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Superman: Man of Steel


lovecraftian
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Just back from seeing it, I think I'd give it a 7/10. It had me until about a third or half way through then it just got a little too much, too much noise, too much action, impossible to care about anything going on, nothing is really developed or earnt, no really rousing payoff. Cavill was good but I almost feel like he was wasted and we didn't see what he was really capable of. Faora was also pretty cool though, better than Zod.

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Faora was the best part of the movie! I love her.

 

I guess I;m always this guy, so I'll be him again-- I was majorly let down for the most part.

 

The good:

The cast in general was super into it and awesome in their roles, Cavil especially.

 

SUPER-PUNCHING. Even with superhero movies being in a renaissance era, I feel like I've still truly lacked seeing a full-on super-powered fight sequence on screen that delivered-- this one did.

 

 

Aaaaaaaaaand that was it.

 

Everything else was average to bad.

 

-The sequences on Krypton felt like a Star Wars prequel (hammy acting, bad stilted dialog, over-use of CG and spastic camera angles)

-Jor-El's plan was contrived and only made sense cause the plot needed it too

-Metropolis getting ravaged was the most obvious use of 9/11 images ever.

-Holy CRAP was this movie loud. My kid plugged his ears the entire time

-Pa Kent's death was pretty pointless, there were about a dozen ways Clark could have saved him and stayed incognito.

-The narrative was WAY fragmented, mostly by flashback scenes we didn't need. Who doesn't know Superman's origin at this point?

 

My 2nd biggest complaint though- It was just COLD. Everyone was like a robot. There were zero emotions in this film aside from some angry yelling. The ONE thing you have to do with Superman is make him charming. Cavil was great with what he was given, but Superman is a character that tries double time to be a human. He's an alien who is more human than we are because he has to temper his power with gravitas. We saw none of that. Even a few more one-liners, jokes, or funny remarks would have helped. I didn't mind he was Emoman-- that wasn't the problem. We were told of what a swell guy he was, but his interrogation scene with Lois was the only time he was even close to being charming, and that's a problem.

 

My biggest complaint though--

 

Superman killed. Not acceptable.

 

 

Overall it gets a pass because I saw the super-powered brawls I've wanted to for decades. If JJ Abrams gives me a Braveheart/Excaliber style lightsaber war, my geek side can die happy.

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I guess I;m always this guy, so I'll be him again-- I was majorly let down for the most part.

 

Booooooo! BOOOOOOOOO!

 

The only thing I'll really disagree with you on is the fragmented narrative. I thought it was great, and worked really well.

 

I do agree on the Pa Kent thing, but it bugged me for about 15 seconds. Mostly I just wondered why they didn't send Clark in the first place since he was basically assured survival. Dumb, but that's very much a "well whatever" thing for me.

 

The sequences on Krypton were a little... much... at times. I couldn't focus on anything (I was high up, and on a side though so that's at least partially my fault), and there was just a little much going on. Kind of reminded me of that opening sequence in RotS.

 

-Metropolis getting ravaged was the most obvious use of 9/11 images ever.

Meh. Is anytime buildings come down a use of 9/11 images now? Isn't that unavoidable? It crossed my mind in a "well that's the world we live in now" way, but not a "oh jeez what a hamfisted way to try to bring an emotion out from the audience" kind of way.

 

If JJ Abrams gives me a Braveheart/Excaliber style lightsaber war, my geek side can die happy.

 

This, though. This I could get behind.

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Worth a separate post:

 

My theatre was like 2/3rds full (at least) for an 11:20 AM showing on a Friday. Even for an opening Friday... does that seem like a lot to anyone else? I had fewer people in the same showing when I saw Avengers in Chicago. Not trying to insinuate that Superman could pull down that kind of scratch, but do you think it was a coincidence we all had the same idea to see the movie at that time or does that bode well for the box office returns?

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Great characterization of Supes, Lois and Zod. Shake-Cam cinematography crap is still crap. Overlong Transformers/Avengers living tentacle ships terrorizing the masses ending. A bit uncomfortable watching the buildings and destruction and Perry White covered in building dust. Sorry, I’m of the generation that watched 9/11/01 in real time. I’m never shaking that shyt.

 

Overall, worth it and I hope to see more of the Cavill/Adams duo in the future.

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-Metropolis getting ravaged was the most obvious use of 9/11 images ever.

