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Man of Steel: Love it or Hate it? (Spoiler Alert)

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  • Man of Steel: Love it or Hate it? (Spoiler Alert)

    All right, I've heard that Man of Steel is one of the more divisive Superman movies out there. I'm just wondering about the Tweb populace's general thoughts on it.

    Personally? I watched it about two months ago... I didn't like it, for two main reasons:

    1) Too many Plot Holes
    I'm not against a few plot holes here and there (no plot is perfect, after all), but there were too many flaws- some if which were big ones- for my taste.
    -For instance, it's never explained why Kryptonians deemed natural births 'heresy,' nor how they enforced said 'no natural birth' policy.
    -How about the fact that they expect us to believe Jonathan Kent took that Kryptonian Flash-Drive (as I've dubbed it) to a metallurgist at the University, and they managed to keep it under wraps that it's made of an alien substance?
    -Okay, you could chalk this one (sort of) up to Superman's youth and combat inexperience, but it bothers me that he didn't even try to keep the collateral damage to a minimum when fighting Zod's goons (or when fighting Zod himself; see, I could understand that protecting people when fighting two baddies would be kinda hard, but he was fighting Zod 1v1).

    That's just what I can remember off the top of my head (there's also Zod's half-baked attempt to convince Clark to join him), but I'm confident there was more than that.

    2) How they handled Superman's killing of Zod
    Honestly? My problem wasn't so much with the fact Superman had to off Zod. Superman's been forced to kill in the past, if I know my comic book lore. My problem was how they handled it afterwards. Yes, we saw Superman traumatized that he just had to execute Zod (though, again, kind of his own fault considering my third major plot hole)... for about thirty seconds, tops. After that, it's time for drone-smashing and a token "He's hawt" comment from a random female soldier. Even five minutes where he's talking to a psychiatrist/chaplain/counselor about it would have done wonders, in my opinion.

    That being said, the action scenes were pretty good, and the acting was fairly solid (along with the visuals). I'd watch it with other people if I was compelled to, but it's not something I'd pop in and watch on my own.
    5
    Love it
    40.00%
    2
    Hate it
    60.00%
    3
    Have You Touched Grass Today? If Not, Please Do.

  • #2
    It always annoys me when Superman reduces building to rubble when he goes top speed, but doesn't reduce people to red smears when he tries to catch them at top speed.
    "Faith is nothing less than the will to keep one's mind fixed precisely on what reason has discovered to it." - Edward Feser

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    • #3
      It was OK. Why DC can't nail it is a problem. Marvel is light years ahead but it doesn't need to be that way. There's not enough success stories.

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      • #4
        Haven't seen it, don't really care to. I'm old enought to reemeber seeing Christopher Reeve's Superman in the theater, and I'm not a big fan of reboots...
        Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside a dog, it's too dark to read. -- Groucho Marx

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        • #5
          I wasn't a big fan. All I could think when I watched it was, "How long will it take these people to realize that punching each other doesn't, you know, actually do anything?" The whole movie was just one big fight scene between invincible people.
          I DENOUNCE DONALD J. TRUMP AND ALL HIS IMMORAL ACTS.

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          • #6
            I liked it. As for the over-the-top destruction and super-long climax, I think they were overly compensating for Superman Returns and it's lack of action scenes. Hope they scale it back in Man of Steel 2, you know, because Batfleck needs a fight on his level.

            As for plot holes, yes some were legitimate. But this is supposed to be entry one in the DC Movie Franchise ala what Marvel's been doing for years. There were plenty of easter eggs, so maybe they can expand on things in future films.

            Regardless of whether or not you liked the film, you have to give Clark's first flight scene credit for being awesome, at least.

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            • #7
              My experience is that those who hate it and those who like it tend to do so for the exact same reason-it's far too on the nose regarding our present distrustful society. The level of appreciation for the movie seems to come in inverse proportion to the amount of success one has had in adapting to the present age:

              Originally posted by Dusk In Autumn blog
              Perhaps the most notable feature of all of the human characters is that not a single one of them is very likable -- not that they're loathsome, but none of them makes you care about them in a way that you'd consider being their friend in real life, dream about having them as your boyfriend or girlfriend, or enjoy working with them at the office.

              Well, aside from Clark's Baby Boomer parents, who you might wish to have for your own. But they don't appear to represent the mainstream of American society -- they're fairly cut off from the other families in rural Kansas, let alone from the increasingly urbanized parts of the country.

              Lois Lane is introduced as a sassypants who is only defiant because some court order allowed her to backtalk to an Army colonel. She's more pushy and nosy than assertive and feisty (like the original Lois Lane was), in the way that women tend to act in a sheltered and micro-managed office environment. And she never really lets her guard down in an informal, interpersonal context.

