Man of Steel

Loved it.

Alot of people were saying, "Better than the Avengers?" I'd probably say no, but it's still a great superhero movie. It aint perfect, but it gets the imagination going, you like the characters and the theme, and the action stuff is probably the best superhero fighting ever in film. And great job by Hans Zimmer and Russell Crowe.
 
I loved the first hour or so of this. It engaged me emotionally in a way I didn't expect, exploring the difficulties Clark had coming to terms with his powers in a heartfelt way, and I thought the cross cutting really worked. Once General Zod showed up again I felt it became a fairly routine get the bad guy smash em up. Call me old fashioned, but there comes a point where action become so big that it loses human scale and ceases to be suspenseful. The scene of young Clark lifting the bus out of the water was a hundred times more compelling to me than the CGI spectacles at the end. Also, if everytime Superman saves the day what looks to be a thousand people are killed from collateral damage, I'm not sure how super that is. Henry Cavill made a great Supes though. Amy Adams was good but I wished there was more to their romance. A solid effort with moments of greatness. Better than Superman Returns for sure.
 
personally I felt it was too fast paced, just wayy to fast, I don't know if they had to leave a lot of stuff out because of the time but just too fast, also I dont feel this dude is charismatic enough to play superman, just another pretty face I think, way too much gci, I was very disappointed in this film, I felt that when nolan got involved was to make it more organic like the dark knight series give the film a more realistic take, I dont know maybe I just expected something completely different
 
aalleexx said:
, I felt that when nolan got involved was to make it more organic like the dark knight series give the film a more realistic take, I dont know maybe I just expected something completely different
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The film is certainly a mix of Nolan's grounded take on things, and Snyder's more lurid sensibility. The least interesting aspects of it for me are the purely Synder elements, the over produced spectacle and dark hued cinematography. I've never been the biggest fan of the look of his work. He crunches his blacks too much for my taste. It worked in 300 because it had a deliberately artificial, graphic novel style, but this was a more realistic take on the whole. I feel like the decision to add Zod to this story was ultimately a bad one. It forced things to move too quickly. I almost would have preferred a movie where Clark doesn't don the suit until the last act of the movie.
 
yes!!!! thats exactly what i felt, when they broke out the superman suit i looked at my wife and i was like are u serious, wayy to early


Batutta said:
The film is certainly a mix of Nolan's grounded take on things, and Snyder's more lurid sensibility. The least interesting aspects of it for me are the purely Synder elements, the over produced spectacle and dark hued cinematography. I've never been the biggest fan of the look of his work. He crunches his blacks too much for my taste. It worked in 300 because it had a deliberately artificial, graphic novel style, but this was a more realistic take on the whole. I feel like the decision to add Zod to this story was ultimately a bad one. It forced things to move too quickly. I almost would have preferred a movie where Clark doesn't don the suit until the last act of the movie.
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refocusedmedia said:
You might appreciate this: http://blogs.indiewire.com/criticwire/the-summers-pg-13-problem
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Good article. I think ultimately, it's just an unfortunate consequence of filmmakers measuring dicks and needing to go bigger and bigger with their action scenes to top what came before. There is a point of diminishing returns. They should put more energy into raising the emotional stakes for the characters instead of only increasing the physical ones. This is something Nolan did effectively in The Dark Knight. Compared to the latest superhero movies, the scale of action in that movie is small potatoes, but the audience doesn't feel cheated because they care more about what happens.
 
Word!


Batutta said:
Good article. I think ultimately, it's just an unfortunate consequence of filmmakers measuring dicks and needing to go bigger and bigger with their action scenes to top what came before. There is a point of diminishing returns. They should put more energy into raising the emotional stakes for the characters instead of only increasing the physical ones. This is something Nolan did effectively in The Dark Knight. Compared to the latest superhero movies, the scale of action in that movie is small potatoes, but the audience doesn't feel cheated because they care more about what happens.
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Batutta said:
Good article. I think ultimately, it's just an unfortunate consequence of filmmakers measuring dicks and needing to go bigger and bigger with their action scenes to top what came before. There is a point of diminishing returns. They should put more energy into raising the emotional stakes for the characters instead of only increasing the physical ones. This is something Nolan did effectively in The Dark Knight. Compared to the latest superhero movies, the scale of action in that movie is small potatoes, but the audience doesn't feel cheated because they care more about what happens.
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I would generally agree with this. It kinda feels like this movie out-did the Transformers franchise in terms of spectacle and destruction. And I wouldnt say that that is necessarily a compliment. I liked the scope and the power of the fight, but yeah, the amount of destruction with no repercussions or sense of loss makes some of the gravity fall flat.
 
Batutta said:
Call me old fashioned, but there comes a point where action become so big that it loses human scale and ceases to be suspenseful.
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Agree completely. I felt the same way about the Neo/Smith scene at the end of The Matrix Revolutions. I also had to turn off Ultraviolet when she started riding a motorcycle down the side of a building. You just lose any sense of belief in what you are watching. For the most part I felt like Man of Steel handled it well. Especially the solo flights when first learning to fly, but the end fight between him and Zod had me zoned out. It felt unnecessary and ungrounded.

This is where cgi has failed us. It allows so much to be done that filmmakers sometimes throw away all sense of reality and physics.
 
"Especially the solo flights when first learning to fly, but the end fight between him and Zod had me zoned out. It felt unnecessary and ungrounded."