I don't know about comparisons to 9/11, maybe because I'm not American, but Metropolish getting ravaged, the sheer death and destruction was quite uncomfortable. What was really jarring for me was how immediately after, like the very next scene after the fight is over is played for laughs, then everything is wrapped up quickly and theres no mention of all the death or its affect on things, I mean Metropolis must have been halfed wiped off the map. Avengers at least had that little montage of news clips and things, but everything immediately after in this was meant to be a funny scene.

-Holy CRAP was this movie loud. My kid plugged his ears the entire time

I thought it was way too loud, it was like sensory overload. I felt like looking away at times. It made me think of the Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions, too much, no restraint. And really did it have to be such a loud bang every single time he flew away. I kept trying to listen to the score but couldn't because there was always so much noise drowning it out.

-The narrative was WAY fragmented, mostly by flashback scenes we didn't need. Who doesn't know Superman's origin at this point?

Yeah I liked the flashbacks initially but I do remember I started to think, "really, another"?

-Pa Kent's death was pretty pointless, there were about a dozen ways Clark could have saved him and stayed incognito.

Yep. It was set up so obviously for him to die it made no sense, you knew instantly he was dying and Clark just standing there was silly.

 

Also, what was the point of the church scene? There was nothing before it to show Clark had any faith or a religious side, and nothing after that followed it up. It was just there for the sake of it. I could do without his crucifix pose as he fell back from the spaceship as well (I had the same problem with Superman Returns).

 

 

Superman screaming after killing Zod. Why? There had been no mention before he had a problem killing, and given all the collateral damage and his lack of awareness about all the innocents that must have been klilled during his fights I'm surprised he cared so much about killing Zod. And if it was so painful for him why was there no follow up? He lets out this sceam and cries, then like I said earlier everything after that is meant to be light hearted and funny and no consequences are shown. Its very jarring.

 

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Regarding your spoiler, I think it was him realizing he just probably ended his entire race, not the killing part.

 

I could be wrong.

 

Also, Yes, Very freaking loud. Which I usually hate, but I just must have been in a really good mood or something because I was all on board for this one.

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His race isn't dead though, Faora and all the others went back to the Phantom Zone.

 

Which reminds me-- when they were first sealed up and launched from Krypton, did it look like a squadron of flying dongs to anyone else? Total fleet of space dildos...

 

I've been reading a lot of derision on the innarwebs about the spoiler at the end. It's divided people sharply. It's made me realize something about myself in terms of how I see movies. As much of a geek as I am, I am not a fanboy.

 

 

 

The overwhelming defense of Superman killing Zod seems to be "he had no choice."

 

To me, that is just a fanboy answer. And I don't mean to be pejorative-- nothing wrong with being a fanboy. I don't discount anyone having pleasure in a film. Just because I didn't like it doesn't make it bad, and anyone else stupid for liking it. (well, except for the PT). Saying that Superman had no choice is accepting the story as it was handed to you-- as if what happens in the story is the only possible outcome. I've never been able to settle for that.

 

Because Superman isn't real. To me the argument goes a step back to the writing of the film. It's not that Superman didn't have a choice, it's that the filmmakers wrote him into that corner. They either got to the point where they made Zod so powerful they couldn't come up with any other way to stop him, OR they made the conscious decision to make Superman a killer.

 

Either way, that's Goyer and Snyder doing a major disservice to the story.

 

Worst of all-- I don't think it bought them anything other than saying they don't want to follow one of Superman's core beliefs. Maybe they thought it would give him some level of gravitas, but I don't think it did.

 

And, sorry, but even in the fanboy world it didn't work. He DID have choices. Why didn't he fly straight up with Zod? Or put that hand he used to twist his head over his eyes instead?

 

Superman is SUPERMAN-- he should have used Zod's one weakness, his ego, against him to defeat him.

 

 

 

 

Also, did anyone else catch that when Clark was snooping around the scout ship, one of the sleep chambers was open and empty? Was that a hint to somebody else from Krypton being around? Supergirl? Brainiac?

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Which reminds me-- when they were first sealed up and launched from Krypton, did it look like a squadron of flying dongs to anyone else? Total fleet of space dildos...

 

No. But I did notice all the vaginal entrances on those ships. Interesting what each of our respective eyes notice :yes: (BTW, Great to have you back Tank Driver)

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umm...WTH did i just see? MOS was alot of back n forth. Blown away by all the super fights. Spotted the LexCorp easter egg.

