From Newsgroup: alt.tv.star-trek.tos   
   From Address: MotherTrekker@TrekMe.com   
   Subject: To Boldly Go Where Cliches Have Gone Before: Top 10 Bad Messages From   
   Good Movies   
      
   http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2009/11/top-10-bad-messages-from-good-movies/   
      
   Top 10 Bad Messages From Good Movies   
   By Matt Blum   
   November 17, 2009 8:30 am   
      
   Sometimes it can be hard to see the messages a movie teaches,   
   especially if theyAre unintentional. The best way to see a movieAs   
   messages, the bad ones in particular, is to be a parent watching the   
   movie with your kids. Suddenly you find yourself talking to your kids   
   after you leave the theater or after the video finishes playing at   
   home, just to see if they picked up on the bad messages. Then, if they   
   did, you can try to do some damage control.   
      
   Quality doesnAt generally come into play when it comes to messages:   
   There are plenty of bad movies whose messages are perfectly benign,   
   and plenty of good movies that have messages you definitely wouldnAt   
   want your kids to take to heart. It is this latter category with which   
   this list is concerned. Here then is a countdown of the top 10 bad   
   messages in good (and at least somewhat geeky) movies:   
      
   10. If youAre not born with special abilities, youAre never going to   
   be any good at some things, no matter how hard you try (from the Harry   
   Potter movies, and, of course, books). In the world of Harry Potter,   
   there are those who are born with magical abilities, and those who   
   arenAt. ThereAs even a word, osquib,o for people born to wizarding   
   families who canAt do magic. ItAs made very clear in the stories that,   
   if youAre unlucky enough to be born without magical talent, youAre   
   never going to amount to anything in that world and might as well not   
   try.   
      
   9. No matter how appallingly bad conditions on Earth get, so long as   
   there is one tiny plant on the planet, it can still be restored to its   
   former beauty and sustainability (from WALL-E). In WALL-E, Earth is   
   depicted as essentially one big desolate, deteriorated waste dump.   
   Then WALL-E finds one tiny little green plant, and that is evidently   
   enough to constitute proof that the planet can be reclaimed. ThatAs   
   one small plant in the midst of millions of square miles of garbage   
   and lifeless expanse. It kind of flies in the face of the desired   
   message behind the film to imply that, no matter how badly we screw   
   things up, one dinky little leafy green thing will constitute hope for   
   all of humanity.   
      
   8. Technology is fundamentally evil (from lots of movies, including   
   the The Lord of the Rings trilogy). This message comes pretty much   
   unchanged from the books, but itAs much easier to see it in the   
   movies. You see the orcs destroying trees, building fires and   
   operating machinery both to produce more orcs and to assist them in   
   combat. By contrast, the various forces of good rely on intellect,   
   magic, swordsmanship, archery and a fair helping of luck. Can there be   
   a doubt about the message there?   
      
   7. Arrogance, brash self-confidence and having had a heroic father are   
   much more indicative of a competent leader than are experience and   
   knowledge (from the 2009 Star Trek movie). Jim Kirk rises from a cadet   
   with a disciplinary hearing hanging over his head to captain of the   
   Enterprise in a matter of days, maybe even hours. This is due partly   
   to his making an astonishingly unlikely connection between the report   
   on the Romulan miner ship and what he remembers reading about the   
   encounter when his father died. But itAs mostly due to Captain PikeAs   
   experience working with KirkAs father and the fact that Kirk acts like   
   an arrogant jackass that he gets bumped up to First Officer so   
   rapidly. Never mind the fact there have to be dozens, if not hundreds,   
   of far more experienced officers (even if theyAre not on the   
   Enterprise) who would be better-suited to the captainAs chair than the   
   alternate Kirk as presented in the film. So, even if Kirk did manage   
   to become the shipAs captain towards the end of that adventure, how   
   could he hope to keep the job (other than, of course, that itAs his   
   destiny)?   
      
