MAN OF STEEL - Grading & Discussion

[Greylock Crescent]

Well, if we're going to do the list thing:

1. Spider-Man 2
1a. The Dark Knight
3. X2: X-Men United
4. Batman
5. Superman: The Movie
6. Spider-Man
7. Iron Man
8. Watchmen
9. The Avengers
10. Man of Steel

 

[sojourner]

The idea is an interesting parallel to modern day. We essentially gutted NASA's budget to pay for social programs (most notably Cash for Clunkers).

LOL, NASA's budget has been terrible since the Nixon administration. Cash for Clunkers played absolutely no part in it's current state. In fact, CfC officially started in 2009 and as you can see here, NASA's budget actually rose marginally that year.

 

[Warped9]

In the 1400s the ancient Chinese also turned back from long range ocean voyages for trade and exploration.

 

[Astraboy]

1. The music was lousy in that I don't remember one note of it. It was just additional noise for the most part and instantly forgettable from one moment to the next. The original '78 John Williams' theme so perfectly encapsulates the idea of Superman that it would be indeed hard to follow and recreate that feeling. MoS' music doesn't even try and is just disposable noise. It's little more than just another sound effect.

Personally, I didn't think it was that bad. The movie from the 3rd trailer (I think) was particularly anthemic. I'd recommend the track "What Are You Going To Do When You Are Not Saving The World" from the soundtrack.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Really, saying the Kryptonians having had other colonies leaves too many "Yeah, but...." questions in place while also mudding the "Last Son of Krypton" thing. I more like the idea that Kryptonians couldn't leave Krypton either due too high of gravity for meaningful space travel to be possible (Kal's ship being the exception as it was launched as Krypton imploded thus didn't have to fight gravity as much) or it was a banned practice as Kryptonians knew how different types of solar radiation effected them and the implications that could have on other worlds.

Here it's like, "Yeah, we did it. But gave up. Everyone else out there? Who knows what happened to them? NBD."

They hinted at the reason both with the inclusion of the Phantom Zone prisoner/scientist Jax-Ur and by showing Krypton's destroyed moon Wegthor, which he blew up. That was what ultimately prompted the Kryptonians to give up space travel.

 

[Shazam!]

Quite a hard list to make as I'm a sucker for superhero flicks. I'd watch anything, even the likes of Ghost Rider, Jonah Hex and Judge Dredd

Oh, yeah.. Dredd should be on my list.

 

[Warped9]

The one overriding thing the '78 film had was that "cool" moment when Superman first appears in Metropolis and saves Lois Lane. Today's f/x blows that away in terms of polish, but that decades old scene is still cool. That sense of awe seems missing in MoS despite the really nice visuals. Maybe as an audience we've simply become too jaded for that to work anymore or it's simply now a lot harder to get the gee-whiz feeling out of a scene.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Martha said he used to have terrible breathing problems as a baby, and then, as you mentioned, he had the same sudden, overwhelming appearance of his x-ray vision, super hearing, telepathy, and so forth.

Exactly so. This was made explicit in the movie.

 

[Mach5]

I went in with an open mind... And came out with a crushed soul.

Calling it a piece of garbage would be too kind.

Fuck you, Nolan. You used to be beautiful, man! What happened?

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Martha said he used to have terrible breathing problems as a baby, and then, as you mentioned, he had the same sudden, overwhelming appearance of his x-ray vision, super hearing, telepathy, and so forth.

Martha said he used to have terrible breathing problems as a baby, and then, as you mentioned, he had the same sudden, overwhelming appearance of his x-ray vision, super hearing, telepathy, and so forth.

Okay, obviously I was mistaken about the telepathy. I thought there was a part at the school before he went in the closet where he was reading someone's unspoken thoughts about him, but it must have just been the super-hearing.

I blame that damn "Can you read my mind?" monologue from Superman.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EielU8CNG8[/yt]

 

[DWF]

I rathere enjoyed the movie, I liked how they finally fleched out Krypton, I thought the cast was stellar and Amy Adams made a great Lois LAne, she was beautiful, spunky and classy at the same time. I also liked the music and have th soundtrack, Hans Zimmer didn't try to mimic John Willaims' themes he created his own. And while killing Zod was a risk, it was peferable to allowing Khan to live in Star Trek Into Darkness.

 

[JarodRussell]

It's kinda funny that Batman doesn't kill, but Superman does.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

It's kinda funny that Batman doesn't kill, but Superman does.

