Phooey to 2012! Movie SPOILERS!!!

SPOILERS below...if you haven't seen the movie 2012 please be warned that I am giving away a huge plotline below. If you aren't going to see the movie or don't care if part of the plot is spoiled, keep reading. If you do care, stop right now.

My level of disgust about this has led me to cross-post this on several stepmom forums I read, so if you're seeing this for the 2nd or 3rd time, please accept my apologies!



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So my husband and I saw the movie 2012 last night. Very briefly (it's a loooong movie, 158 minutes!) the plot revolves around a divorced dad (Jackson, played by John Cusack) and how he tries to save his two kids, ex-wife, and her new husband as the world is coming to an end. Throughout the movie is an interesting subplot about how the newly configured family is trying to figure things out...the little boy Noah adores his new stepdad and while he loves his dad, is clearly angry and confused towards him. The little girl Lilly just loves them both. Stepdad Gordon is portrayed as a genuinely nice guy who loves these kids.

At first it was refreshing to see a realistic portrayal of realistic people just trying to figure things out, instead of the stereotypical evil stepdad, or even worse, the stereotypical bumbling incompetent (sometimes slimeball) dad competing with perfect stepdad (a la Jim Carrey in Liar Liar). The little boy in particular seems to be struggling with the fact that he really likes his stepdad, and maybe feels like he shouldn't, out of obligation to his dad whom he also loves. I thought it was very touchingly portrayed.

Until...HERE'S WHERE THE SPOILERS START...we get to the part of the movie where lovely ex-wife Kate (Amanda Peet) confesses to Jackson that she only loves Gordon "enough"....and at one point when their plane is about to crash Kate, Jackson, and the two children huddle together chanting a mantra "we're a family, we stick together, we're going to be together" while poor Gordon looks on....I saw the writing on the wall for Gordon right then and sure enough, by the end of the movie he gets killed off (albeit rather heroically).

This has been bothering me since last night and I finally realized that it actually really ticks me off....because they ruined a realistic and interesting portrayal of genuine people with genuine confusing feelings, and gave in to the stupid cliches of "true loves brings real families back together." On behalf of nice stepdads like Gordon everywhere, I am ticked at this movie!!! I think ultimately it's because the unspoken message here is the fulfillment of the wish we all know lies deep in the heart of every child of divorce: that their parents would get back together, if only this person wasn't in the way, even if they are a nice person and a good stepparent and we love them. Sheesh, it's just sickening to see this miserable, unrealistic cliche trotted out once again! How much more interesting and heart-warming this story might have been to me, if they had all survived to continue on the difficult path of figuring out their new dynamics, learning how to relate to one another and love one another well amid imperfection and sometimes conflict: just like every stepfamily (and non-stepfamily!) I know. Sigh.

By the way even if it weren't for the idiotic turn this stinker of a movie took, I still wouldn't recommend wasting your money OR 158 minutes of your time.

Speaking of penguins

My last blog post was about King Tut, both the real one and the virtual one. But what I would also like to say that I have developed a fascination with penguins, and have started "collecting" small figurines and such. I also love to watch the Penguin Cam from Sea World San Diego, home to the King Tut we made friends with on our honeymoon.

What I love about penguins is this: the daddy penguins take a surprisingly active role in the nurturing and raising of the babies. I'm no zoologist, but I think this level of involvement is pretty uncommon in the animal kingdom. Hearing about how daddy penguins sit on the baby penguin eggs and care for their young, reminds me of Bill. He is such a great daddy--it's one of the first things I noticed and found attractive about him. He has always been involved in the day-to-day-care of his kids and often goes above and beyond what's expected. I know a lot of good daddies, and I may be biased, but I think he's one of the best...much like the sweet penguin daddies who are so diligent in caring for their young.

King Tut

The background to this post is that when B and I went on our honeymoon to San Diego, we spent one day enjoying Sea World there. We took the behind-the-scenes tour of the penguin exhibit and got to pet a darling penguin named King Tut, pictured above. He was so soft and so friendly! It was one of the highlights of our day there.

Flash forward to the summer, when I finally joined the ranks of Facebook. A few really slow days at work had me thinking about all the games on FB that seem so popular...Farmville, Mafia Wars, etc, I decided I wanted to play a game too. So when a friend suggested SuperPoke Pets, where I could have my own little virtual pet to play with, I was all over it! The little penguins were so cute, and immediately I chose to name mine King Tut, of course.

So now it's been about 3 months and I am beginning to ask myself, what in the world was I thinking?! I already have SIX real pets (not to mention two stepkids!), I didn't need a stinking virtual pet on top of it! The two dogs, two cats (one of whom is an amputee), and two fish are quite enough, thank you. And that's not even considering our experiment in worm composting with 2000 worms to whom I also feel the obligation to provide tender loving care. With the type of job that I do (helping people) some days I think if one more being needs one more thing from me my head might explode...

But poor little King Tut gets so sad when he's not fed and played with every day, and if you don't clean him he gets stinky with bugs crawling on him. I hate to see a sad pet, it makes me feel so guilty! And then I feel stupid for feeling guilty over a virtual pet! aaaaa!!! But day after day I trudge over and spend my five minutes feeding him, cleaning him, tickling him, and taking him on playdates. It's such a beating, but I'm stuck now...I can't bear to think about "killing" him by deleting my account. How dumb is that!

Let this serve as a warning: do not get sucked into the dumb Facebook games! You will live to regret it.