but first we start right where the last chapter left off, with jor flying home on h'raka. i know it seems like this is redundant, but i've never read a book that was written conventionally where the chapters take place this closely. i know it's way too much writing to be one chapter, i think, but it still feels like it should be. this might be nitpicking, but i still find it weird.
anyway, the battle over the city continues and has moved closer to them, and h'raka gets hit with a plasma beam. she manages to get to the house before she dies, which doesn't take that long, i think, but it feels like it does because the author takes the time to explain the history of the house of el as they approach it. i'm not sure about the placing, but i do like some of the descriptions. the color of the sun is mentioned again too.
there's a really weird sentence here that says "He ran straight to the observatory, where he found in all readiness". i can't figure out if he meant 'which' instead of where, or if there's a 'her' missing. hm.
either way, we get a description of the baby ship, which looks like a heart and has a state of the art phantom drive unit. fancy shit! lara's in there feeding the baby when he comes in, and she's all happy to see him but he tells her zod's on the way because of the codex. he asks if they found 'the world' and the other robot says that they have. the descriptions obviously identify it as earth, but it's during the last big ice age, apparently, so i've really underestimated how much time it took baby supes to get to there. also, why does she call him jor-el? that's her husband, why is she saying the surname too?
it seems like lara's stalling because she's all like 'what if the natives don't except him', which is a really legitimate fear, but jor's all like 'don't worry it's cool he'll be like a god to them'. obviously jor has never read the bible or seen thor. lara still doesn't want to do it, which is reasonable because come on he was born, like, two hours ago, but jor is like we have to he's our only hope, even though he sorta feels her. i have to say, though, how is he the last hope? if he's the last one alive it's not like he can bring back his race or anything. assuming kryptonians are genetically compatible with humans, like in the comics, years of breeding into the human population is gonna breed out any powers he might pass on, eventually. or maybe i should just wait until i learn the plan. hm.
also, i'm not sure how to feel about lara at this point? like i'm sad for her, but she's been characterized to his point as bone-breakingly beautiful and unable to part with the baby and that's... sexist. like way to squeeze an alien into our narrow, heteronormative gender roles guys! do you think she'll have time to make kal-el a sandwich before launch?
that being said, i do like that jor isn't characterized as thinking she's stupid of needy or overemotional for being that way. actually, he feels the same way, but he's hiding it because someone has to, or they'd never get anything done. i just wish his wife was more than a porcelain doll of female objectification.
jor gets into some kind of robot thing as the helper robot puts the baby in the ship, and then the other robot uploads the info on the codex, which i didn't know was possible, and then transmits it into the baby. this is really important, but what the heck is the codex?? how did a fossil turn into pure information? how can you upload pure information into a baby? there's science that could do this, but how can you do it without some kind of implant in the baby? and how do you upload a fossil???
none of my questions are answered as jor exits the robot and grabs a key and puts it in the ship. it's not the key for the ship, and it's described as if it's important to the story, but it's never explained what it does. what's new?
there is a touching moment where, as he watches the ship close and fill with baby juice, jor thinks about the fact that he'll never touch his son again. it's also a nice echo of when lara was saying how they'll never see him walk or hear him talk. mr. cox is really good at this emotion thing. along with that, my favorite line so far is said as he's looking at the sleeping baby.
"Sleep well, my son," Jor-El whispered. "Our hopes and dreams travel with you."mr. cox is really good with this emotion thing! this is really moving! i don't ever feel like i get this much emotion out of a nolan movie when chris has the reigns but this guy's got it! i just wish the rest of his writing wasn't so problematic.
the chapter ends with jor telling lara to ready the launch so he can go fight off the people who are attacking the house, complete with overlong descriptions of the armor and whatnot. there's another weird line where jor is like 'it seemed that his old friend had come calling' and like... yeah you just told lara he was coming ten minutes ago! he's acting like 'i don't know what i was expecting' but you knew exactly what you were expecting! why is this here?
and that's it. after one left over false stake from last chapter, this chapter goes on to raise a whole barn full of new questions that won't get answered until way later in the story, hopefully. this chapter was more about the emotion, and i dig that. that's just a breath of fresh air to see all of this put into a work written by chris nolan, especially without me having to do it. the only other complaint i have is WHEN DOES THE STORY ACTUALLY START JUST LAUNCH THE BABY. see you next time.
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