little more interesting? One can only wish.

Top Everything of 2022

If you've read my "top everything" posts in previous years, you know how this goes.  If not: every year, every website and person with a platform creates their "best of" years for whatever they like to cover.  For me, though, I have a wide range of interests.  For that reason, every year I do a top everything list that covers a lot of things, rather than just one specific area.

Happy reading!

MOVIE: Aftersun

I have two favorite movies this year, and really can't decide which I like more.  Luckily, the other one is a comedy (or, as Wikipedia puts it, an "absurdist drama-comedy").  So I get to cheat by choosing it as my favorite comedy, and going with Aftersun as my favorite movie of the year.

Aftersun is a short, simple, intimate movie about a thirty one year old father, Calum, and his eleven year old daughter, Sophie, on vacation at a Turkish resort.  Calum, played by Paul Mescal (who was also great in the mini-series Normal People, based on an excellent novel of the same name by Sally Rooney) is a bit of a mess.  It's implied that he and Sophie don't get to spend much time together because of his own problems.  That gives this nice little vacation more dramatic stakes than it would initially appear: they haven't spent much time together, and they may not get to spend much time together after.

In fact, they may not have spent any time together at all after this vacation.  The movie has glimpses of Sophie as an adult, who seems to miss her father.  It's implied he died shortly after this trip, giving us even more reason to try to cherish their time together.  Toward the end of the movie, you realize this peaceful vacation is slipping through both their fingers like sand in an hourglass.  It makes every small, relatable, sweet moment between them feel so precious and fleeting.

So much of this movie connected to me.  As a thirty two year old expecting father, I can see myself in Calum.  Not just because we're the same age, but also because his dynamic with his daughter reminds me of the dynamic I have with some of the girls I've taken care of at my after-school job at an elementary school.  Some of those girls became almost like little sisters to me- not quite the same as daughters, but enough that I saw himself in how he interacted with Sophie.  I can also see parts of my dad in him, though, and myself in Sophie.  My dad, who died almost exactly a year ago, was an affable and fun dad who still nonetheless never quite figured out how to be an adult.  I recognized a lot of that in Calum, too.  Maybe those parts of my dad and Calum are in me, too, which scares me a little.

But this movie makes me look forward to being a parent. It also makes me want to make sure I'm the best version of myself I can be so that I can enjoy a lifetime of good memories with her.

COMEDY: Everything Everywhere All at Once

My other favorite movie of the year.  And, other than also being about a parent-daughter relationship, completely different from Aftersun in pretty much every conceivable way.

This movie stars Michelle Yeoh as Evelyn, a Chinese immigrant who owns a laundromat with her gentle, hapless husband Waymond and her depressed, teenaged daughter Joy.  The movie starts off as a grounded drama about Evelyn's struggles to keep her laundromat afloat and connect with her daughter, who she hasn't always been the best parent to.  This really allows us to get to know these characters beyond the surface.  We get a genuine idea of who they are as people and what genuine human struggles they deal with on a daily basis.

Then the movie starts to go off the rails.

I'll avoid spoilers because this is a movie you have to experience for yourself.  I'll just say that it gets into the multiverse trend that's been popular the last few years and leave it at that.  Things eventually get pretty damn chaotic, crowded, and at times almost even convoluted.  But what I love about this movie is that, for all the mess, you're always grounded by the relationships between the three main characters and the earnestness of the movie as a whole.  Even when you're not sure what's exactly happening in a given scene, you know exactly how everyone feels and what the movie is trying to convey on a deeper level.

Aftersun is subtle, brief, straightforward, and features pretty much no missteps in terms of writing.  Everything Everywhere All at Once is long, messy, and, in my opinion, has a couple minor missteps.  But it's also ambitious, complex, hilarious, thought-provoking, and achingly sincerely.  It's a case of one movie perfectly accomplishing its more grounded goals versus another movie shooting for the stars, having a couple hiccups, but eventually getting there.  Both movies are beautiful in their own way.  They may even now be among my favorite movies, depending on how I feel about them once I've had a year or two to see how much they truly stay with me.

