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Was “Man of Steel” really that bad?

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As many of you know the movie Man of Steel starring Henry Cavill has not been held up a good Superman movie. I have heard it called lackluster, crappy, garbage…etc. I personally think those words and sentiment is unwarranted. Sure, the movie is not perfect and there is some stuff I didn’t like about it.

First, I think they didn’t set up Clark very good. That side of Superman is extremely important, and you lose something when Clark does really show up. He is the humanity of Superman and helps set him apart from other super heroes. Clark, unlike most alter egos, is very simple and humble. He’s not a billion, a test pilot or even a police forensic analyst. He’s just a report out doing a normal 9-5 job. Here is this man who could do anything in the world he wants and he is content to be normal. To me that’s extraordinary and worth the time to set up in a story.

Second, I don’t like the way they killed off Jonathan Kent. Unlike the first movie in 1978 where Clark didn’t know he could have saved his father, this time he stands there knowing he can but on a simple wave off by his dad he doesn’t. That is out of character for Clark or Superman and was a bad idea.

Third, Let’s face it. Lois was terrible. Amy Adams is a fine actress, but she just can’t pull off Lois Lane. Especially after seeing Erica Durance play her for years on Smallville.

Lastly, the absence of the Superman theme. It just doesn’t have the same feel without it.

I am sure there are a few more things I could nitpick about but those were my biggest complaints. Despite those things, there was a lot of good there.

First, Henry is a great Superman! Sure, his Clark needs some work, but I think that is easily fixable. He looks sound and acts like you expect Superman to. When you see him run out on the helipad and grab the failing structure, you see Superman. Top notch in my book.

Second, after the terrible fight scenes in the original Superman movies we finally got a realistic battle with Superman and a supervillain and it didn’t disappoint. These scenes could not have been any bigger or better.

Third, Krypton was really cool. The design of the one from the original never really made sense to me. How would grow food on a planet of nothing but crystals and all the white clothes made no sense. Don’t get me wrong, it was very cool back the day but still not logical.

Fourth, Jor-El was great in this movie. Russell Crowe mailed it. This is the kind of guy that would risk everything to save his son. No matter the cost, his son was going to live. Crowe is great in just about anything and he brought his A-game.

Finally, for the first time we got to see some of the struggle a boy would have to go through if he had these powers. Learning to control them. Learning to hide in plain sight. This would not be an easy thing to do and they should that. Unfortunately, that didn’t translate well in the adult Clark scenes but it was great seeing a young Clark struggle and it not just be because he wants to show off.

The long and short of this is that I think this was a pretty good movie and they could easily fix the mistakes with a sequel to it. It’s a shame they kind of gave up on it so quickly and tried the silly Batman vs Superman, which was a God-awful movie. If you haven’t seen it or maybe saw it when it first came out, give it watch and see if you again or disagree with me.

DAD…The job you can’t turn off.

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Most jobs you do until your time there ends, and afterwards you stop that job and move on to another. For example, I was once a construction worker. I spent years doing just about every type of construction there is from concrete to trim work. At thirty-three, I stopped working in construction and became an IT guy. Someday I will stop do that as well and I will no longer be and IT guy. That doesn’t mean that I won’t use those skills from time to time, especially the construction skills, but it won’t be who I am anymore. At seventeen I became a dad and while for the first two years I wasn’t able to be with my daughter as much as I wanted (Long story…lol), starting at nineteen I was a full-time parent. I took to being a dad the way a fish takes to water. It was like I was born to be their dad and I loved it, even the times when they would drive me insane. Through divorces and times of financial ruin, my kids were my life, and they never left my side for very long. I took them everywhere I went mostly and it was never a burden like it is so some people. By the time I was forty I had five kids and as of two years ago got married to a great woman and added three more children in the mix. All these children netted us, eleven grandchildren. All in all, our family Thanksgiving and Christmas last year was thirty-one people.

I have often thought I would like to relax and only be Papaw. The guy who lets you do things you’re not allowed to do. The guy who never raises his voice or jumps on you for being too loud. The guy so says “Leave those kids alone” to the parents, when they are doing something they shouldn’t be and the parent are getting on them. It sounds like a great job, but…I struggle to give up my first job. In my defense, we still have one living at home and he has a few years before he leaves the nest. The reality is though that being a Dad is who I am. Everywhere I go, I “Dad” people as my kids would say. If I am there, and your kids are misbehaving, I just might get on them about it. I don’t mean any disrespect or rudeness by it, in fact, I am trying to help. When I was growing, that’s people did. If you were out in public acting like a punk, there was always someone around to tell you to knock it off. Back then, though, parents didn’t get all offended and mad over it. My poor mother was always grateful I’m sure, when some guy in the grocery store looked at me, being a brat and wanting everything in sight, and said: “Hey boy, knock it off”. This would scare the crap out of me and I would do as they instructed me.