 

(...I guess i was supposed to walk into to this one completely ignoring all of the events that happen in SR.)

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Also, did anyone else catch that when Clark was snooping around the scout ship, one of the sleep chambers was open and empty? Was that a hint to somebody else from Krypton being around? Supergirl? Brainiac?

 

Supergirl. The prequel comic shows that she was on the ship that was discovered in the movie. It was a battle between her and another Kryptonian that caused it to crash (the comic leaves it a mystery as to what happens to the two of them after the crash).

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You may not be a Superman fanboy, Driver, but what you said about the PT defines you as a Star Wars fanboy. Unless I took what you said wrong and you were just talking about Superman fanboyishness and not in general fanboyishness.

 

A fanboy defends against all logic-- I am pretty anti PT... Unless you mean OT fanboy... Which I may be.

 

Since mu first day of film school, Star Wars has been at odds with my brain.

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Also, what was the point of the church scene? There was nothing before it to show Clark had any faith or a religious side, and nothing after that followed it up.

 

There was that little bit where young Clark asks Jonathan if God made him like that. Otherwise, there wasn't anything other than Hollywood's typical portrayal of Midwestern religious faith. Like the priest's collar on a minister of a small church in the middle of Kansas!

 

Got back about an hour ago. I've loved Superman since I was a kid; he's easily my favorite superhero. I watched "The Adventures of Superman", "Superman: The Movie", II, III and IV (yes, I admit to watching the last two!). I went into "Superman Returns" with low expectations and allowed it to be better than I thought it would be.

 

I don't know how I feel about it. I guess only random stuff.

 

* Krypton=boring. At least they paid Russell Crowe to do more than Brando did.

 

* Lois' crude comment to the military guys at the beginning: ya know, lady reporters have better ways to show how tough they are. And,honey, if you really were embedded with troops, sleeping on a cot with a bucket for a toilet shouldn't shock you.

 

* Fragmented storyline didn't bother me. Shutting the dog in the car when you're all getting out to stare slack-jawed at a tornado did. Especially when you rescue every single person on that oddly-traffic-jammed Kansas highway first before realizing, "Yeah, hey, let the dog out". Stupid way for Pa to die. I wondered why his tombstone only showed him living 46 years. Little did I know it was due to stupidity.

 

* Shannon isn't better than Terence Stamp, but, at least his motivations were better than just EVIL. On the other hand, having a villain other than Lex Luthor tossing kryptonite at him was refreshing.

 

* And seeing Superman be Superman was really cool.

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I give the movie a 6 out 10. I love Superman and first let me say that Henry Cavill is a very good Superman but like Brandon Routh who was also a solid superman they are both victims of a bad storyline and poor execution. The fight scenes were overkill and the quick jerky camera movements took away from what could have been better action scenes. Sometimes less is more. Louis Lane was Louis Lame and not used well. Michael Shannon as Zod was okay but nothing special. Perry Whites character play by Fishbourne??? What a waste. I liked the flashback scenes other than the tornado scene which was dumb. I thought the demise of Zod was stupid and didn't make sense after all the beatings and crashes etc... I really wanted to like this movie more but left the theatre shaking my head. Plus the musical score sucked! Imagine if they kept Williams score for some of those scenes. Russel Crowe was good as well but this movie falls into my category of "seen it and never need to see it again"

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His race isn't dead though, Faora and all the others went back to the Phantom Zone.

 

Natural birth is heresy to their breed of Kryptonian soldiers, as shown in the movie. And Superman destroyed the Genesis Chamber. So yup, unless they give in to heresy to save their race and breed amongst the handful of them left, their race is dead.

 

...and I saw somebody say "Brainiac." I immediately thought of Brainiac when I saw their communication methods and the little AI's floating around the ship.

 

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Same here! I think Brainiac is perfectly suited to translate well to film. It's seems like Batman is the only superhero with a long list of well known enemies.

 

For Supes all I can think of is Luthor, Bizzaro, Metallo and Brainiac. And Mr. Mytzlplwhatever, but that will never work on film.

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We need Darkseid and his dispensible Parademons. Doomsday would make for something epic if done correctly. Bizzaro could be a hack geneticists attempt to duplicate Superman for the government since he won't comply with their wishes...but obviously less retarded. There is also Mongul, though that would call for almost as large of a scope as Darkseid...and maybe more suspension of disbelief. There's also Lobo, depending on how he's handled. He and Superman could beat the **** out of each other.

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