Man of Steel

the movie is fine on its own. i liked some of the acting, i think the faora chick or whomever the krypton chick is, stole the show. i loved that warping shit she did. the problem isnt with the movie itself. its they turned superman into an asshole.

Also, I'm pretty sure dead daddy Jor-El had more lines than Superman throughout the movie. I'm almost positive that Zod did. It nearly felt like I was watching Conan, with the hero having twelve lines. It was honestly rare enough that he spoke that at the end when he was doing the "Superman voice", it felt really campy and off-putting.

Intrinsic_sl said:

Russel Crowe was completely throw away as Jor-El, and then it felt as if they paid him all this money to be in the movie now let's find excuses to throw his hologram all over the place. And turning Krypton in to Pandora from Avatar was strange... Kevin Costner / Jonathan Kent was written as an idiot and without any of the leadership, morality, guidance that should have set the stage for why Supes feels the way he does.

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I *hated* the treatment of Jonathan Kent. It was pretty obvious to me that the script wanted to focus a lot more on Jor-El than Jonathan, which bothered me a lot as the Kents are much larger influences than Superman's biological parents.

Intrinsic_sl said:

The destruction of Metropolis was cool and didn't bother me. Just mostly laughed at how much of it was directly related to Superman and not Zod and his army. Superman has no problem with the shortest distance between point A and B being through 10 skyscrapers, a Sears, and 50,000 bystanders.

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+internets for that one

Yeah, I agree on the Metropolis part--it really stood out. The thing I think Snyder was going for was to show how comfortable Superman was with his powers, vs how alien they were to Zod. Like while they were in a building that was collapsing, Zod looks scared and runs out....Even though it was them tumbling into the building that made it collapse in the first place. It was like watching someone be terrified of confetti falling on them. So I think that's what he was trying to communicate, a very obtuse "this is why Superman wins even against a super-warrior....Because he understands his powers". Unfortunately it came out all wrong. It felt like Superman was a sociopath that didn't give a fuck about turning people into pink mist as he flew through them while they were huddled behind their desks.

However, I think the fight? Was really the only excellent part of the movie. I didn't mind Superman acting like an asshole at all...I actually liked that more realistic interpretation of what someone with his powers would actually do to a city. But the rest of the movie? Was disjointed and muddled. It just wasn't a well made film, even outside it's story.

Lith, were you ever a fan of the classic Superman? i cant imagine a classic Superman fan being fine that they turned a much beloved character for 80 years into a cold blooded murderer.

Rewatched this today, and my biggest rustle:

BoldW_sl said:

Rewatched this today, and my biggest rustle:

Spoiler

How the hell did the Kent's dog live approximately 30 years?

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Two different dogs. They don't even look the same.

Watched this last night and was highly entertained. A significant proportion of said entertainment (as others have pointed out) was from the wanton destruction of stuff by Superman right back to his first fight with them in Smallville effectively trashing the entire town.

My son amused the hell out of me by pointing out this is all we'd have wanted from a Hancock sequel as we didn't have to put up with Will Smith.

Superman, you have failed this city!

I was impressed that the Sears that they destroyed looked exactly like the one where I grew up in Kansas in the 80's. The license plate on the bus was also authentic 80's Kansas.

Maester Chuk_sl said:

Lith, were you ever a fan of the classic Superman? i cant imagine a classic Superman fan being fine that they turned a much beloved character for 80 years into a cold blooded murderer.

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There really is no reason you can't like both, I liked the movie, I like all-star superman and enjoyed Christopher Reeves Superman (well 1&2) not sure why there has to be some rules that you can't like more then one iteration of Supes.

Do we really need to get into the "which Superman is Superman" bullshit by examining comic covers again? Look they tried to make it grittier and more reflective on this generation rather then the older movies which is 30's Superman. It didn't work for everyone, personally I was entertained enough to take it for what it was... something I'd see once and probably not watch again. Its too bad a better filmmaker then Snyder didn't try to do this I think it could have worked like it did for Batman, but at least with him you got to see that "Yep with all that strength you probably would be a giant asshole and demolish shit too"

It's not like they wont try again in 5-10 years anyways.

Karloff_sl said:

There really is no reason you can't like both, I liked the movie, I like all-star superman and enjoyed Christopher Reeves Superman (well 1&2) not sure why there has to be some rules that you can't like more then one iteration of Supes.

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i dont understand why i should love something completely different than the thing that i grew to love in the first place. yeah original superman is corny as fuck and a do gooder. but thats part of the charm. if Marvel can make a Captain America with a 1940s era personality then frickin snyder can make a wholesome superman who doesnt kill hundreds of thousands of humans trying to save the rest of the world. he would have found a way to save everyone and not be a brooding asshole to his human father.

Maester Chuk_sl said:

i dont understand why i should love something completely different than the thing that i grew to love in the first place. yeah original superman is corny as fuck and a do gooder. but thats part of the charm. if Marvel can make a Captain America with a 1940s era personality then frickin snyder can make a wholesome superman who doesnt kill hundreds of thousands of humans trying to save the rest of the world. he would have found a way to save everyone and not be a brooding asshole to his human father.

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Karloff posted my thoughts. The thing is, Chuk, I don't view them as the "same"--they are different Supermen. Superman is one comic that has gone through so many eras and so many iterations, that I don't really view him as having a decent baseline. Have you seen how douchey modern superman is in the comics? "I'm going to be a citizen of the world, derp and derp.

I like the 80's superman for being what it was--it was just a story about someone with extreme power but ideal human (American Heartland) values, being thrown into a mix with less than ideal humans. This Superman is different, it's about learning that nothing is without "bad" aspects, even when you try to do something good--it's more cynical, becauseweare more cynical. Superman has always been a reflection of us, more specifically America. (Clark Kent as us, Superman as what we are "together", as Americans). I think a superman that tries to do good, but his immense power produces a ton of collateral damage, is a pretty poignant piece of symbolism about how Americans feels right now. It was just different in the 80's, our mood, how we felt about the world and ourselves and the storiesreflectedthat.

However, the overall movie was a shit pile, but it wasn't due to the character. The character was fine for the times.

My knowledge of the comics starts and ends with the 70s. Im more familiar with the animated and live action films and tv series. Good thing because i never saw the fleischer superman cartoons until i was 17 and since then i think they probably should never allowed supes to fly. His leaping tall buildings seems way cooler. Anyway. I love me some old corny superman. Even during darker times like world war 2 superman was a positive character for good.

Aye, the thing is. I really enjoyed this film. I saw it twice already and will probably watch it a third time. The only thing i didnt like was how they changed supes. Example if they rebooted star wars and luke and leia were the evil ones anf having an incestfest while darth vader tried to save the universe it would probably be an awesome movie, but it also would break my childhood's heart.