Even more so how Superman stops Zod. Totally out of character for Superman.
 
jkc123 said:
"Especially the solo flights when first learning to fly, but the end fight between him and Zod had me zoned out. It felt unnecessary and ungrounded."

Even more so how Superman stops Zod. Totally out of character for Superman.
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Well isn't that the whole point? Superman never kills, but he has to in this case for the sake of survival, and to save the people of earth. It's the culmination of the entire fight, where clearly no matter what he does he won't be able to stop Zod, unless he kills him. It may be 'out of character', but it's completely in character because it's the only final solution and he's completely torn at the end. Who else would scream and cry after killing a bad guy? Most superhero's would be relieved, but it seems to have broken a man that tries to only do good.

For me the film was great. I went in not expecting much from the reviews, but was pleasantly surprised. The final fight was a bit much, but I enjoyed that 'god vs god' feel of the entire scene. How do two immortal beings destroy each other? Eventually superman was just brought to a breaking point.

Amy adams was okay. I felt she was the weakest part of the film. Also how she seemed to be a part of every moment of the film. Superman was well cast, and so was everyone else, from zod, to superman's human and kryptonian parents.

I was never really a big fan of the past superman's, even the old ones, so for me this is my favorite thus far. Never been a big superman fan, so for me this one is a winner. I loved how the entire film came together with Zod, Krypton, and everything in between. Forgot how Zod appears in the old film, but I loved how he was 'born' to protect krypton, and that's his entire motivation.

Oh and that article about collateral damage is exactly my thoughts ever since iron man this summer, and superman. I just kept thinking "how many people have died?"
 
I mostly enjoyed it. The action near the end was a bit too long but still very enjoyable. Pa Kent's attitude didn't quite sit well with me.


SPOILER!!!

3 things that bothered me was:


1. Pa Kent's advice of maybe he should let the school bus full of children die just to keep his secret. So basically: always hide who you really are even if it causes the death of others.
2. Superman just standing there and watching his dad die (no son who loves their dad would do that, no matter the consequences). He could easily have saved him without arousing too much awe and amazement. Just use semi-super speed so it doesn't look to obvious, and carry him back. People wouldn't think twice considering how buff he was. What's the worst that could happen if people witness this amazing feat of a man saving his dad? The world didn't turn upside down after he saved the men on the oil rig. And why the hell would someone tell their indestructible son to run to safety while they saved the dog?
3. Those people didn't seem to even try to run from the slow moving laser heading towards them. Instead of running right and trapping yourself into a corner, how about running forward then to the right. Or superman can just cover the laser eyes with his super hands.

There are probably reasonable explanations for the above mentioned. Let me know so I can enjoy the movie even more.
 
SPOILERS!!

Rashdan said:
1. Pa Kent's advice of maybe he should let the school bus full of children die just to keep his secret. So basically: always hide who you really are even if it causes the death of others.
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I actually thought this was the best part of the movie, and of the trailers. It was one of those character moments you don't expect, but think about it: Pa Kent was thinking that if his son let people know who he was and what he could do, the world would just tear him apart. It would reject him and probably force him to become something he didn't want to be (probably not a villain, but certainly not a hero). At the young age Clark was when he saved those kids, he wouldn't have been mature enough to handle that kind of revilement from his little community, let alone the entire world. Most kids his age can't even handle POSITIVE fame, let alone national exile.

So when Pa Kent says, "Maybe," it just felt like a father speaking honestly with his son that he doesn't know how to help him.

As for the tornado/twister thing, I think that entire scene could have been solved if A.) the bus incident had had serious repercussions, and B.) Clark was as young during the tornado scene as he was during the bus scene.

As for Supes killing in the end, I agree: it was a god vs. god fight, and I think Superman showed the pain he felt in the end, though I don't think the "Superman doesn't kill" thing was set up very well, and I agree the collateral damage was just short of ridiculous.


Still a great movie, IMO.

-EMB
 
SPOILER:

Superman kills in the comic books, definitely should not come as a surprise that he kills Zod. Maybe it's the way that he does it that gets everyone, because it's definitely "hands on".

The Smallville combat shows that Snyder has been playing even more video games since Sucker Punch, and admittedly was the the second most engaging thing for me. The first being all of the flashbacks, which I feel could have been THE movie and the Smallville fight could have been the climax. I really liked the small engagement with Superman and Faora, it was definitely one of the highlights for me and it was short lived.

Feel satisfied with nearly all of the female roles. Rarity.

I'm a fan of Handheld camera work, but this isn't Pfister: sometimes the handheld was so distracting I had to glance around to gauge whom amongst the crowd had gotten sick. It's probably as bad as Cloverfield, then again we got the "Good" seats, so that surely made a difference.

Dialogue... oh boy... what happened?


And all that adds up to "making a good movie is very damned hard". I hope Snyder and team have found some things to take away for the future, and glad that I was able to watch it.
 
1st half was great, 2nd half failed to keep up.

Spoilers
1) How many buildings did they have to fly through?
2) How many times did the actors have to tell the audience who they were - "I am a warrior - blah blah"
3) 2nd part of the script just had bad dialogue
4) Breaking the neck? So original
5) Why didn't those people just duck under the ray - he wasn't even moving that fast with it.
6) I think Zod was miscast - I thought Costner, Crow and Lane were very well cast. I didn't think Lois Lane was well cast - she wasn't horrible - just could have been better.
 
It's a PG-13 movie. The dialogue needs to explain what's going on in a clear way. Subtlety isn't always the same as "good", On-the-nose isn't always the same as "bad".
 
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