Man of Steel - quick review (1 Viewer)

[TravisR]

Travis,
The point is.... the Superman we grew up with would NEVER do that. Some other superhero , maybe..... but NOT Supes. I have a real problem with changing the mythology on something as basic as this. All of the other films, books, and TV shows have been faithful to it. Call him something else, but not Superman.

I grew up during the Christopher Reeve Superman era but seeing so many reruns of Adventures Of Superman over the years made George Reeves the definitive Superman in my mind and he'd NEVER do something like that but for this movie and the situation presented in it, it works for me. That being said, I completely understand why people hate it.

 

[Brandon Conway]

Travis, The point is.... the Superman we grew up with would NEVER do that. Some other superhero , maybe..... but NOT Supes.

I don't know about that. He did casually fling a depowered Zod into a bottomless chasm in Superman II....With a grin.

 

[Quentin]

I get it too. But, this film presents the moment as THE formative experience that molds the Superman being discussed here. Think about that. Why is Superman a hero who would never do certain things and always live by a certain code. This moment is one of the reasons.

 

[Patrick Sun]

We're just going to have to agree to disagree. Most of those life lessons should have already been ingrained into Clark by the Kents. There were ways to get out of that situation, but the writing was too lazy, it put the cart before the horse to get to its shocking conclusion. Meh.

 

[Lord Dalek]

I don't know about that. He did casually fling a depowered Zod into a bottomless chasm in Superman II.... With a grin.

Considering he "de-kills" Zod by turning back the world in the end, doesn't count.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

Fundamentally flawed. Tonally inconsistent, way too much destruction in the third act, and missing some of the heart of the character. I don't blame the actors or the scenes, but rather the sum if the parts. No one wanted this film to be great more than I, and I'm fairly disappointed. Snyder shoots the heck out of it, I think the actors acquit themselves well, but it just doesn't work. I loved the Krypton scenes up front, I enjoyed the opening scenes and childhood flashbacks, and I didn't even mind how Lois and Clark meet. It was a little weird, but ok. Once it hits the action in Smallville, it sort of lost me. The violence got very PG-13 (the huge Kryptonian essentially ripping an A-10 pilot apart), and it only escalated from there. Much like STID, thousands upon thousands of people had to have been killed in the third act with nary a second thought by anyone or any consequences. That doesn't bother me in Transformers, because 1) Michael Bay and 2) who cares? But this is Superman. Truthfully, I could even accept the Zod denouement, because it was well done, and I thought Cavill made it work.But this film doesn't gel. The script has good ideas and good scenes, but it does not have a strong narrative line, nor does it flow very well. It is just off, and boils down into a lesser summer effort's action finale. My audience seemed to like it, though. Maybe I am just too picky on my Superman stories. I'd like to see this cast again, hopefully with a far superior script.

 

[Brandon Conway]

Considering he "de-kills" Zod by turning back the world in the end, doesn't count.

That only happens in the Donner cut. And since that wasn't the version we all saw for the film's first 25 years of existence saying it doesn't count is at best a weak argument.Face it- nobody actually cared about these things until recently. Lois punches Ursa and sends her to her death - with a one-liner joke. As far as I know this never bothered anyone whatsoever when I was growing up.

 

[Quentin]

That only happens in the Donner cut. And since that wasn't the version we all saw for the film's first 25 years of existence saying it doesn't count is at best a weak argument.Face it- nobody actually cared about these things until recently. Lois punches the Ursa and sends her to her death - with a one-liner joke. As far as I know this never bothered anyone whatsoever when I was growing up.

Heh! Exactly!

 

[Edwin-S]

Obtrusive product placement? So I guess that means it should have been titled "The Pitchman of Steel"? Probably wait until it comes on BD and rent it. I've never really liked Superman stories very much in comics or in movies. At least, in the comics you get to see some great art in character's depiction. I have yet to see a Superman movie that I would consider good. The second one wasn't too bad, but the most I really remember about it was when one of the villains kick an astronaut off the moon like he was a beach ball. I vaguely remember it being completely hilarious at the time.

