Superman: The Man of Steel (First Look)

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Much better than what I expected. Made up for my disappointment with IM3. I had the same enjoyment, excitement and amazement I remembered as a kid watching the older Superman 1,2 & 4 movies in the early-mid-late 80's.
 
Saw it today. Looking forward to Superman 2 Head of Skin. You know Lex Luthor is coming next. See all those Lexcorp tankers and stuff? It was a good movie. Lara-El? Milf. Antje Traue as Faora? Hot.

Also, if Cavill's pecs are not digitally enhanced I'd be very impressed. Dude was super swole for this flick.
 
I saw it Friday on IMAX 3D. I'm torn between the critics (57% on Rotten Tomatoes) and audiences (82%). If you examine the film from a wide view, it is an action-packed superhero tale that delivers on the action in a huge way, but when I narrow my focus certain bits bother me.

Lets start with the first thing I immediately noticed. Language. I do believe there is a bit of an ethical responsibility for entertainment producers to keep their audiences in mind. This will be the first Superman rendition where I would suggest not taking kids until you are comfortable with them using language like the S-word. It wasn't overboard, but everything but the F-bomb was used enough to make me consciously aware of the number of young kids around me. It isn't over the top, but a traditionally family-friendly hero should have held back from multiple uses of anatomical referencing obscenities. Maybe it only bothers me because I had a Superman themed birthday party when I was five. That wouldn't have happened if this movie was out in place of the Christopher Reeves film.

Moving on, Christopher Meloni. He's a good actor, but after 15 years on Law & Order: SVU I kept wondering who got raped when he showed up. It's just a mild distraction.

Christopher Nolan was involved in the script. We know that, but if we weren't told in the credits I would have still noticed because the villain uses one of the exact same tactics as one from Batman.

Nolan wrote the script: I know because someone forgot to show the excitement of being a superhero. Well, they show one scene, but it was directly ripped from Spiderman (Sam Rami edition).

Now for detailed points - go go spoiler text!

I don't know why, but DC/WB no longer seem to care about secret identities, at least as far as girls go. She found out early in Green Lantern, half of Gotham knows about the Nolan Batman (its just in his face), and here he meets Lois because she finds him on the farm in Smallville. In the end, the military is trying to find out, but somehow failed to track the ships landing at his boyhood home or connect them fighting in Smallville. Then, no one knows who he is, except Lois, in the end. He has been on TV. He has been photographed. Half the people he grew up with kind of know. But when he signs on to work at the largest newspaper (can we update that bit, please?) in the city no one, besides Lois, recognizes him. Really?

That brings up another point. The military was on top of Zod and his ships' locations until it didn't work in the story. Superman steals an alien ship but they didn't track its flight. Every time Zod lands or flies by they know where everything is until he threatens Clark's family. Similarly, Superman just hovers over a deserted road to announce himself to the world. The military found him, but can't track him to his home.

Now for my biggest gripes. Lets start with the lessons learned from Pa Kent. "What was I supposed to do, let them die?" "Maybe." NOOOOOOOOO! The lesson learned from his Earth father is the opposite of what it means to be a hero, while he died being a hero? I understand that he was protecting his son from the evil world. His Earth father is hiding him from the very thing he was sent to save by his Kryptonian father. Personally, the moment I saw my child was invincible I would give them the "with great power comes great responsibility" speech and tell them they will make me proud one day.

Speaking of protecting people and letting them die; collateral damage. He said he was the embodiment of America. If he meant the innocent death count, then yeah. First rule of superheroing, minimize collateral damage. You don't drive your opponent through the foundational structures of every skyscraper you can find. In fact, you try to draw them out of population centers. People want to compare the disaster and spectacle of the final battle to Avengers. Ok. The Avengers designed a plan to not kill hundreds of thousands of people, in fact one of its goals was to protect them. They didn't once destroy whole buildings in a furious rage, not even Hulk. There was even an episode of Ultimate Spider-Man (cartoon) where Captain America shows up and lectures him on collateral damage.

And I'm not talking about the ship crash or the "world engine" destruction. I'm purely thinking of all the times the hand-to-hand fighting resulted in buildings collapsing.