ANIMATED MOVIE: Turning Red

It seems like 2022 was quite a year for movies about relationships between parents and daughters.  But, hey, as long as the movies are good, right?

Turning Red follows Mei Lee, a thirteen year old living in early '00s Toronto.  She has an overbearing mom who means well, but pushes her too hard to be the perfect daughter.  Eventually Mei inherits the ability to turn into a red panda, a magical legacy of her family line that goes back to ancient times.  Unable to control it, it gives her a lot of trouble and opens up a lot of conflict between her and her mother that eventually leaks into every other part of her life.

This is probably my favorite Pixar movie since Coco.  There have been a lot of movies in recent years about complicated relationships between Asian immigrant parents and their kids, but what I like about the well-written stories among these are that they offer sympathy and humanity to everyone involved.

I think back to movies and shows I saw growing up where parents were overbearing with their kids, and the movies often ended with trite, un-nuanced lessons about parents needing to let their kids do whatever they want.  I do generally agree with that idea to an extent, but I think there's extra nuance and understanding needed.  Perhaps because of the great emphasis on family and community in many Asian cultures, I think these parent-child conflict stories often end with an equilibrium of understanding and mutual respect that I find missing elsewhere.  It's another example of why it's so valuable to check out stories from all sorts of cultures and backgrounds, and why Turning Red works so well.

ACTOR: Ke Huy Quan

Normally I'd use this category as a sort of consolation prize for an actor in a movie that was among my favorite of the year, but didn't quite reach the very top.  In fact, I almost gave this spot to Albrecht Schuch for his role as Stanislaus "Kat" Katczinsky, the battle-weathered soldier in All Quiet on the Western Front who acts as a sort of surrogate big brother for the younger soldiers in his unit.  All Quiet on the Western Front is my fourth favorite movie of the year as of writing this, and Kat is one of my favorite movie characters of the last couple years.

But I just couldn't do it.  Ke Huy Quan is only the third most important character in Everything Everywhere All at Once, but he is also the heart of the movie.  Because of the whole multiverse set up he basically has three roles in this movie: a hapless goofball, a badass inter-dimensional agent, and a suave businessman.  He manages to pull off all three, and in his least cool role of these three, he manages to infuse the story with such kindness and sincerity that he steals the show.  Michelle Yeoh and Stephanie Hsu do more to ground the movie and give us the parent-daughter dynamic at the center of the story, but Quan evokes feelings in a way that very few other actors can.

ACTRESS: Lashana Lynch

I had originally given this spot to Amber Midthunder, who plays the Indigenous woman in the new Prey movie.  It's cool to see an Indigenous actress get to play the lead in such an iconic franchise.  It's even cooler to see her do a great job, essentially carrying the movie on her back.

Then I saw The Woman King, which Wikipedia calls an "epic historical action drama" on the movie's page.  It lives up to every part of that title.  The movie is set in the African kingdom of Dahomey in the early 1800s, during the tail end of the slave trade.  It stars Thuso Mbedu as a new recruit for the Agojie, a group of elite warrior women who serve their kingdom and fight the slave trade.  Viola Davis plays the leader of the Agojie; she also could've easily been chosen for this spot.

Lashana Lynch plays Izogie, an experienced member of the Agojie who becomes something of a big sister to the main character.  She's a skilled warrior who is full of range and personality.  While Mbedu and Davis have a great dynamic (a talented but stubborn, hard-headed new recruit bumping up against the stoic, cool as steel warrior-leader), Izogie is a complicated, engaging mixture of clever, funny, and tough.  She steals just about every scene she's in.  While there was a lot of worth competition for this spot, her performance stood out to me more than any other this year.

TV SHOW: Andor

This honestly may be a case of recency bias.  I was blown away by two TV shows this year: Andor and season three of The Boys.  Both are fantastic.  Frankly, I'm probably only choosing this one because I've watched it more recently.