              Her newspaper editor Perry White, along with all of the military figures, are distant, reserved, and emotionally cold. Even among the military themselves, there's zero camaraderie -- not that they're turning on one another, but simply that their superorganic fellow-feeling has come unglued. Again, even as recently as 1994, camaraderie was still part of everyday life (if in decline) that the key actors on the police force in Speed could make it come to life on the screen.

              The social climate is not one of tight bonds among the in-group of Americans, while Clark is mercilessly ostracized. None of the other kids seem very close to each other either. There's one scene where a couple of jocks tempt him to fight back, and they're there with a few girls -- presumably their girlfriends, but you couldn't tell from how disconnected everyone is, even within this supposed group of friends. Their blank faces and total lack of touchy-feely behavior, keeping all to themselves, looks pretty accurate for today's young people.

              The hero must decide, then, not whether to save a cohesive group that has ostracized him, but one that hardly seems to be hanging together itself. Not a group whose members are likable, yet who have rejected you from playing in all their reindeer games, but who are bland, lifeless, and often irritating toward one another. As the outcast, you'd feel pity and sadness more than anger or envy toward the in-group.

              By having Superman act more out of empathy and charity than sympathy or group loyalty, the movie gives us a hero who embodies transcendent values that we haven't seen in a long time. Instead it's General Zod as the tragic anti-hero who loves his fellow Kryptonians enough to revolt against the corrupt and impotent central committee, and risk his life in chasing after Superman to get the material he needs to re-create his race.

              The central theme of saving a society that you don't feel connected to and whose members are not particularly likable, because they still aren't rotten enough to deserve destruction, makes the CGI demolition work to its advantage. Normally that fake-looking crap is just off-putting and takes me out of the movie. Here, whether intentionally or not (probably not), it echoes the larger theme -- you don't have to like or feel connected to all of those glass-and-concrete, neo-mid-century big dumb ugly boxes. They still don't deserve to be annihilated in such catastrophic fashion, with all the people still inside.
              It works very well as a defense of faith, hope, and love in the grey times, by acknowledging, in both cinematography and story, that these are in fact grey times. Those who have made their lives on the assumption that these times will continue forever are those who react most strongly against it, and often these critics tend to get an out-of-nowhere Strange New Respect for the silliest and most incidental aspects of the previous Superman movies, perhaps realizing that the realism in the movie has become too realistic for them to handle.

              It was also much less depressing than watching Superman Returns. 4/5, would watch again.
              Last edited by Epoetker; 01-19-2014, 09:42 PM.

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              • #8
                Originally posted by PresbuterOS View Post
                I liked it. As for the over-the-top destruction and super-long climax, I think they were overly compensating for Superman Returns and it's lack of action scenes. Hope they scale it back in Man of Steel 2, you know, because Batfleck needs a fight on his level.

                As for plot holes, yes some were legitimate. But this is supposed to be entry one in the DC Movie Franchise ala what Marvel's been doing for years. There were plenty of easter eggs, so maybe they can expand on things in future films.

                Regardless of whether or not you liked the film, you have to give Clark's first flight scene credit for being awesome, at least.
                Okay, I will give you that. The first Flight scene and Action scenes were part of what I liked about the movies.

                I have to give DC credit, though... they've had better luck in the Video Game department compared to Marvel. The Batman: Arkham games (what I've played of them), as well as Injustice: Gods Among Us, were stellar games. Marvel hasn't had a solid piece since Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 (I found Deadpool's gameplay was awkward, and MvC3 had me going the way it was handled- but to be fair, that last one is as much Capcom's fault as it is Marvel's).
                Have You Touched Grass Today? If Not, Please Do.

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                • #9
                  All I have to say is that I don't need to watch it know that I hate it.
                  "When the Western world accepted Christianity, Caesar conquered; and the received text of Western theology was edited by his lawyers…. The brief Galilean vision of humility flickered throughout the ages, uncertainly…. But the deeper idolatry, of the fashioning of God in the image of the Egyptian, Persian, and Roman imperial rulers, was retained. The Church gave unto God the attributes which belonged exclusively to Caesar."

                  — Alfred North Whitehead

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by moreta View Post
                    Haven't seen it, don't really care to. I'm old enought to reemeber seeing Christopher Reeve's Superman in the theater, and I'm not a big fan of reboots...
                    Um, that WAS a reboot. It wasn't Supes first trip to the big screen by a long shot.
                    "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." - Jim Elliot

                    "Forgiveness is the way of love." Gary Chapman

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