And I don't know how much of this was purposefully political commentary, but changing the reasoning of Krypton's destruction to abuse of natural resources was unnecessary. Adding in all the outpost stations just seemed...odd. Are we descendants of Kryptonians? I have to assume this opens the door to future storylines, but if a civilization can be as advanced as Krypton (which appears to come partially from Avatar), but can't find a way off-planet, while doing it to criminals, then they probably deserve to die. Throwing in the population control and predetermined career just added to the oddness. Krypton was Brave New World made over. And around the same time you lose the knowledge of space travel and sex you also lose technicolor in your 3D monitors.

That said, the scene at the end, where Superman crashes a drone that's looking for him, had to be pure coincidence with the timing of the NSA surveillance scandal. But I did love it. I want a clip of just that scene to send to all of Congress. "I grew up in Kansas."

Finally, the kiss with Lois. She mutters something about first kisses and relationships going downhill. For some odd reason I flashed back to the kiss in Speed, and Sandra Bullock ruining the moment by yammering on about relationships begun in high-stress situations. And I hate saying this, because I like Amy Adams as that good-looking, approachable girl-next-door type, which I prefer over a Scarlett Johansen or whatever.
Ultimately, it is a fun movie that I recommend seeing, but as a Superman film, from a lifelong Superman fan, it just feels like its missing something. Anyone who remembers my thoughts on the Marvel films may recall my biggest plus for them was that they felt like they put the comic directly on the screen, but that feeling is missing in Man of Steel.

Omnis
Also, if Cavill's pecs are not digitally enhanced I'd be very impressed. Dude was super swole for this flick.
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Adam Carolla raised a point about this on his podcast today. If you have super powers do you need to be buff to lift heavy things? Will good biceps help you lift a continent? That got me to thinking. If his physiology is just different because of being from another planet with a different environment, wouldn't he be less muscular due to reduced strain on his body? The more we know about science the more Superman's origin story needs to rely on the differing radiation in our atmosphere.

EDIT:. After my nega-review I did want to add one really positive bit.

The scene where a young Clark is seeing through everything and hearing everything without any control and having to learn to focus his abilities was brilliant, especially when they remembered that later while fighting Zod. That is the kind of good writing that you will never see in a Michael Bay film, or most things written by Orci/Kurtzman. Calling back to to a scene in an origin flashback and that very experience being used as a tool/enemy weakness was well done.
 
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Really wasn't impressed by it. Thought it dragged on quite a bit, action scenes felt repetitive (how many walls can we go through?) and I thought the trust issue was completely under played. That's not to say I thought it was particularly bad, it just didn't hit the high points.

"Meh" probably sums it up.

Outside of that, my mate was credited.
 
I agree up to a point with that. I'm not sure this film would miss a good 20 minutes of the fight scenes being edited out. OK, he's up against an (almost) equally strong opponent in Zod but....

...if you both can take the punishment of endlessly being thrown through steel and concrete buildings but killed by simply having your neck broken, then why not try and do that sooner rather than (considerably) later?

I did enjoy it though, but as a darker and more psychological reinterpretation of a comic superhero, the Dark Knight series still has it pegged for me.
 
axletramp
I agree up to a point with that. I'm not sure this film would miss a good 20 minutes of the fight scenes being edited out. OK, he's up against an (almost) equally strong opponent in Zod but....

* SPOILER *

I did enjoy it though, but as a darker and more psychological reinterpretation of a comic superhero, the Dark Knight series still has it pegged for me.
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Completely agree on your spoiler point. I spent half the movie trying to work out an abilities matrix for each character, was rather pointless by the end.
 
Ddrizle
Much better than what I expected. Made up for my disappointment with IM3. I had the same enjoyment, excitement and amazement I remembered as a kid watching the older Superman 1,2 & 4 movies in the early-mid-late 80's.
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Really!!!:eek: You just sold it for me then:tup: somehow I didn't want to disrespect Christopher Reeve:guilty::lol:
 
I saw the new Superman movie last night.👍

All-in-all, I rather liked it, and would recommend it.

axletramp
*****I'm not sure this film would miss a good 20 minutes of the fight scenes being edited out. OK, he's up against an (almost) equally strong opponent in Zod but....
.
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Can I join the band-wagon?:bowdown:

I'm in full agreement with FoolKiller's and axletramp's comments about this^^^^^


....The movie would have been better to have spent less time destroying the city with all the hand-to-hand combat. Especially since, as you both mention, its in Superman's DNA to limit collateral damage to us "weak" earthlings:)

....I did find it a little jarring how Lois Lane seemed to be on every military vehicle/transport.....maybe she also works part-time for the NSA?:dopey:

....My only other dislike was that the movie's plot seemed too similar to the plot from Superman 2. Sure it was a different take on dealing with General Zod, but still too similar for my taste.