I couldn't have been less interested in this show when it came out.  I like Star Wars, but I don't love it, and I certainly don't love how many Star Wars stories we've been flooded with over the past few years.  I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing, it's just not for me.  My wife and I watched the first season of The Mandalorian and enjoyed it, but didn't feel the need to watch any other Star Wars shows.  So when I heard Cassian Andor, one of the main characters of Rogue One, was getting his own TV show prequel, I had no plans to watch it.  I wasn't even the least bit curious.

But it kept getting such good word of mouth.  It even got good word of mouth from people I know who normally deride Star Wars, including the movies that are generally liked.  Eventually I knew I had to check it out.  I'm so glad I did.  Andor is Star Wars at its best: when it's about meaningful ideas and inventive worlds and memorable characters, rather than just trying to regurgitate what you've already seen before.

We start out by following Cassian Andor when he's still a bandit, without even a hint of the revolutionary he would become.  He's focused more on survival.  Gradually, though, he gets mixed up in some shit that leads to him taking a heist job put on by the Rebellion, which at this point is still young.  Slowly, through a season filled with memorable characters and dialogue and world designs, we see Andor begin to make the switch from thief to rebel in one of the best-written pieces of entertainment I've seen in years.

MMA FIGHTER I'D LIKE TO SEE BOUNCE BACK: Charles Oliveira

Charles Oliveira is probably my current favorite MMA fighter.  Unfortunately, he had a tough year.  Back in May he missed weight by half a pound, which stripped him of the UFC title after he defeated Justin Gaethje in what was supposed to be a title defense.  After that he lost decisively by second round submission to Islam Makhachev, who many consider to be the next Khabib Nurmagomedov.

I love Oliveira's style because he's a fighter who is both exciting and technical.  He doesn't have the same power some other fighters in his division do, so he makes up for it by being active and technically proficient.  His muay thai-based striking is clean, and he has some of the best jiu-jitsu in the entire UFC.  He's a joy to watch and seems like a good guy, so I really hope he has a better 2023.

MALE MMA FIGHTER: Alexander Volkanovski

What more can be said about the best pound for pound fighter today?  Volkanovski proved in April in his one-sided beatdown of fan favorite (and David favorite) Korean Zombie that putting almost anyone other than Max Holloway in against him is borderline unfair.  Then, in July, he fought Holloway for a third time, defeating him in a decision that was much more conclusive than their previous fight, which Holloway had arguably won.

The problem Volkanovski faces now is that he's so good that the rest of the featherweight division looks weak by comparison.  Only Holloway can give him a challenge, but Volkanovski has already defeated him three times.  He will be going up to lightweight to fight Islam Makhachev because there is quite simply nothing left for him at featherweight for the time being.

Volkanovski really is an impressive fighter.  He's the rare fighter who has mixed athletic strength and laser-sharp fight technique.  His striking and wrestling are excellent, and he does a great job mixing them up, too.  It's hard to imagine anyone beating him at featherweight soon, so if he beats Islam he may just have to stay at lightweight going forward. 
 

FEMALE MMA FIGHTER: Zhang Weili

Glad to see my pick for the "MMA fighter I hope bounces back" category last year did, indeed, bounce back.  After losing a split decision to Rose Namajunas in a rematch last year that many thought she won, Weili had a much better 2022.

She began in June with a rematch against Joanna Jedrzejcczyk, which was almost as fun as their first (can we just have these two women fight once a year or something?).  She then went on to fight women's straw weight champion Carla Esparza, beating her by submission to regain the title.  She is now one of the few UFC champions who has ever successfully regained the championship she lost, an accomplishment that few in the sport ever achieve.  To do so in a division as competitive as women's straw weight makes it even more impressive.