Batman didn't seem to have any qualms with machine gunning the shit out of the guys in the Tumblers and trucks in TDKR (one of which directly showed the bullets from The Bat killing the driver of the truck), and he caused Talia's fatal crash. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Plus, his whole Ra's al Ghul "I won't kill you, but I don't have to save you" line was a copout on his part. If you sent Gordon to blow up the tracks and then stand by when you could save Ra's from the crash, you most certainly did kill him.

Mind you, I don't have a problem with either.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I was actually agreeing with Locutus - I quoted the stupid Vulcan emoticon by accident. Telepathy or no, his essential point is correct.

 

[Agent Richard07]

Kevin Smith reviews Man of Steel…

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16AG7Tab7Vc[/yt]

Part 2 (11:01)
Part 3 (10:08)
Part 4 (10:00)
Part 5 (12:01)
Part 6 (12:08)
Part 7 (14:08)
Part 8 (14:51)
Part 9 (10:55)
Part 10 (12:06)
Part 11 (12:04)
Part 12 (10:01)
Part 13 (6:42)

 

[Locutus of Bored]

I was actually agreeing with Locutus - I quoted the stupid Vulcan emoticon by accident. Telepathy or no, his essential point is correct.

Oh no, I knew you were agreeing with the larger point of the post, I just found it amusing that both posts had the same emoticon reaction. I didn't realize you quoted his emoticon.

ETA: AR07, I don't have time to listen to Smith's review at the moment (because apparently every online movie review these days needs to be the length of a film itself - but at least Smith is an entertaining speaker), but just out of curiosity, was it positive or negative?

 

[Warped9]

It's kinda funny that Batman doesn't kill, but Superman does.

Batman didn't seem to have any qualms with machine gunning the shit out of the guys in the Tumblers and trucks in TDKR (one of which directly showed the bullets from The Bat killing the driver of the truck), and he caused Talia's fatal crash. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Plus, his whole Ra's al Ghul "I won't kill you, but I don't have to save you" line was a copout on his part. If you sent Gordon to blow up the tracks and then stand by when you could save Ra's from the crash, you most certainly did kill him.

Mind you, I don't have a problem with either.

He also killed the Joker in the '89 movie.

The idea that superheroes (or some of them) don't kill is a conceit to some extent. It might be more accurate to say they won't murder or they try to avoid direct killing unless it's impossible to avoid. As a general rule superheroes do try to bring the villain to justice rather than just offing them otherwise they would be no better than hit-men.

Batman and Superman both came out during the era of the gangster or soon after. They fit into the perception that a sort of warfare did exist between the gangsters and law enforcement. And in war there isn't much sentiment or regret over killing the enemy.

In the recent Batman films as well as with MoS both Bats and Supes were faced with ideological zealots who would not stop. There really isn't much difference between Ras al Gul and General Zod in terms of mentality. In the end the heroes realize and accept the only way to stop the villains was to kill them, or in Batman's case simply let Ras die.


MoS makes two significant changes to the origin story: Superman isn't introduced gradually and Lois learns who he is right off. In previous versions Superman (in costume) simply starts helping people and earns their trust before being faced with a really big menace. In MoS trust is earned in the fire of combat when they see whose side this alien is fighting on. It didn't have the magical element the '78 film had in how Supes first appears, but it is nonetheless quite dramatic. Lois learning of Clark's identity right off works simply because it establishes her as a genuinely smart and capable person and finally gets around the silliness of simple glasses being a convincing disguise. I, too, have enjoyed Clark stupefying Lois in how he can get the scoop on her so easily or get onto a scene so fast, but if you're going to treat the subject matter in a more realistic manner than that conceit can't really work convincingly anymore. So better to get it out of the way and simultaneously show how sharp Lois really is.


Watching this film I admit that I thought it might be rather fun to see Christian Bale's Batman and Henry Cavill's Superman interacting together. But since Bale's Batman is essentially retired (in universe assuming they are one and the same) then that isn't likely to happen.

 

[Shazam!]

ETA: AR07, I don't have time to listen to Smith's review at the moment (because apparently every online movie review these days needs to be the length of a film itself - but at least Smith is an entertaining speaker), but just out of curiosity, was it positive or negative?

He likes it, Ralph Garman doesn't.

 

[Kelthaz]

Kevin Smith reviews Man of Steel…

Two hours?! I was interested, but I'll pass. Unless you're a RedLetterMedia Star Wars review keep it under 20 minutes.

 

[Shazam!]

It's not really a review. Kevin Smith has a (usually) weekly podcast series called Fatman on Batman in which he interviews people involved in the Bat-verse. Mark Hamil, Kevin Conroy, Grant Morrison and Jim Lee have all been on there. This week they took a break from Batman to cover Man of Steel.