Official Superman: Man of Steel Thread

[Momma There Goes That Man]

Spoiler:

really?

I think you bring up some good points but this goes with what I have always thought about Superman. It's hard to create a compelling story around him because you have to suspend your disbelief so much in regards to his powers and that they should always working to create certain story elements that are necessary. Like what you said about covering his tracking and hearing Lois.

Them again same could be said for Batman. Why didn't Batman once he realized he wasn't defeating Bane in the sewer just hit him with one of those tranquilizer darts like he does later in the movie?

Because then the movie would be 40 minutes long.

[USS Redskins]

MOS made $125 mill over this weekend... Wow... Looks like a green light for MOS 2 and Justice League will not be far off.

The next few years are going to be a geek dream... JL, Avengers 2, Star Wars movies... More batman, superman...

[httrMP]

I think the movie tried too hard too out do Avengers and be epic in scale while not getting how Avengers worked. Without Iron Man 1 & 2, Thor, Captain America, and The Incredible Hulk to establish these characters and their supporting casts, the Avengers would have been a little empty and just an excuse for an awesome alien invasion battle. But we got enough character development in those films that when Avengers rolled around we knew who they were and what they stood for. Man of Steel didn't really flesh out the Els, the Kents, or any of the Daily Planet staff. People were just kind of there as filler, relying on the audience's understanding of the mythos to develop the characters. All the character development was focused on the reimagining of Superman. And by reimagining I mean making him some mopey downer as opposed to the symbol of hope he has been in the comics, cartoons, and other media (also one very out of character instance in the movie but I won't spoil it for those who haven't seen it).

 

Special effects were nice. Krypton looked awesome. The fight between Supes and Zod was as destructive as I had imagined it would be. But by the time the fight started, I found myself just not caring. There was no emotional investment in it with me. There was no real depth. It felt like they wanted these battles and the destruction of Krypton and then just had to fill in the rest of the movie with stuff.

 

As a long time comic fan, this post could have easily been 5 times longer, but I don't want to bog this down as some anti Man of Steel rant. I'll some it up this way: If you want to watch a movie about some super powered dudes destroying a city in a visual spectacle then go see this movie. If you want to watch a Superman movie, rewatch Superman The Movie.

[Jumbo]

Good deal, MTGTM, and I actually meant to mention that I noted and liked the inclusion that Zod would not have learned full control yet, but that didn't change my final take on the battle as they played it out.

 

But, overall, it's a just a small part of what kept hitting me during the film--the realization that I surprisingly had more issues and "ho -hums" then I did "cool"s and "wow"s. It was less satisfying to me, in the end, than the other superhero movies I mentioned before and I really was expecting this one to maybe set, or at least "tie", the new standards (IM1/DK/Avengers) and I don't think it even "tied", overall.

 

Yet I also like the high-grade quality of the effort in production values all the way around, contrary as that might seem, and am optimistic about an even better (perhaps notably so) follow-up.

[Renegade7]

Some of ya'll are really tough to please (or just spoiled now). : )

That movie was amazing. Took my dad to see today for father's day, really enjoyed the fight scenes and excellent job of character development. That's about as realistic as you could make Superman, while at the same time deliverying on Superman villian that actually can fight Superman punch for punch (which is really my only issue with the superman franchise, he needs more badass villians that are at least his match).

[elkabong82]

I get the arguments against this Superman that he didn't have as much of the humor/joy/charm of Superman past. However, I do think there were flashes of that but that it should also be considered in the context of this movie. Superman is new as a hero in this movie, brand new. He hasn't developed familiarity in the role as superhero and thus hasn't been able to develop the comfortability required when one has charm/joy/hope. This Superman was very raw, not yet developed,and I think with such an understanding of him as that kind of person you then can see why he wasn't portrayed as the same character type as past Superman characters have been, though glimpses were shown, such as with the Clark smile at the end.

 

And with Zod, he hadn't been on Earth as long as Superman, so he hadn't absorbed as much yellow sun so he wasn't as strong as Superman. What made it closer to even was Zod's advanced training as a warrior and control of his senses so that he could realize and control his powers quicker, but that wouldn't mean he was stronger. I got the sense throughout the fight that Zod was getting closer and closer to being too much for Superman, but I did not have issue with how the fight ended because throughout Superman's encounters you could tell he was stronger, just not as advanced in fighting skill. Though the movie could have cleared that up better with Superman simply mentioning at one point he was stronger due to longer time on earth with yellow sun exposure.