MMA FIGHT OF THE YEAR: Calvin Kattar vs Giga Chikadze

To be upfront, I haven't watched as much MMA as I usually have in years past.  I just haven't had the time.  Still, I did see two fights that stayed with me this year: Calvin Kattar vs Giga Chikadze and Gilbert Burns vs Khamzat Chimaev.  Ultimately, while Burns vs Chimaev was more intense and brutal, I had to go with the more technically nuanced Kattar vs Chikadze.

Chikadze is an exciting newer prospect in the featherweight division.  A former kickboxer, he came into the fight on an impressive seven fight win streak.  Kattar, on the other hand, has been fighting in the UFC for about two and a half years longer than Chikadze, and faced much tougher opposition.  Kattar is well-known for his boxing, though he also has a strong wrestling background, too.

The fight began with Chikadze showing an early striking advantage over Kattar.  He has greater strike variety and speed.  Kattar, however, took advantage of a slip from Chikadze to take the fight to the ground, where it remained for the rest of the first round.  In the second, Chikadze used his superior speed, strike variety, and kickboxing experience to out-land Kattar.

Kattar kept coming forward, however.  And his combination of forward pressure, strike volume, and crafty adjustments to respond to some of Chikadze's attack patterns allowed him to begin pulling ahead in the third.  He also started implementing more elbows, which was a beauty to watch.  Through the third, fourth, and fifth rounds, Kattar's consistency and MMA experience allowed him to outstrike Chikadze and win the decision.

SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY: James Webb Telescope Discoveries

This is a bit different than my normal scientific discovery pick.  Usually I pick a new piece of information that scientists have discovered.  This year, though, I'm picking everything we have collectively learned from the James Webb space telescope, which was my choice for scientific achievement from last year.

The image above shows just how incredible its images are.  The picture on the left is a 2014 photo from the Hubble Telescope of the Pillars of Creation, an amazing part of the Eagle Nebula full of gas and dust.  The picture on the right is of the same thing, but taken by the James Webb telescope in October of this year.  While the Hubble Telescope's cloudiness adds a certain beauty to it, there's no denying how dramatically improved the clarity of the Webb telescope's version is.  This is allowing scientists to get an even clearer picture of their composition.

The telescope is giving is better insight into many other things too, ranging from galaxies to specific nearby exoplanets to even our own solar system, giving us better images of Jupiter than we've had before.  As more and more of these images come in, and more and more astronomers and astrophysicists are able to study them, we'll keep learning amazing things about the universe.

SCIENTIFIC ACHIEVEMENT: Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough

There were a lot of great contenders for this spot.  In January of this year a man was successfully given a modified pig heart in a heart transplant.  Unfortunately, he died a couple months later, but the fact it worked at all shows real promise for saving lives in the future.  In September, scientists at NASA sent a spacecraft to bump into an asteroid in space in order to redirect its flight path.  The asteroid wasn't headed anywhere dangerous, but the experiment succeeded, showing that it would be possible to do the same thing to an asteroid that was genuinely dangerous to us.

My choice for achievement of the year, though, goes to a recent breakthrough in nuclear energy.  Scientists at the US National Ignition Facility created a nuclear energy reactor that generates more energy than it consumes.  It's incredible news.  It's a key part of the quest to create a sustainable, environmentally friendly energy source for humanity.

This achievement doesn't necessarily take us there.  This is just the first step in a looooong process that will involve being able to replicate this experiment, then being able to replicate it on a wider scale, then being able to safely harness it on that wide scale in order to give people energy.  It also remains to be seen how this might work under global capitalism, where everything is about profit.  If it's not profitable to give people renewable energy and prevent climate catastrophe it won't happen, as we are discovering now, where most governments around the world are doing a woeful job of rising to the challenge against climate change.

Still, it's a big step.  And a legitimate cause for cautious hope.

BULLSHIT NEWS STORY: Crime Epidemic

This one is a little different than my usual bullshit news story choice.  It's not necessarily clear whether crime increased in 2022.  What has increased, though, is US media's coverage of crime.  It doesn't help that mainstream media often uncritically reports on information given by corporations and police departments.

