Man of Steel - *Spoilers*

[atp]

Do you think the codex also contains the DNA for the Kryptonian dragonfly?

[cypher85]

Definitely, the movie makes that obvious. Duh

[atp]

Good.

I hope the next movie shows Kal-El growing the dragonfly (and other dinosaurs) from the codex.

[cypher85]

Well we can all hope, though, they planted the seeds in MOS, so it would be a waste if that didn't happen.

[ChrisM]

Jun 26, 2013 12:00:06 GMT -5 cypher85 said:

Well we can all hope, though, they planted the seeds in MOS, so it would be a waste if that didn't happen.

Not sure if serious...

[Deleted]

It was an answer to a question from ATP. Seriousness can and should never result.

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[supes81]

On reflection I like this movie. I seem to be like most, like but not love. Can't rave about it. I think it just needed more space, if that makes sense. More time to breath. Even the quieter moments were dramatic. Mostly I think we needed a better sense of where we were and the environment we were in. I don't think the movie allowed that exploration or created the atmosphere of the places or the people, no sense of normalcy before the destruction happened. It was as if this movie was a sequel and we had been here before and were familiar with it so no need to re-hash.

In fact this would do well as as a third act of a trilogy. If the first two movies had no origin story or only little glimpses and had Clark established in Metropolis from the first movie then with some minor changes in story this movie would be great in that respect. The flashbacks would serve to deepen a character we already know and fill in gaps about his past, with the epic battle it would serve well as a close rather than a beginning.

The cast are a big reason I am going back for a second screening. Loved the action, just more balance was needed. The story was good and I liked Zod's motivation. In fact this movie was as much about his character as Kal/Clark.

[Ollie W]

REVIEW OF MAN OF STEEL
IMAX 2D (I have no time for 3D)

I had a nice little moment before I walked into the theatre to see Man of Steel last night. Wearing a Superman shirt under my semi opened jacket a young boy looked up at me and ask “Are you Superman?”. Was the Man of Steel back? I sure hoped so.

If you haven't seen Man of Steel yet it is advisable that you do not read this review as it contains spoilers.

I wasn't alive when Christopher Reeve flew onto the screen in Richard Donner's 1978 epic. I was only three years old for Reeve's last outing in the cape for Superman IV. But to say any movie has had such a lasting impact on me is an understatement. Which is why when Bryan Singer announced he was relaunching the franchise following Donner's framework I was naturally ecstatic. Unfortunately for various reasons Superman Returns didn't succeed in making Superman relevant again. Having now seen Man of Steel I feel I overlooked one further reason why Singer's film failed. Superman's origin story needed to be retold so that a generation who didn't grow up with the Man of Steel could discover the legend.

Man of Steel is a good film but not a great film. I liked it but I didn't love it. It's essentially a three part act but told in a less classical form of story telling. Whilst the first two parts left me both moved and enthralled the final act had me switching off and I'll elaborate on that later.

Krypton is re-imaged and in no other visual media have we seen Superman's home planet in such detail. I want to point out that the depiction of Krypton is strikingly similar to how it's portrayed in Kevin J Anderson's novel 'Last Days of Krypton', which I highly recommend. The relationship between Jor-El and military leader Zod bears some obvious similarities.

We then jump forward to a mature Clark lost at sea. It's though this part of the film that we see and learn of his isolation and inability to fit into our world with some beautifully placed flashbacks of his early years in Smallville. There are some obvious parallels to the TV series Smallville but I especially loved the idea that it takes some time for him to learn to equilibrise his senses. This is later shown to be a nice little obstacle for Zod and co when they arrive on Earth.

Whilst it's still about halfway into the movie that we see Clark step into the suit. You feel you get to know him a lot better along the journey. The moment when he comes to the aid of a female worker whilst working in a bar is incredibly moving.

We don't get an obvious Fortress of Solitude. But I always suspected we wouldn't in a Christopher Nolan production given how raw his imaging of Batman was. Nevertheless it works quite well and brings Lois Lane into the fold. Having her track Clark and ultimately discover his secrete was a bold move but I liked it as it gives Lois more to do. You very quickly warm to her character as she puts Clark ahead of her story.

The final act is where the movie lost me as we are saturated with intense action with excessive violence. Honestly I must say I feel sorry that a young generation of movie goers requires such extreme violence in order to be entertained. Here we get three 'computer game' like battles which are more or less the same action over and over again, which culminates in Superman breaking his code and killing Zod. Whilst his morels are never laid out in Man of Steel you can see by Cavill's reaction to killing Zod that he didn't want to. I'll give the film-makers credit for that as I will to Cavill for some superb acting. Nevertheless it's the examples that Superman sets that shape him. Seeing him drive Zod through building after building with little regard for civilians I simply can't except. You don't see the deaths but you know with such blatant destruction there will be hundreds if not thousands of casualties. It's the sort of carnage that I'd expect in a Batman movie.

