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I consider Deus Ex to be that bad and worse.
Having said that, I don't see most of the examples given as really being DEM. Lord of the Rings certainly isn't: Yes Frodo fails at the last and it's only through Gollum that the ring is destroyed but that isn't a DEM.
DEM is "God from the Machine" and refers to the classic Greek resolution of having a god come out of nowhere to resolve the story problem. That doesn't happen in LOTR or in A New Hope. The solutions grew organically out of the story.
A New Hope would have been DEM if Superman had flown in out of nowhere and picked off all the attacking TIE Fighters with his heat vision.
I think too many people these days conflate someone other than the protagonist resolving the issue with Deus Ex Machina. They don't have to be the same thing.
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