10 Movie Mentors Who Were Actually Complete Morons
3. Jor-El - Man Of Steel
At first glance, Jor-El might win every single Father's Day gong under the sun. He's utterly selfless, sacrificing his own life to make sure his son gets his best possible chance at survival. He even packs Kal-El off with the Kryptonian equivalent of a USB stick so he can teach him the ways of his people. That sort of action is something that brings manly, bittersweet tears to the eyes of most men. Truly, this is a good mentor.
Yet what fails to get noticed is that Jor-El's brand of mentorship is entirely based on chance. Sure, he packs Kal-El away with a device which will tell him everything he needs to know, but it won't do that in the only Kryptonian device that his son actually knows about: his escape pod, buried under the Kent barn. For all intents and purposes, Jor-El has packed off his son with a rare paperweight, not a stick which can mentor him from beyond the grave using a downloadable consciousness.
The fact that Clark actually stumbles across its proper use is a miracle in itself he overhears a conversation between some army people in a small-town bar while he happens to be on shift as a busboy. Theres so many variables in there that it makes your head spin: what if Clark wasn't on shift? What if one of the men had opted out ill? What if they were feeling particularly fruity and wanted to go out for cocktails instead? Clark would never have found the outpost spacecraft, and would still be confused about his heritage. Frankly, Jor-El's whole plan was based off sheer, dumb luck, and for that reason he can never be considered a good mentor.