Fortunately the film ends on a slightly brighter note with Clark finally putting on the glasses and taking on his position at the Daily Planet. It sets itself up nicely for a sequel and it will be interesting to see how the film-makers handle the Lois and Clark relationship given she knows his secrete.

The casting in this picture was first rate and I'll mention a few of the stand outs. Henry Cavill was wonderful in the duel role. Besides the Krypton sequence he is pretty much on screen the whole time rather then having to make frequent exists in his respective roles. He has a lot of highly emotional scenes and he generally strikes the right notes. Not since Christopher Reeve have I seen an actor so obviously confident and proud in the suit.

Amy Adams gets a little lost in the mayhem at the end but her relationship on screen with Cavill was genuine. For most of the part it was a fairly original performance as Lois Lane given her character spent so little time at the Daily Planet making it difficult to play off past actors in the role. Russell Crowe was as professional and solid as always. Crowe was an obvious choice for Jor-El in my eyes. Many of his scenes are similar to Marlon Brando's and he preforms them eloquently. Michael Shannon was a ruthless General Zod. Born for a purpose the point at which Superman takes away his cause in life is a fine moment. Kevin Costner delivers perhaps his best performance for some time. The scene of his death moved me greatly.

The score was a mixed bag for me. I really need to listen to the score outright before forming an honest opinion but as it stands in the movie I wasn't too impressed as it mostly felt like background noise. Having said that I didn't like Hans Zimmer's take on Batman when I first heard it and in time I ended up loving those scores.

Did I believe a man could fly? Not so much. The intensity of the flying scenes left little room for performance. I've always said that it was Reeve's work on wires that made me believe.

Summing up this was the Superman film we had to have. Whilst Donner's classic is still cool in my eyes I accept that may not be the case for modern audiences. As long as the crux of Superman remains the same I'm fine with him being re-imaged, especially if in doing so Superman is made relevant again and dispatches of the novelty Marvel heroes and regains the title of the one true Superhero.

[Shane]

saw this today finally

i did rather enjoy it very much action scenes were great
need to see it again tho will give more of a review then

[Metallo]

Good review, Ollie

[atp]

Was that retard who was head of the Krypton council modelled on Judi Dench?

[ye5man]

I didn't like her methods. She wanted to call Crowe a sexist misogynist dinosaur

Fucking bean counter.

[Paul (ral)]

Does anyone else think the noise of the fruit bowl falling was too loud and a little uncalled for?

[Jor-L5150]

also- why did the lawn on the Kent farm always need mowed?
can't these idiots operate a lawn mower?

sheesh. stupid. ruins the movie for me. piece of garbage.

[Jor-L5150]

Jun 27, 2013 11:28:30 GMT -5 @ucfkevin said:

Couldn't tell at my fourth viewing. I think eccentric said he saw the family escape, but I couldn't.

The destruction gets less and less over the top the more I see it. The gravity weapon killed a lot of people, that's for sure, you can see them get lifted into the air and crash to thr ground. They never showed a single person get hurt from anything Superman does, though. Like, at all. Seriously.

And it always seems like it's such a long fight at the end but then they crash into Grand Central and it's over. It's not dragged out or too long at all. I truly believe because this is nothing we have ever seen a Superman movie do, it's jarring and unwelcome to not just people here but everywhere. It's not what they know. It's understandable, for sure, but also unfortunate.

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watching it again last night a thought occurred to me:

we see perry white order the evacuation of the daily planet- and for all of goyers over-writing i didnt htink we NEEDED to see the emergency evac plans of every building downtown- or as UF put it, the whereabouts of EVERY unnamed extra.

but consider this:
perry is in charge of the biggest media outlet in the western world. daily planet IS the "paper of record". and as such- they'd be the LAST to leave.
anytime theres a riot, a warzone, a catastrophe- the media is right there. 99.9999% of the time its showboating opportunist vultures with an agenda- but for the very few it IS about getting the info and making a record. perry is a man of PRINCIPLE (and not a little pragmatism) so he would not exit the building in a panic, nor would he put his staff in too much danger. so he waited as long as he could- and then ordered the evac.

so while MANY die in MOS- how many died when lex cause the earthquake in california? (before superman time wapred it away that is)

[Metallo]

In STM not only does he try to STOP the cause of all the death and destruction caused by Luthor but they show use Superman SAVING people too. That's why I say SHOW it don't say it. MOS says Superman will be an inspiration ? Show us how he becomes that through the fucking people he's supposed to inspire. And not just through post op Jimmy Olsen. The film beat that point home over and over again but kinda glossed over it. If they can beat us over the head with the Christ allegory then surely they can show why it's relevant.

It would take a long amount of time to evacuate some parts of Metropolis and the film doesn't even go into even though it would have been easy to do. If the film FORCES US to assume so much about it and give it a pass its not doing its job. Past films have shown mass evacuations by just cutting in a few scenes. The film doesn't have to spell out everything but if you're going to do something like this it needs to make sense and be clear. Clearly that family at the end didn't evacuate. Not too many places to go barring leaving the city.

