Man of Steel

[karamazov80]

MoS reminds me of DKR. It's not great nor horrible, it exists. Both movies did nothing for me. That might be worse than being bad. I saw both movies on the big screen and I'm thinking about not doing so for upcoming DC movies. I just don't care. It was such a dull experience. The fight scenes had some brutal ideas going for them but reminded me of Transformers. And Superman flying looked off for some reason. Superman can kill for all I care, sometimes that's what has to be done. The argument about sacrifice and making the world small doesn't work for me. He killed more humans than Zod did. I know it was done to prevent Zod from committing genocide but still, he was like a kid in a playpen. When he destroys all these lives it makes all his rescue efforts seem moot. Especially when you consider earth's people are the ones he wants to protect. I was actually rooting for Zod to be honest, just because a lot of stuff didn't make sense. And Clark didn't have any heart nor emotion. I thought the acting was okay, action was pretty fun in general. Writing could've been better. I understand the love for the movie, just like with DKR. And I'm happy for the DC fans. I just hope they raise the bar if they ever make a Justice League movie.

I finally saw this last night, and my feelings seem pretty similar to yours Gambit. I posted my thoughts on another forum last night, but will repeat them here so I can share my historically and cultutrally important knowledge and insight with the rest of you :

I just saw this tonight. First impression is that I was a bit underwhelmed. Movie was a'aight. Action was pretty good, though the CG-centricness of it led to some fake, video-game looking scenes. My main issue though was with the dramatic angle. Apart from Jor-El, the characters didn't feel very real to me, and the emotional reactions seemed kind of hollow. This is a running theme in the Snyder films I've seen, where all of them seem good on the surface for various reasons, but seem to lack some kind of earnest emotional core. I think Iron Man 3 had this at some level, as did Star Trek 2, but didn't feel it here so much. There were also a crapload of unlikely coincidences that happened so that everything fell nicely into place. You get that all the time with movies like this of course, but this one just seemed to have one thing after the other. And as a result the "good guy" characters never felt to me like they were in any real danger. Then there were some issues with logic, like Ursa claiming evolution was so important, yet their race had failed because it became stagnant with the fake birthing chambers. I don't think Goyer/Snyder were trying to be ironic there, just trying to make a "cool" line that ultimately didn't make sense. Lois apparently outed Supes's identity in her news story, yet no one seemed to really remember that later on. Then Supes spends so much energy trying to hide his powers, then does stupid **** like throwing an 18-wheeler through utility poles after a guy picks on him, so that it's blatantly obvious who did what (and no one heard him doing that, by the way?).

Also, I totally didn't buy whatsherface as Lois.

So anyway, flash and style over substance sums it up a bit I guess. Folks demanded Superman punching guys through buildings, and damn if we didn't get that in spades here. But it felt lacking in other areas. Probably the worst of the 3 comic films I saw this summer so far.

I also realized that I really didn't understand what Jor-El was trying to do with the codex.

well i think he was trying to make the superman movie everybody asked for, but i guess didnt want

for years and years (even during Superman Returns release) all i've heard is people complaining that we dont have a movie where Superman fights someone, uses all of his powers, shows what would happen if someone like Superman existed and fought another person with equal power, like what that would do to the world.

I also think this is all gonna work if we do a sequel, think about it, Luthor comes in and rebuilds the city pro bono and becomes a hero, meanwhile cadmus is formed out of the fear of kryptonians and starts building doomsday or cyborg supes or someone along those lines so destruction like this wont happen again (i know it doesnt quite work that way but thats how it happens in the comics)

Yeah, you're right that Snyder did all those superficial things like have guys punch other guys through buildings. But without a real basis in characters you care about I don't know that it matters.

My pitch was that Superman was the catalyst for the formation of the Justice League; a group of people with his powers (or better) to stop him should the need arise. I always thought that would be a paranoid, anti-Super Friends twist on the team's origin.

And if Superman joins the JL then all the better. "... keep your enemies closer."

Great idea. The real thing I came away with is that, in this universe, Superman is a nuclear weapon countries don't have a deterrent to. And he tells them to just "trust him." As if. I can buy it in comics, and in the Reeve-verse, but not in a Nolan influenced movie. Future movies will really need to better explore this. Edited June 28, 2013 by karamazov80

[Trekker 42]

So I'm just gonna say how freakin amazing would it be if the origin of Brainiac in MOS universe was a computer attempting to reconstruct the Jor-El hologram and screwing it up? Perhaps a computer built by some bald guy. So the corrupted Jor-El program convinces Lex to build him a robot body and becomes Brainiac. Just saying that'd be an interesting origin IMO.

[karamazov80]

Braniac actually seems less interesting to me now that we know Krypton had amazing computers that could actually capture and reflect the essence of people. Jor-El's hologram could have discussions with Clark just as if he was really there. Assuming he would be from Krypton, Braniac would be just another one of those, so he could be Zod's computerized essence, or any other given sociopath with delusions of grandeur. He isn't special anymore in my eyes, as a robot that has some sense of consciousness and a drive to dominate.

[TM2 Dinobot]

Hmm. My favorite reviewers did not care much for it a all. 0-o

[undeadpool]

my thought was similar to Trekker, but not exactly, I was hoping to see the genesis ark try to rebuild its AI, but when it realizes that it cant, it reverts back to its core programming "Brain Interactive Construct" which was designed to wipe out a species if they proved threatening to the Kryptonian species, it could be revealed that this program took over on Krypton without the high council being aware of it (due to it hiding its actions) and was part of the reason Krypton was destroyed, and its goal now is to download into every computer on earth and find a way to exterminate its inhabitants.

[karamazov80]

So he was responsible for Krypton's destruction. . .now that's something I could get into. Best if Superman fights Titano, though.

And if we don't get Krypto, Comet, Beppo, and Streaky in the next film then I'm going to RAGE!

[UK Collector]

Hmm. My favorite reviewers did not care much for it a all. 0-o

Thanks for posting that, I've never seen those guys before and really enjoyed their style and sense of humour.

I also liked that they seem to be movie fans, rather than comic book fans, and they really hated it. That's interesting to me because I have been getting a lot of stick over my criticism of the movie in the office etc, being told 'its just because you're a fan that you didn't like certain elements' but that's not the case. My criticisms of the movie are all film related criticisms (poor dialogue etc), I actually didn't mind the changes made to Superman from a character standpoint. I had half expected as much following on from the Dark Knight trilogy.

My girlfriend studied film at university and she absolutely hated it, as did one of her classmates. She was honestly pretty annoyed by it, and I've never seen her riled up like that about a film before in all of our years together.

[karamazov80]

Those guys did some amazing reviews of the Star Wars prequels.

[youbastards]

Track down the Half in the Bag review of the "Zookeeper" trailer, yes they reviewed just the trailer.

Then watch watch the hour+ 2-part review of "Jack & Jill".

They get a little carried away with the Mr. Plinkett stuff sometimes, but their reviews are generally spot-on.