For example, a lot of corporations have been citing rising crime rates as a reason for closing down stores, despite the fact there isn't much compelling evidence that's the main reason.  In fact, these excuses are often used to shut down stores where employees are organizing for their rights.  There is also the blatantly false narrative that bail reform measures like in New York are responsible for crime rates, which isn't born out by the data. In fact, it's often Republican-controlled cities that are experiencing bigger rises in crime.

This isn't to say there is no rising crime rate at all.  Crime has gone up since 2020, bringing us closer to the level we saw in the 1990s.  We still aren't even near that level yet, however.  Though even if we were, police budgets have been ballooning the past few decades, even in the aftermath of the 2020 Black Lives Matter uprisings.  While the people in the US continue to see stagnant wages and rising costs of living, we're also on a trajectory to keep seeing increasing police budgets that do nothing to solve crime.  Without intervention in areas like wages, healthcare, childcare, housing, and other places where people are hurting, we will keep seeing crime rise.  Which will lead to higher police budgets, likely at the expense of other public spending, which will only increase poverty, which will only increase crime.

In other words, we are heading toward a vicious cycle of increasing poverty, crime, and policing that will solve nothing unless we can find a way to help people instead of just police them.

ACTUAL NEWS STORY: Russian Invasion of Ukraine

I mean, could it be anything else?  As much as I want to celebrate the triumph of democracy in Brazil's presidential election of Jair Bolsonaro vs Lula da Silva, there's simply no denying how Russia's invasion of Ukraine back in February of this year has dominated the news cycle.  It's also revealed a number of things.

One is that the post-Cold War period of the US as the sole global hegemon is beginning to crack.  Ever since the fall of the Soviet Union, the US has been the undisputed sole superpower of the world.  It could conduct as many illegal invasions and interventions as it wanted, but no other country dared do the same thing if it would seriously anger the US and its allies.  Now, however, Russia has balked at the status quo.  This is something unimaginable even a decade ago.

While this by no means is to say the US's power will collapse overnight, it does seem evidence of a decline that is unlikely to reverse- especially as US government power continues to be weakened by the ultra-rich as they continue to hollow out the capacity of its system to do anything other than manage the market and over-spend on the military.  Our declining investment in public services, those like education that benefit everyone, means we will continue to eat our own tail and sink while everything becomes a private market where people are on their own.

Another thing this invasion revealed was just how much double standards there are for European refugees versus refugees from everywhere else.  Ukranian refugees, of course, absolutely deserve the kindness being extended their way by people around the world.  But here's the thing: all refugees do!  Seeing the outpouring of support for Ukranian refugees that Central American, Middle Eastern, and African refugees never get has, frankly, been disheartening to see.

Finally, it just seems like the US and its allies have zero historical memory?  The US has been terrorizing the Middle East for almost as long as I have been alive.  Yet for some reason Putin invading Ukraine has been portrayed as this unique, ultimate evil.  Don't get me wrong, Putin is a terrible person and leader, and I hope the people of Russia are able to give him the boot and replace him with someone who doesn't suck.  The crimes of the US do not make the crimes of Russia okay.  But, like, holy shit, the self-righteousness from the West about Putin's invasion is just such an odd thing to read when it has engaged in much of the same repeatedly for the last couple decades.

Anyway, with all that being said, I hope the Russian invasion loses, and that the people of Ukraine are able to live their lives peacefully without worry of illegal invasions. 

MEME: Will Smith Slapping Chris Rock

In the same way I couldn't pick anything else for news story of the year, is there anything else I could've picked for meme of the year?  This was a fun one.

VIDEO:  Don't Worry About Reading More Books. Focus on Reading Better.

A really big aspect of today's popular culture is applying productivity to every single aspect of our lives.  We want everything we do to be as productive as possible in some way or another, because life is short, money is harder to come by than it was for our parents, and, hey, self-improvement is a noble goal, right?  This sort of mindset has become common in the world of reading, where tons of people on Goodreads and various reading groups on different social media sites engage in reading challenges in order to read as much as they possibly can every year.