[DM72]

I agree with you guys. This will be the first movie in a long time I see two times in the theater.

[Burgold]

Good movie, but in some respects what I would have liked to see is a movie about two super humans who just didn't know how to fight.  Think about it.  Clark's invulnerable, really strong, and has always deseperately shied away from physical confrontations.  How would he know how to fight?  When would he have ever been in a fight or even able to spar?  Now, you might say that General Zod would have to be a great fighter, right?  Not necessarily.  What if this guy was living a thousand years ahead of us technologically or more and his generalship was all strategy.  At that point in history when is hand to hand really going to come into play.  Tech baby!  He's calling the drones, using blasters, got personal forcefields, etc.  He might never have had to use his fists in his life.  It might be alien to him because of where they are socially, technologically.

 

When poor Zod finds himself on Earth, he finds he's in a world where his weapons don't work on Kal El because this natural invulnerability is too powerful... so, you wind up with two guys who are incredibly powerful, but don't know how to fight.  They're just winging it.  Otherwise, there's just so little chance that Supes could defeat this hyper trained, genetically programmed soldier from birth.

 

That's how I imagine it anyway.

[Momma There Goes That Man]

Good movie, but in some respects what I would have liked to see is a movie about two super humans who just didn't know how to fight.  Think about it.  Clark's invulnerable, really strong, and has always deseperately shied away from physical confrontations.  How would he know how to fight?  When would he have ever been in a fight or even able to spar?  Now, you might say that General Zod would have to be a great fighter, right?  Not necessarily.  What if this guy was living a thousand years ahead of us technologically or more and his generalship was all strategy.  At that point in history when is hand to hand really going to come into play.  Tech baby!  He's calling the drones, using blasters, got personal forcefields, etc.  He might never have had to use his fists in his life.  It might be alien to him because of where they are socially, technologically.

 

When poor Zod finds himself on Earth, he finds he's in a world where his weapons don't work on Kal El because this natural invulnerability is too powerful... so, you wind up with two guys who are incredibly powerful, but don't know how to fight.  They're just winging it.  Otherwise, there's just so little chance that Supes could defeat this hyper trained, genetically programmed soldier from birth.

 

That's how I imagine it anyway.

 

Hence why the only thing they knew how to do was smash each other's heads through skyscrapers 

[GibbsFactor]

Kal El was stronger, was able to soak up the yellow sun much longer.

Kal El adapted to his senses for 30 years.  The kryptonians had minutes.

Kal El could fly.  They couldn't.

 

Sure, on a completely even playing field, Kal El wouldn't have beaten Zod.  But when you add in the PEDs that Kal had over Zod it made sense.

 

When Supes was fighting Faora and the other guy, he was getting thoroughly beaten.  I loved when he tried to fly away and was quickly caught by the foot and pummeled more.   Great great action.

[Henry]

A possible hint to the next villain was the 'Lex-corp' sign on the side of a truck during the final battle.

 

Anyway, I saw it and ... it was ok. My review with maybe some mild spoilers. I'll try not to give anything meaty away:

 

Pros: The acting was across-the-board excellent. The casting as very good as well. Not a weak performance in the bunch.

 

The Zod story was great. I like that they gave him some depth rather than just making him an evil megalomaniac with a goatee (no offense to Terrence Stamp. Love that guy too). His minions were very good and the action scenes were fantastic. I think this movie captured what it must be like for Superman to fight super beings better than any movie before it. 

 

I like that the Humans had something to do once the **** hit the fan. The movie does a great job of showing just how outclassed we are in the fight without making us totally helpless. A very nice balance. One particular interaction between a secondary human character and one of the Kyrptonians especially made me smile. 

 

The epic-ness. The Space opera feel. Superman is very powerful and his stories need to be grand in scale. This I thought they captured well.

 

Cons: As I feared it was too long, too melodramatic, and too heavy-handed. Nolan's a great writer but I swear the guy needs to take himself a little less seriously when writing comic book movies. The back story was WAY too long, too muddy and Pa Kent ... oy. I could a novel on his stupidness alone. From the dime-store philosophy that makes no sense at all to his final scene ... which was laughably bad. I felt bad for Costner, who was doing a great job with what he had to work with, but the nonsense he was holding forth was just embarassing. Diane Lane was fine, though they could have put her hair up when she got older. Small quibble.  Superman spent way too much time as a weepy, soul-searching victim (mostly because of his dad) and his transformation to the suit-wearing defender of the planet ... didn't make a ton of sense, though they sure spent enough time trying to make it make sense. Bleh. Also, the Krypton scene could have been cut in half and we'd have lost nothing.

