On this blog, I plan on trying to point out the Christian motifs of movies I come across. I think it's a cool thingto do: it's good to see how our art portrays matters of faith. It helps us conceptualize these Christian ideas better. Stuff like that, ya know
However, for a Superman movie, I think this movie is surprisingly light on the Christian motifs, especially when you consider that Superman is an artistic rendition of the Messiah figure. But there's some stuff here...the stuff I did see was: ransom theory, and spiritual warfare.
The analogy of the ransom theory seems intentional here. You essentially have a situation where General Zod holds the world captive, and demands Superman as the price for keeping the world safe. The Ransom Theory takes Jesus's words literally (Mark 10:45), where he states that he came to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. This theory also assumes that Satan has some sort of power or control over the world currently, which has Biblical support as well (1 John 5:19). The movie analogy gets sort of loose at this point: General Zod doesn't really have direct control of the world in this movie (although I suppose it could be argued he could easily take control at any moment.) The other loose part of the analogy is that Superman doesn't actually defeat death.. he just sort of breaks free from General Zod and continues the battle after that. But, on the whole, as a concept, it seems like a pretty decent portrayal of Ransom Theory.
The other major one that struck me was spiritual warfare. Admittedly, this could be seen in a bunch of major action movies, because the Good vs Evil motif is explored a lot. I think the most notable thing is the fate of the people involved in the crosshairs of the ongoing battle. There's collateral damage, a bunch of it. But it's not something that God wills. This relates to the problem of evil... there is no "reason" for people being hurt. Not all bad and evil things can be explained that easily. The battle between Supes/Zod, and how it ends up affecting humanity, gives us a decent glimpse at that.
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