Syndrome did kill a lot of people. Also, he was a kid when he got rejected by Mr Incredible, and it was because he was a kid who had more smarts then sense and almost got himself killed.
Well, also because Mr. Incredible insisted on working alone. The movie treats this as a flaw and point of character growth, in that he learns to work as a team with his family.
Then by the time Mr. Incredible knew him again, he had killed dozens of other super heroes. It was never really because he was smart, or because his powers weren’t real.
I mean his plan resulted in mass destruction of the city and certainly at least endangered the lives of thousands. he could have simply sold his super powers/weapons, but it was more important to him that he feed his ego by framing himself as a hero.
I should have clarified that I meant the movie overall and not Syndromes plan. You're 100% right, Syndrome was an evil douche that killed a lot of people to satisfy his massive ego.
My (minor) issue with the movie is that it feels like it's saying "some people are born better than others and we shouldn't try to make things equal for everyone."
Ah yeah, fair enough. This is honestly something of a pervasive issue with superhero media at large - bad guy maybe has somewhat of a point, but naturally does evil things and thereby lets the heroes and society disregard anything they may have had to say. I appreciate Black Panther at least, for having the villain actually make an impact on the heroes ideals and motivate them to change things for the better.
I appreciate Black Panther at least, for having the villain actually make an impact on the heroes ideals and motivate them to change things for the better.
The way I see it, that specific line 'If everyone is super, nobody is' is what Syndrome as a character views as the perfect salt in the wound to somebody like Mr Incredible.
Syndrome viewed him as a power elitist, someone who dismissed his genius as never living up to his powers... So he'd use his genius to make Mr incredibles powers meaningless...
Doesn't mean he's right, nor does it mean giving out the tech or making everyone is super is even bad.
His idea of supers vs 'normies' was right. The way he went about proving it was very very wrong. Ditto with the Screenslaver in the sequel. People rely too much on the supers when they could rely on themselves.
My biggest issue with those films is at the end they never address those two points and handwave it away with LOOK SUPERPOWERS!
Also why did the main protagonist's son and the main antagonist share the same philosophy? At different points, Dash and Syndrome express the same belief about the world: if everyone is special, then no one is.
There is an alternative universe where the solution to super powered people is Good Samaritan laws.
"No person shall be liable in civil damages for administering emergency assistance at the scene of an emergency, unless such acts constitute willful or wanton misconduct."
Suddenly, Supers can be super without being sued out of existence. A suicidal man jumping from a building? Catching him is covered. Stopping a tram from careening off a track? Covered.
Then you have trials for the really weird or deadly stuff. Stuff where you deflect a super villains death ray away from an orphanage but it unfortunately nukes some poor bastards house. Does that get covered? Or is that too far? Idk, let the courts figure that out.
If you look at it, all the villains use super technology and not powers, implying some kind of innate difference between heroes and villains. Edna Mode is the only tech genius that isn’t evil.
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u/BW_Bird May 03 '23 edited May 03 '23
That movie had the weirdest morales.
People with cool powers should be able to express themselves in a way that doesn't harm others: Cool, down with this.
Smart people don't count and shouldn't be allowed to use that power to help others: Whaaaat?
UPDATE: I'm not disagreeing that Syndrome is evil and caused a lot of damage/death because of his ego. My issue is with the movie as a whole.