The person in this video talks about why we shouldn't do that.  Why we should focus on reading more deeply and reading more challenging books, that way we can enrich and enjoy ourselves instead of just trying to challenge ourselves to number games that, by their very design, pretty much guarantee we won't be able to meaningfully engage in the books we read.  And of course, like most videos I choose that seem only to cover a specific topic at first glance, the lessons in this video go well beyond the realm of reading.  We could all stand to have our passions and hobbies... well, remain our passions and hobies, instead of turning all of them into chores of maximizing productivity.

I had something embarassing happen a couple times this year in regard to books.  Two of the books I plan to read next year are "Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, which is 521 pages in the edition I own, and "Nixonland" by Rick Perlstein, which is 748 pages not including footnotes (it is a detailed political biography).  At different points in this year I wanted to read them, but felt anxious about reading books that long since they would throw off my read count for the year.  Especially because I'd already read a couple long books, which had really slowed down my pace.  And that act of avoidance simply because those books would've slowed down my reading pace is... awful??

Of course, productivity culture has some benefits.  It's good to try to grow as a person, and sometimes finding some sort of way to monetize your hobbies or find some other external usefulness for them can be helpful.  Especially in a world as tough and complicated as our own.  But it's also awful that every single passion of ours has to be quantified, turned up to eleven to extract as much from it as possible, and in the process transformed into a sort of self-improvement chore.  Sometimes it's good just to do something because you care about it, and it can help you grow in a way that isn't tangibly "productive", but rather helps make your life a richer place. 

PHOTO: Uvalde Victims

On May 24th, a school shooter murdered nineteen children and two teachers.  One guy.  It took officers over an hour to respond to the shooting, as innocent children were gunned down in cold blood.  This is despite the fact that a total of 376 officers arrived at the school before the gunman was confronted.  Then the officers repeatedly lied about what went down during the shooting to cover their asses, such as lying about the hallway door that would take them to the shooter being locked.  They also went on to harass parents who were vocal about their failures, including the mother who made headlines for being detained by police during the shooting for trying to do something.

Over the past few years, there has been increase protests about police brutality and other forms of misconduct.  The response from police has essentially been "sure, we're imperfect, but when shit really goes down, we're the ones who really protect you.  We're the brave honor guard who put our lives on the line for your safety."  Then this happens.  As soon as there is danger, as soon as innocent children are being gunned down, hundreds of officers are too scared to take down a single person, then lie about it.  It's one of the most shameful things I've ever seen in my life.

RIP to the victims, and solidarity to the parents trying to make sure an utter failure of the system like this never happens again. 

BADASS: Club Q Heroes

On the night of November 19th in Colorado, an LGBTQ+ club called Club Q was shot up.  The shooter killed five people and injured twenty five others.  There's a lot to say about how horrific and tragic this was, but this category is not meant to depress, so we won't focus on the victims (though they deserve to be mourned) or the shooter (who is a piece of shit beyond words).  We won't focus on far-right media either, even though they certainly bear responsibility.

No, instead we'll focus on the two heroes of this story.  One of them, Richard Fierro, is a father who brought his family to the club.  As soon as he figured out what was happening, his military training kicked in.  He took down the gunman and beat him up while he ordered another club patron to stomp the shooter out.

The person who helped him has not made themself known.  Fierro referred to this person as a drag queen in interviews where he makes sure to acknowledge them.  A drag performer from the bar, however, said that the hero was actually a trans woman.  No one has confirmed who the person was, so we don't know what their gender identity (or anything else) is.  It's probably better that way, since whether they're a drag king or trans woman, they're probably in more danger than a straight military veteran like Fierro if they ever get some serious publicity.

Anyway, these heroes are the well-deserved recipients of my badass of the year shout out.  It's awful how much the far right is increasingly scapegoating marginalized people.  We need to take care of each other.  These two are the best kind of example.