   6. Kissing sleeping women you donAt know will wake them up and lead to   
   them falling in love with you (from Sleeping Beauty and Snow White and   
   the Seven Dwarfs). We donAt really need to explain this one further   
   than that, do we? I mean, we all know the stories.   
      
   5. If youAre a really good person, but in a lousy situation, simply   
   wait around and eventually good things will just happen to you (from   
   Cinderella). Cinderella ends up living happily ever after, but not   
   because of anything she did. If the Fairy Godmother (a deus ex machina   
   if ever there was one) hadnAt appeared, itAs a sure thing Cinderella   
   wouldnAt have done anything on her own to get out of the house. Yes,   
   her stepmother and stepsisters treated her terribly, and one could   
   argue that she deserves a Fairy Godmother. But u stop me if youAve   
   heard this before u life isnAt fair, so why should she get something   
   just because karma says she deserves it?   
      
   4. Unconventional creative play is very, very wrong (from Toy Story).   
   Sid, the kid next door, is portrayed as basically evil. The movie   
   makes him out this way because he pulls toys apart and reassembles   
   them in strange ways, and likes to blow things up. In other words,   
   heAs a geek. If the toys werenAt alive u and Sid can probably be   
   forgiven for not realizing that they were u his behavior would be   
   perhaps a little extreme, but not in any way wrong, especially for a   
   boy his age.   
      
   3. Even tough women who arenAt afraid to fight arenAt as important as   
   the men they fight alongside (from the Star Wars movies). - Princess   
   Leia, despite being very comfortable giving orders and shooting at   
   stormtroopers, always hands off the really important jobs to men. Luke   
   tells her that sheAs his sister and Darth Vader is their father, and   
   by the way heAs going off to confront daddy to try to turn him back to   
   being a good guy, and she doesnAt insist on coming with him or joining   
   him later. On Hoth, Luke and Han are out scouting on Tauntauns, but   
   sheAs back at the base where itAs nice and warm. And then thereAs   
   Padme, who kicks a fair bit of butt, but only until she and Anakin get   
   secretly married, at which point she essentially vanishes except to   
   talk about her pregnancy and her worries about her husband. As we   
   know, of course, pregnant women are incapable of doing anything except   
   sitting around worrying, right?   
      
   2. ItAs OK to completely change your physical appearance and way of   
   life for the person you love, even if he makes no sacrifices at all   
   (from The Little Mermaid). This movie has the single most appalling   
   ending of any Disney movie ever made, which is a shame because, apart   
   from that, itAs a great film. I just cannot comprehend how anyone   
   could make a movie in the late 1980s with this message, which is not   
   exactly subtle: Ariel gives up her home, her family, and BEING A   
   MERMAID because she loves Eric so. And he gives up a nothing. Yeah,   
   that marriage is off to a great start.   
      
   1. If youAre not a member of the elite, youAre basically   
   inconsequential, even if you die heroically trying to save your people   
   and your way of life (from the Star Wars movies). This crops up time   
   and time again in the series, but nowhere is it more clearly   
   demonstrated in the assault on the first Death Star. We mentioned it a   
   few months ago, but here it is again: There are somewhere between 20   
   and 30 one-man fighters in the assault, right? And of all of those   
   guys, only Luke, Wedge and some guy in a Y-wing make it back (and Han   
   and Chewie, of course, but they werenAt part of the original team). So   
   that means that in this fight, despite its amazing success, the rebels   
   lost somewhere between 17 and 27 of their very best, bravest pilots.   
   Yet all they can do is cheer as Luke descends the ladder of his   
   X-wing. Luke cheers, too, hugs Leia, and is absolutely ecstatic a   
   until he realizes that R2-D2 got badly damaged in the fight, at which   
   point he is nearly distraught. Losing fellow human beings, including a   
   good friend of his, that doesnAt matter; possibly losing a cute but   
   replaceable machine, now thatAs sad. And of course then thereAs the   
   whole matter of Vader being redeemed because he saved his own sonAs   
   life, never mind the thousands of people whose deaths he was   
   responsible for.   
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