 

[TravisR]

Obtrusive product placement? So I guess that means it should have been titled "The Pitchman of Steel"?

I know you wanted to use The Pitchman Of Steel joke (which is pretty amusing) but I wouldn't even remotely call it obtrusive. While Snyder is just covering their use of product placement, he's still right when he says that the world is littered with logos and so it makes sense to also see them in a movie. It takes me out of a movie more when I see "BEER" rather than a brand name on a can.

 

[Greg Chenoweth]

Product placement was a huge part of the first batch of Superman movies as well. Remember in Superman II when Superman throws one of the villains into the BIG Coca-Cola sign?

 

[Steve_Pannell]

Travis,
The point is.... the Superman we grew up with would NEVER do that. Some other superhero , maybe..... but NOT Supes. I have a real problem with changing the mythology on something as basic as this. All of the other films, books, and TV shows have been faithful to it. Call him something else, but not Superman.

Also..... has anyone wondered just how he managed to shave?

Raul

I was talking to my 89-year-old mother in the nursing home the other day about people asking "how does Superman shave?" and she said, "If he's the Man of Steel, how does his hair grow through his skin in the first place?"

 

[Jacinto]

It's eerie how many times I have found myself in complete agreement with Chuck over the years. The film lost me in Act 3, and like Chuck, nobody wanted to adore this film more than I did. During the violence in Smallville and Metropolis, at least several thousand people would have died in the destruction, and that felt completely out of place in a Superman film. With all of that on film, to not address it, even if only by letting us see how that impacted Superman, felt like a complete copout. You either have to have the title character limiting the collateral damage, or showing how deeply affected he was by the death of so many innocents. There were so many strong moments in the film, but as Chuck states, the narrative as a whole just doesn't feel cohesive. I want to see it again to try to pinpoint exactly where in the film my attitude shifted, but for now, I'll just have to leave it as a mixed bag.

 

[Raul Marquez]

Jacinto,

I agree completely with your assessment of this film.

Raul

 

[Tino]

I loved it. Best Superman film since the original. I thought it had plenty of heart amidst the tremendous action.And regarding 3D, I saw it in an ETX theater with Dolby Atmos and thought the presentation was flawless. Great sense of depth in the 3D.Seeing it in IMAX 3D next, since it was sold out this morning. Boo on you Chuck!

 

[todd s]

Saw this this morning with my 10yr old son. We really enjoyed it.Regarding the destruction...it happens a lot in the comics and the cartoons. But, now it's live action and the effects are even more realistic. So I have no problem with it. I am sure if Donner had the ability and the budget. We would have saw the same thing in Superman 2.Regarding the end..

Spoiler

I had no problem with it. I have been a superman fan and comic reader since I was 9 and saw Supeman in 1978. Yes, Supes doesn't kill. But, he had no choice. Maybe, their were earlier in the story ways of stopping it. But, we have to remember. This is Supes when he first becomes Supes. So he had no experience to base it on. He has always risked HIS life to help others. This time he had to risk the lives of the family and the rest of humanity. He had to do the one thing he knew would save everyone and his showed the anguish log that decision. Remember in the comics he did kill 2 people...Doomsday and Zod.

 

[Chris Will]

I really enjoyed MOS overall and I didn't have a problem with Zod's resolution. I did have a problem with Superman not trying to save people from the destruction, something he has done in every other Superman movie, even Returns.Also, one complaint I continue to hear about Returns was about the Jesus pose. Well, I think there were 100 of them in MOS, it was starting to get annoying IMO. Overall I enjoyed the movie, the above are my nitpciks, and I'll definitly own the BD.

 

[JonZ]

The zooming, extremme closeups and all over the place camera work in this film made my brain want to implode on itself.

 

[Brandon Conway]

It was awesome. 10/10 for me.

 

[Robert Crawford]

It was awesome. 10/10 for me.

Same here! I'll post some more comments later on.