Man of Steel

So I got a copy of this movie quite some time ago, and never could bring myself to watch it. Everything I had ever heard about the movie was negative, and never being much of a Superman fan myself...well I had no real interest in it. But a night of boredom, and after reaching the end of netflix, I figured what the hell. Surely this could not be as bad as everybody keeps making it out to be. So I put the dvd in, made some food, and sat down to watch one of the oddest movies I have seen in a long time.

I remember stories when the movie was in production, stuff about them changing Supes back story. His home world not being wiped out, or them changing the sex of a certain main role. I never really followed up on them, so I have no clue if they were just rumors of if the studio went back and made changes. But I can say Krypton goes boom, and Jimmy Olsen is either not in the movie, or is now named Jenny. They never said her last name, but it is pretty clear that is who she is supposed to be. They also changed the race of Perry White, but that is something they do quite often so it should not bother anybody. So unless you are just a die hard comic fan, and everything has to be just so, all the controversy really should not come in to play to much.

So let's get to the actual movie. The easiest way to describe it as a young teen. It is angsty, overly serious, and not very fun to be around. We get a decent back story showing the end of Krypton in the beginning. We see Zod try to rise to power, and then his banishment into the phantom zone. The whole scene is actually pretty well done, but it also serves as a great example for what is wrong with this movie. Which is in one word, Stupidity. Krypton is dying, everybody knows it. They have moments until the planet goes, and everybody along with it. So what do they do with the big bad Terrorist who just murdered quite a few of the planets higher ups? Well they blast him into space instead of simply letting him die on the planet. Not really sure who came up with that idea, but odd decisions are a constant theme in this movie. Later on Clark is a young lad, and he is on the school bus. The driver somehow goes off a bridge and the bus is in the water. It looks like everybody will drown, but Clark saves the day. What does Pa Kent tell him afterwards? Maybe he should have let them all die in order to keep a low profile.  The portrayal of Johnathan Kent is actually a pretty big point of contention of all the comic blogs. Some say his overly depressing view points make sense, but others point out it is in no way similar to the established versions of the character we already have. I will tell you this, I turned off the movie 3 times before finishing it. Most of those were because of Johnathan Kent. Whats bad is the school bus scene, was not even the worst part about him in the entire film.

So we now have a film, with actually pretty good acting, but horrible everything else. The story telling is decent, but the story is garbage. Zod is pure awesome, but without a good lead to play off of, he just seems wasted. I think Henry Cavill did a good job as superman, and I am glad he is playing the role again in the upcoming Superman vs Batman. But hopefully they give him better material to work with this time. Also maybe let him actually be Superman, instead of whatever this crap is Zack Snyder came up with. It was like when Batman started growling every line, but times 100. There is a part in the film where we find out what the "S" on Supes chest stands for. On Krypton it was the symbol for hope, which is fitting given that is what Superman is supposed to be. Sadly though Snyder's version does not come across that way. We see Superman destroying large portions of a very populated city while fighting, most of which is entirely avoidable. He even tosses the bad guys into a few populated buildings and a gas station at one point. I have no clue how many innocents Superman killed in this movie, but it had to be quite a few. He also kills one of the villains in a conflict that did not really call for that kind of ending. In the comics, Superman has killed before. But it is a last resort, and something he absolutely refuses to do unless needed. That was not the case in this situation, there were many other ways to move forward. And while they would have all made things harder for Clark in the long run, they would have all been more in character then what we were given.

Redeeming points of the film? Well the effects were cool to see, and Amy Adams is attractive. Other then that though? I don't really know. The fights could have been done better, and the final conflict was simply them punching each other over and over again with no real effect. Plus with all the annoyances that were stupid choices throughout the movie, I never stopped being angry at the film. Between this and the last Batman movie, maybe DC should just take a break.