[Deleted]

Jun 27, 2013 16:52:52 GMT -5 Jor-L5150 said:

Jun 27, 2013 11:28:30 GMT -5 @ucfkevin said:

Couldn't tell at my fourth viewing. I think eccentric said he saw the family escape, but I couldn't.

The destruction gets less and less over the top the more I see it. The gravity weapon killed a lot of people, that's for sure, you can see them get lifted into the air and crash to thr ground. They never showed a single person get hurt from anything Superman does, though. Like, at all. Seriously.

And it always seems like it's such a long fight at the end but then they crash into Grand Central and it's over. It's not dragged out or too long at all. I truly believe because this is nothing we have ever seen a Superman movie do, it's jarring and unwelcome to not just people here but everywhere. It's not what they know. It's understandable, for sure, but also unfortunate.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using proboards

watching it again last night a thought occurred to me:

we see perry white order the evacuation of the daily planet- and for all of goyers over-writing i didnt htink we NEEDED to see the emergency evac plans of every building downtown- or as UF put it, the whereabouts of EVERY unnamed extra.

but consider this:
perry is in charge of the biggest media outlet in the western world. daily planet IS the "paper of record". and as such- they'd be the LAST to leave.
anytime theres a riot, a warzone, a catastrophe- the media is right there. 99.9999% of the time its showboating opportunist vultures with an agenda- but for the very few it IS about getting the info and making a record. perry is a man of PRINCIPLE (and not a little pragmatism) so he would not exit the building in a panic, nor would he put his staff in too much danger. so he waited as long as he could- and then ordered the evac.

so while MANY die in MOS- how many died when lex cause the earthquake in california? (before superman time wapred it away that is)

Nah. Reporters shouldn't spend that much time in the office. No need anymore. When my old company got us iPads, I was rarely in the office. I went out, got my interviews, did my writing at food places or coffee shops (cliched as it is, they have free wifi). I had no need to go back to my office, chain myself to a desk, and write my stories. In my world, if you were sitting at your desk you weren't doing your job! So my question is what are all those lazy ass reporters doing in the office!

[Melv]

Saw it today. I liked it but didn't at all love it. I really wanted to like it more.

Quick points:

I liked all of the design and the sci-fi aspects. I loved Cavill. Russell Crowe and Costner were great as was Amy Adams but I wasn't too impressed by Michael Shannon as Zod.

The camera work annoyed me with all the shaking and zooming but I got used to it. There were some brilliant visuals.

I liked all the action scenes and don't have a problem with the death of Zod except that it could have been built up to better. In my mind, there's no issue with the hero killing the bad guy. As far as I was concerned he deserved it. What else would you have done with him? Plus he killed Zod remorselessly in SII and no-one batted an eyelid. I didn't know about the arctic police until years later and it's never been in an official version (plus arctic police, just showing up like that - really?). Superman always killed to me. No issue.

Some of the destruction was silly but then that happens in the Avengers too and the cartoons are worse for it. It was the most comic book like part. There could have been much more of him saving people and maybe some kind of scene afterwards regretting the damage..

My only real gripe is the editing. I think some of the flashbacks felt tacked on and it jumped around too much. Also, some of the dialogue was really cheesy!

The new theme is great though. I keep humming it.

My favourite scene was Jor-El helping Lois escape and then Superman chasing after and catching her.

I'll definitely see it again. Better than SR already though. I'm more fond of SII but I'd say quality-wise this is probably equal. It kicks III and IV out to space.

[Deleted]

I always forget to mention Jor helping Lois escape. That is a very imaginative sequence. Crowe rules.

The flashbacks are more like what Clark is remembering literally right then. It was all weirdly assembled the first time I saw it, I thought the editing was a mess, but now it's got a terrific unique flow.

I sure hope we get an extended edition.

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[SupermanUF]

To me it does really feel like a comic book.

[Deleted]

Yes.

I think I'll be watching it tonight with my mom. I paid three times to see it. I'm good with downloading it now. Even an FBI agent would say, "Yeah, three times? You're okay. Download it." Got a good copy, actually.

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[ye5man]

The flashbacks are more like what Clark is remembering literally right then.

Do you think this was done purposely to emulate Passion of the Christ?


Given the analogies I don't think its a stretch

[Deleted]

Perhaps?

That Christ pose Supes makes as he leaves the ship to save Lois is so fucking lame and obvious, I straight up hate it, especially when he takes an extra couple of seconds to do that and look dramatic, rather than just take off and save Lois immediately. It works so much better in SR.

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[atp]

Hmm. All this makes me feel that, on second thoughts, maybe my suggestion to have Mel Gibson direct a Superman movie wasn't a good one!

[ye5man]

I hated that shit in SR.


About as subtle as a brick in the face. I am sick of the analogies. There's no need for it.