 

Way too much wholesale destruction. Sorry, it didn't work and yes, it was a little to evocative of real life. It was the same problem I had with DKR: The bad guys get to do way too much damage before the good guy actually stops them. A superhero's job is to protect and defend, not mete out revenge. Nolan apparently disagrees, and I find that unfortunate. That Superman apparently 'holds back' until four people are threatened after an entire city has been leveled was just dumb. We were WAY past the '****-or-get-off-the-pot' stage by then. 

 

Overall, it was about what I thought. A better Superman movie than 3-5 ... maybe even better than 2. But given how good the Marvel movies have been lately ... meh. It needed to be tightened up. A lot.

 

Still, worth the price of admission. In my opinion.

[TK]

Just saw it & my initial impression is this. Visually it was epic. The story on the other hand was a TOTAL **** sandwich. So I'm torn on whether it was just OK or I actually hate it.

[HSW]

I finally got a chance to see Superman this weekend.  I would say that it is the second best after the original.  It was really well done and like some here have already said, it is one of the VERY few movies that I will probably see again in the theater. 

[TD_washingtonredskins]

The movie looked awesome and the acting was great. I'm not familiar with the comics at all, but the story seemed a bit odd to me.

 

SPOILERS:

 

I LOVED the acting by both Crowe and Costner...I really did. But I didn't love the writing for either character. His real dad being as involved as he was as a ghost or whatever seemed clumsy to me. I thought that cheapened it some. The direction that I remember the original Superman movie taking seemed to make a little more sense. Maybe it's just a technology that I don't understand...certainly possible. 

[Momma There Goes That Man]

The movie looked awesome and the acting was great. I'm not familiar with the comics at all, but the story seemed a bit odd to me.

 

SPOILERS:

 

I LOVED the acting by both Crowe and Costner...I really did. But I didn't love the writing for either character. His real dad being as involved as he was as a ghost or whatever seemed clumsy to me. I thought that cheapened it some. The direction that I remember the original Superman movie taking seemed to make a little more sense. Maybe it's just a technology that I don't understand...certainly possible. 

 

That is probably my biggest complaint with the movie.

 

Spoilers:

 

I love Crowe but I didn't like that he was around so much despite dying 25 or so years prior. I hate when movies do that. If he is a vision or something that Superman is seeing like in Supes dream where he sinks into the skulls its one thing but the fact that ghost Jor El is running around controlling doors and atmosphere on a ship over Earth as well as the genesis pod that landed on Earth is a bit much for me to understand. Especially that he had apparently went had a made a new costume for Kal El on the genesis pod thing. 

 

Edit - Actually I think I just rationalized it in my head. I assume he made an AI chip of himself in the key he gave Clark and once it is plugged into the ship it is an AI that can think in his image. Think Cortana from Halo and it actually makes sense in both regards. The suit already being there doesn't make sense but other than that...

[Hersh]

Was a decent movie but it was just too drawn out at the end. That seems to be a reoccurring theme of movies recently, not knowing when enough is enough. Not every movie needs to be two plus hours for it to be a great action movie.

[DM72]

The movie looked awesome and the acting was great. I'm not familiar with the comics at all, but the story seemed a bit odd to me. SPOILERS: I LOVED the acting by both Crowe and Costner...I really did. But I didn't love the writing for either character. His real dad being as involved as he was as a ghost or whatever seemed clumsy to me. I thought that cheapened it some. The direction that I remember the original Superman movie taking seemed to make a little more sense. Maybe it's just a technology that I don't understand...certainly possible.

The way they handled the dads was also my biggest complaint. Unlike Brando in SM 78, I guess they wanted Crowe to earn his paycheck. And this pa Kent, imo, gave Clark some weird advice. "He should have let a bus full of kids die?" He just didn't seem as fatherly as the pa Kent in SM 78.

[SKINS@THEGOALLINE]

I heard this on the local radio station this afternoon, but can't verify it, not having seen the movie . . . Christopher Reeve apparently only appears momentarily (if you blink you'll miss him). Nice tribute to the true "Man of Steel".

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2350265/Moment-Christopher-Reeve-makes-digital-cameo-Henry-Cavill-Man-Steel-revealed.html