On the flip side, I am not all discipline. Often, I am the guy playing with the kids and making them rowdy. I have made many people cringe by spinning and flipping kids head over heels. I don’t know what is so exciting about flipping in the air, but most kids sure love it. Kids are fun and I love to see them laugh and enjoy life. Some kids have little fun and excitement in their lives, and if I can help them have a little fun, I am all in. The point to all this is that some men never stop being “Dad”. It doesn’t matter whose child you are or how old his kids are when he is in the room, he’s “Dad”. He doesn’t mean to offend you or make you mad, he’s just doing his job. No different from the man that would come in to fix your furnace or put new windows in your house. He’s had this job so long it has become who he is, so cut him some slack.

Cinema Review: The Gentlemen

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Genre: Crime/Action

Rated: R

Release date: January 24, 2020 (USA)

Director: Guy Ritchie

Screenplay: Guy Ritchie

Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam, Henry Golding, Michelle Dockery, Jeremy Strong, Eddie Marsan, Colin Farrell, and Hugh Grant

Pendleton Rants Reviews rating: 8/10

Over the weekend I got to take a rare trip to the cinema. I use to go a lot, but due to a massive two-year home improvement project, most of my movie watching is on Netflix and Prime. My son messaged me earlier in the week that he wanted us to go check out a movie called “The Gentlemen”. I had seen the previews for it and I am a big Charlie Hunnam fan so I was in. Right off the bat, the movie starts off with a little cliffhanger. This made me think there was some real promise here. Then most of the movie is told as narration between two of the main characters. As a writer, there is just something I love about a good narration store and in fact, my first published book was told in first-person narration. Having someone tell you the story is just really cool to me, so when this movie went in that direction, I again saw real promise. For an action some the pace was surprisingly steady, and it didn’t jump around from place to place just to give it an action feel. It was far from an adrenaline rush. It simply just told a good story at a steady pace.

One of the things people fail when creating a story or movie is that they fail to properly introduce you to the characters. In some movies, you just have to assume a lot when they introduce you to the characters. I really hate that and I think it is extremely lazy. This movie, however, didn’t do that. Thanks to good narration and some really great acting, you understood each character well. The acting was also top notice. You really believed all these people are who they are betraying. I expected as much from most of them because it does have an all-star cast, but none of them phoned it in. I don’t remember ever thinking that Guy Richie should cast someone else to play any of the characters. The story is well laid out and doesn’t jump around or leave big plot holes or “mystery boxes” as Hollywood likes to call them. I don’t want to go into the plot too much because that could spoil it for you and I don’t like to do that with good movies so I will just say it is about a man who is the King of the jungle and everyone wants his throne. Just know that it all makes sense and truly comes together well.

In conclusion that movie was well worth the money I paid to see it and I will for sure watch it again when it gets to Prime or Netflix. It doesn’t look like it made a ton of money, and that’s a shame because it should have. As an audience, I think we have to get back to watch well-done movies and not just rush to see something because it’s the next big thing. This truly was a good movie and if you have time to see it before it leave the cinema, do so.

What’s in a Name?

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Growing up, I never gave much thought to my last name. For a short time, I even had a different one, though it was only in public and not legal. In my mind, I was a Starnes and my last name didn’t really matter. To give you some insight into that, Starnes is my mother’s maiden name and up until I was around 7 years old it was the only family I knew. It was then that I met my dad and the rest of the Pendleton clan. I had a step-father, but that’s a disaster I may share with you another time. I was very close to my grandparents, especially my grandfather (Papaw) and it was his name that I was proud of. After all, he was the man that had been there for me every day up until that point in my life. I spent a lot of time with that side of my family and have always been closest to them. I never considered myself anything but a Starnes even though that wasn’t my name. Being a Pendleton was just my name and to be honest, I had no pride it. Even after my dad came into my life, we never really connected the way I did with Papaw. I don’t really fault him for that anymore; I know he did what he thought he had to do. We all make mistakes and some of those mistakes come with problems we can never fix. I wonder sometimes if it was that lack of pride in my name that led to my broken connection with him and my brother who share my name. Don’t get me wrong, I love them all and if they needed me, I would drop what I am doing and would be right there. I’ve just never had a connection with them the way they do with each other. The same can be said of my sister and brother on my mom’s side who have a different father than I do. I often joke that I am an original, one of a kind. The only Pendleton-Starnes walking the planet. I found it humorous, even if no one else did.

Anyway, I never really thought about it until my boys started to get older and I could see the pride they had in being Pendleton. They aren’t proud of it because of the name itself but because it belongs to me. They are proud to be my sons there for the name means a lot to them. I have girls too and they are also proud of having their father’s name but they will all take another before it’s over when they choose a man who will give them a new name. Their kids will have that new name and they will grow to be proud of that name. The boys though will have kids and those kids will be Pendleton, not Starnes. I have to be honest at first it bothered me. As I said, I had always seen myself a Starnes and the fact that my Papaw’s name will be forgotten someday by my branch of the family tree really hurt me. Sure, my children and my grandchildren will know about him but would their kids or their kids’, kids? Thinking about all this is what led me to these questions.

What’s in a name? Is it important? According to Romeo “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” so what does it matter?