Respectfully,
GTsail
 
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Loved it. Will be going to see it again, soon. And omg the fight scenes were breathtaking.

Finally, Superman's power is properly displayed on the big screen. And the CG was incredible.
 
Omnis
A neat perspective on the film.
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That was such a roundabout way to get to, 'Superman needs faith' that I expected Patton Oswalt to come in and start rambling on about Star Wars vs Marvel.

That said, while Superman doesn't specifically how to God

He does find himself filled with guilt at how he must stop Zod and answering to a higher force (even if it isn't God) in the what it means to be a hero. He recognizes a faith in something that prevents him from just slaughtering his enemies, morality.

All that said, I have a Superman music box from my childhood that has a Superman statue that rotates while it plays 'Jesus Christ Superstar.'
 
Lacked a little heart for me.

Things like dispatching the main villain Jason Bourne style made this feel less like Superman for me. At least in Iron Man 3 the character was recognisably the one from the comics and other movies
 
I went to see this last night. It wasn't what I thought it would be, at all. If I'm honest, I rather enjoyed the first 30-45 minutes of the movie where you learn about where he grew up and how he lived his life, going from job to job in the middle of nowhere - always as an outcast. That section of the film was much more interesting and watchable than the remainder of it.

How long can those fight scenes really go on for? I was fed up before the end and just wanted it to come to some sort of rapid conclusion. There were so many flaws that annoyed me that it made such a big named movie seem so badly made. For instance...

How does Lois go from being on the outskirts of a completely obliterated city, to knowing the exact building Clark would be, when he kills Zod? Some 5-10 minutes later...

It just got a little repetitive with all the building destruction, over and over. So basing judgment on my first viewing, I wouldn't see it again. 👎
 
I saw it in IMAX 3D. it will be interesting to see how Luthor and Batman use the leftovers to weaken the Man Of Steel.
And I guess NOW Kal-El understands why none of The Incredibles wear capes.
 
Like most expected finally we will be seeing Superman and Batman in a Man of steel sequel

Dun Dun Duuuuun
 
FoolKiller
I saw it Friday on IMAX 3D. I'm torn between the critics (57% on Rotten Tomatoes) and audiences (82%). If you examine the film from a wide view, it is an action-packed superhero tale that delivers on the action in a huge way, but when I narrow my focus certain bits bother me.

Lets start with the first thing I immediately noticed. Language. I do believe there is a bit of an ethical responsibility for entertainment producers to keep their audiences in mind. This will be the first Superman rendition where I would suggest not taking kids until you are comfortable with them using language like the S-word. It wasn't overboard, but everything but the F-bomb was used enough to make me consciously aware of the number of young kids around me. It isn't over the top, but a traditionally family-friendly hero should have held back from multiple uses of anatomical referencing obscenities. Maybe it only bothers me because I had a Superman themed birthday party when I was five. That wouldn't have happened if this movie was out in place of the Christopher Reeves film.

Moving on, Christopher Meloni. He's a good actor, but after 15 years on Law & Order: SVU I kept wondering who got raped when he showed up. It's just a mild distraction.

Christopher Nolan was involved in the script. We know that, but if we weren't told in the credits I would have still noticed because the villain uses one of the exact same tactics as one from Batman.

Nolan wrote the script: I know because someone forgot to show the excitement of being a superhero. Well, they show one scene, but it was directly ripped from Spiderman (Sam Rami edition).

Now for detailed points - go go spoiler text!
Click to expand...

Hilarious and yet in-depth review on the movie, though I came into it looking at it from how it stacks to Nolan Batman Trilogy and Marvel's Avengers.
 
Way to dig up a dead thread Batman errr SuperMan but saw it Yesterday

Subtitles I downloaded didn't work so alot of the background stuff from the plot was lost to me (that or it was over complex)

Not sure what to feel about this, love the soundtrack and the acting was very good, Zod was a very good Villian but I hate it when Movies drag on that much but I think overall a pretty decent flick, will see again/
 

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