Personally, I loved the art direction. The muscles and fantasy female bodies are straight out of the comics and pay homage to what the business is known for.
Which is exactly the problem with modern comics. There was a time when comic-book characters actually looked like human beings. These days they're like indoctrination for body dysmorphic disorder.
These people are superheroes, not average Joes. They're supposed to look fantastic. Haven't you ever been to a gym? A bodybuilding competition?
Bad analogy. People who actually use their muscles for strength and power, whether in combat or sports or whatever, are nowhere near as overinflated as professional bodybuilders who exaggerate their muscles merely for show. Genuinely strong, athletic people are comparatively lean and wiry, not unnaturally bulked up by steroids.
Besides, Batman's supposed to be a great martial artist. You can't be a great martial artist if you're that weighted down by muscle; you'd sacrifice too much speed, flexibility, and agility. Batman should be built like Bruce Lee, not the Hulk.
Anyway, I agree that Superman shouldn't have attacked Luthor so freely. That alone was enough to make him public enemy. Luthor need not have had Metallo killed. You can't even make a suggestion of attacking the president on the web without attracting a watchful eye.
Exactly. This whole thing was total nonsense. Superman obeys the law. All Luthor had to do was, say, issue an executive order banning him from using his powers, or get the INS to deport him as an illegal alien, and Superman would've followed the law. Sure, he might have hated the idea of Luthor as the president, but he would've responded within the system the way a good American citizen would, through political activism and voting, not by beating up the US government's duly deputized enforcers. At most, I could see him engaging in civil disobedience a la Dr. King or Gandhi, refusing to follow the policies enacted by Luthor but not fighting back when they came to arrest him. I mean, it's Superman, the living symbol of truth, justice, and the American way. People would rally to him. He could build up a whole massive political movement that would tie Luthor's hands. He could stir up support for impeachment hearings in Congress.
To be fair, Superman toed the line with President Lex for 4-5 years of storylines before this, this was the straw that broke the camel's back.
I don't know that. That's from the comics. All I know, all the typical viewer of this movie knows, is what's in the movie itself. This is a standalone movie and it needs to hold together under its own internal logic. Nothing in this movie gave me any impression that Luthor had been president for 4-5 years; if anything, it seemed like only a matter of months. All I know about this incarnation of Superman is how he was portrayed in this movie, and he wasn't the Superman I know.
And there was no sign of a straw breaking the camel's back. The incident with Metallo seemed totally random -- just because Luthor has a guy with kryptonite in him, that's an excuse for Superman to commit several federal crimes by shoving the President of the United States, destroying his limousine, and attacking members of his Secret Service detail? It doesn't matter what schemes Luthor was plotting; Superman broke the law, plain and simple, and then he broke more federal laws by fleeing from justice and causing immense property damage. And there was virtually no provocation for it.
What I wish Stan Berkowitz had done would be to depart more from the comic and build more on what was implied in the opening montage -- that the reason Luthor became president was because American society virtually collapsed in economic ruin and he was able to exploit the weaknesses of the system impose something of an iron fist to restore order. This story might've worked if we'd been shown an alternate America that had become a virtual police state, where Luthor had declared martial law, dissolved Congress, suspended elections, and the like and was well on the way toward making himself a dictator-for-life. There wouldn't have been any need for the random threat of the kryptonite asteroid.
And Lex had been juicing for awhile at this point as I understand, leading to his behavior.
That much
was implied in the movie, but it still doesn't make it interesting. A Luthor who's a brilliant, canny, calculating mastermind is far more satisfying to watch than a Luthor who's just a raving lunatic.
In fact, there's a scene in that series where Batman tries to use the shadow of his costume on the wall to scare the criminals.
