Man of Steel thoughts? SPOILERS

[CounterPunch]

So, I went and checked out Man of Steel at the weekend, and other than a couple of cursory posts thrown in with a general movie thread I've not really seen any thoughts with it. I'll give my two cents first, and remember, as said in the title, there will be spoilers

Positives.

- Henry Cavill was a great Superman/Clark from what we saw of him, I think he seriously looked the part and did a cool job throughout. I'm not a fan of the Donner films at all, but I can easily admit Reeve was fantastic, Cavill didn't top him though, mainly because I tended to feel Reeve showed more charm. Overall though, thought he was great.

- Lois. I loved that we actually got a proactive Lois in movies for once. I also felt her finding out was the right thing to do considering the ridiculousness of his whole secret identity.

- They got the display of his powers spot on, I especially loved that him flying at super speed wasn't the serene experience like in all other media, it was turbulent as hell.

- I'm glad we got an expanded backstory when it came to Krypton, just because it provided a different take.

- The suit actually looked really good on screen, I was one of those who was concerned by it, but I think it worked well, and I feel the explanation of its origins was great.

- The tale of two dads. Both Russell Crowe and Kevin Costner were brilliant in this film, it would have been easy for two actors like this to sleepwalk through the part, but they each gave their roles the emotion it required.

- Zod. Michael Shannon was brilliant as Zod, in my opinion. He may have lacked the gravitas of good ole Stampy, but I think he played a great foil.

- Great CGI and action scenes looked awesome (but read below).


Negatives

- The action was just too epic. The final battle scene was so long that it all kind of blurred together towards the end and I felt the level of destruction caused by the fighting was just a bit too much. Undoubtedly hundreds (at least) of people were killed from the actions of Superman alone.

- Pacing. This film had SERIOUS pacing issues. We had a hefty run for a while at the beginning, then it just stopped dead for quite a while until a Bolt like explosive sprint towards the end.

- Jenny Olsen. A huge fuss was made about Jimmy being changed to Jenny, and in the end it kind of felt.... Pointless a bit. She was kind of "there" for a while and her name was only said once (i think) so it seemed unnecessary to change an existing character when they could either use that existing character, or just have Jenny be a brand new one. I'm guessing they didn't use Jenny's surname in the film just in case they do decide to add Jimmy in the future.

- The plot can easily fall apart if you think about it for more than 2 minutes. For instance, why terraform Earth? Why not terraform Mars or any other planet once they receive the codex.

- Inconsistency with the villains/Zod. There were a number of times Zod showed regret for his hand being forced, and it also discussed how he had been bred solely for the purpose of doing everything he can to ensure Krypton's prosperity. I felt these were actually quite cool traits, something which made him seem more vulnerable and I would have liked them to be explored more. My main issue was that on one side they had this very militaristic person who knew what he had to do but sometimes didn't like it, on the other we almost had this cackling villain at times.

- Jonathan Kent's death. I praise them for doing something different, the heart attack angle would have been expected and so I like that they changed it up. However, I just don't think it was a hugely successful scene. I would understand Jonathan not wanting Clark to expose his secret, but I do not believe Clark would accept that and just stand there, watching his father die in undoubtedly a very brutal way.


So what are your thoughts?

My brother disliked it immensely, He said that it wasn't what Superman is supposed to be. He is coming from years of only reading the BEST Superman stories out there (such as All-Star, the 80s reboot, Kingdom Come) and he feels they got the character completely wrong. I strongly disagree, I feel that in a movie such as this you need broaden the scope of the character slightly. Had it been a more restrained and introspective look at what it means to be Superman it may have been just as cool, if not better, but you need to play on audience perceptions somewhat, and the perception of what a Superman movie should be is "fast, powerful and actiony."

Apologies if this reads like a 5 year old wrote it, I'm currently operating on only a few hours sleep.

[Securis]

I think it needed more crashing through stuff. Not enough of that for my tastes.

Seriously though, I agree that Henry Cavill was great. The thing that's really missing from MoS, just like what's missing from the rest of the Nolanverse (even though I think the Nolans are fantastic) is the sense of fun that you expect when you go to see a movie about Superman or Batman. I can definitely appreciate the approach that the Nolans take when it comes to these films - everything has a logical explanation, and what's more, the philosophical and emotional potential of the property is fully explored. But as I stated, there's really little to no sense of light hearted fun.

The only really glaring deficiency of the movie is the score. I went in wondering if they would pay any sort of homage to the original John Williams score, but after only a few minutes of hearing how incredibly limp dick the Zimmer score was, I knew they'd be too afraid of unfavorable comparisons to slip in even an obligatory 5 note tribute to the Williams score.

Other than that, I have no complaints - and I am a big fan of the Donner films. I grew up on them.

[ganon578]

I enjoyed every minute of it. Sure there's a some plot holes here and there, but in regards to comic book movies, are there any that don't have plot holes? My whole angle is to go and be entertained, and this movie accomplishes that. The plot isn't terribly deep, and there really isn't any need for it to be. If you want a deep plot, watch a drama - I came to see Superman fly and punch things!

I enjoyed the 'new' takes on everything, from the way Lois and Clark interact to the genetically engineered Kryptonians, to the Krypton mythos. And Michael Shannon did a great job of villainy, in my opinion. I really liked the surpising resolution to Zod at the end.

A couple parts ended up being a little far-fetched (Lois working for the US military with nothing more than a Kevlar vest on?) but overall it was worth every penny of my ticket price.

Supes is my favorite comic character, hands down, and I enjoyed the take. I like the Donner films too, and I just think that it's about time cinema moved on from the Reeve films to something different.