After thinking about it long and hard I concluded, it does. Your name is the only thing you really have to pass along that can’t be taken away. Money, power, fame and even faith can be lost, stolen and forgotten. Your name when giving to others can’t be taken from them, no matter what. It connects you to your past and your future. It ties you to everyone who has had/will have it, good or bad. A good name can open doors for you and a bad one can get doors slammed in your face. Every town has that one name of a group of people who are known to be nothing but trouble and everyone avoids them. Someone telling you “Don’t go down there, the So-in-so’s live down there” will tell you right then, you don’t want to go there. My name was unknown where I grow up but I didn’t always bring it honor. I was a troubled teen at times and though I was harmless, I could be frustrating to people at times. I recall one of my daughters ended up with a teacher that I had in High School and like her father she questioned things and the teacher was not at all surprised that she was mine. Though he and I had respect for each other back then, I always knew how to push his buttons and I know there were days he dreaded watching me walk into the room. I picture him looking down on the class roster years later and seeing “Pendleton” and thinking “Oh God no, not another one?”. My daughter and I laughed about it when she told me but it did worry me. The fact that my children could suffer because of my stupidity in the past, wasn’t fair to them. Fair or not, it is all in the name. People that I have wronged or not left a good impression on will put that on my descendants. That’s something they would not have to deal with if I had done better in my youth. If had taken pride in who I was and understood what my name would mean to them and their children. Just knowing that I wasn’t just screwing up things for me but that I could be costing them a job, a grade, respect…etc might have made me think a little more about my actions. Who knows how it could have changed things.

Despite anything I did though, my kids love me and are all very proud to be Troy Pendleton’s children. This makes them proud to be a Pendleton. To them, it means they belong to me and each other. It makes us all family. Watching and listening to them talk about it and making it sound like it’s some exclusive group has given me more pride in the name than I ever had growing up. I am now proud of it because they are Pendleton and I am proud of them. Though a part of me will always be a Starnes, I know I am a Pendleton. That doesn’t mean I’m not a part of that family, it just means I can’t damage it or improve it. I will not be able to tarnish the Starnes name nor will I be able to bring it greatness. The Starnes name will be left to the fate of my uncles’ sons. Pendleton is my name and with that comes the responsibility of leaving it better than I found it or at the very least not making it any worse. You have the same responsibility to your name, whether it was the name you were born with or the name you took when you got married. Treat it well and if you belong to the “So-in-so” family, redeem your name by being the person everyone thinks you’re not. Rise above the bad rep and work hard to leave your kids with a name they will be proud of.

Does the US Media care about our poor people?

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Something came to me today as I was out walking. The US Media just love companies who go to other countries and open up business and do things for that community. They fawn over these companies as if they were the greatest company to ever open their doors. When was the last time you saw the Media make a big deal about a company who opened up a new factory or warehouse in small town America? Think about it for a minute. Can you recall a story on a news network or social media about it? I can’t and I stay up to date with the news. Why is that? The one obvious answer is, the US Media doesn’t really care about the US people. To be fair, they don’t care about the people in other countries either. Now, I can’t prove that or course, but I will tell you why I am convinced, this is the case. The US Media is owned and operated by people who make money off misery. It sells big time and bad news takes priority over everything. You might be saying to yourself “But Troy, if they love misery then why cover feel-good stories about other countries?” which is a valid question, but you are getting head of me, I’ll get to that…lol. As I was saying, these companies love to make money and misery sells. They spend 90% of their time looking for the next shocking event or terrible thing they can report on. The other 10% they run feel-good stories so you don’t get burned out on the misery. Here’s the trick though. 3rd world country stories are like the golden ticket. They can sell you misery and happiness at the same time.

They go over there to do this wonderful story about this company. Let’s call it  “Bill’s Shoes”. Bill’s Shoes is going to open up a factory in poorest part of some country and give 200 people jobs. Sure, they only pay $2 a day but it’s way more than they have now. It’s a happy tale of “Bill’s Shoes” making the world a better place. It’s also a story about misery, because these poor people have nothing and they look like they have nothing. In the US even, our poorest people usually aren’t doing that badly. Most people will do whatever it takes to keep a roof over their head, food on the table and clothes on their back. That includes welfare and charities supplying them with those things. If “Bill’s Shoes” decide to open up shop in Small Town, USA, the people there being helped wouldn’t be pathetic enough for it to be a “Happy Misery” story, so they don’t bother covering those things. You might be thinking “Who cares?” but what you have to keep in mind is publicity matters to companies because it’s free advertisement. “Billy’s Shoes” wants to sell shoes and make lots of money. If they can get tons of free advertising from the US media for opening a factory in a 3rd would country, why would they open up one in small town USA. My point to all this is, if the US media cared about the people here they would go out of their way to praise companies who open US businesses and put lots of people back to work. Sure, it might not be a good “Happy Misery” story but it would encourage business to locate to a place where are people need good jobs. This would be a huge boom for some of our small towns that are fading away. Instead the media attach business like Amazon for not paying what they think they should pay. I know New York is not a small town but they did lose almost 2000 jobs because the media and a very ignorant politician attached them and kept them from bring those job to the people who needed them. It would have been vastly different if they were opening up a new location in Mexico or some other country. Then again, I could be wrong and this could all be the opinion of one man…what do you think?