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Thoughts while watching Man of Steel
Dec. 4th, 2013 10:49 pmI rented Man of Steel today, having (sensibly, it turns out) opted out of paying to see it in the cinema. In lieu of a proper review, here are some thoughts that I wrote down while I was watching it. There are obviously spoilers!
* No explanation given why the Kryptonians abandoned space exploration. The plot requires this to justify the birth control and exhausting Krypton's natural resources, but it isn't logical. What happened to all the colonists/subjugated locals (you know they have to be there)?
* The shots of Henry Cavill's face while he's flying and grinning (during his first flight) make him look scarily like John Barrowman...
* Jonathan Kent's death is every bit as dumb as people said.
* In fact I'd say that the fact they got Jonathan Kent wrong leads to all the other character problems in the film. There's something wrong when Jor-El is more humanitarian than JK.
* JK is also terribly contradictory. Clark is both 'sent to Earth for a reason' and 'shouldn't use his powers to help people.'
* Henry Cavill does actually look quite a lot like Tom Welling in some shots.
* The arrow pointing to Zod's spaceship in the satellite photograph is a little unnecessary. 'Big spaceship, taking up centre of photograph? Can't you see it? Here's a big arrow to help.'
* There are times when this is actually close to not being too bad. It gets less 'not too bad' as it goes along though.
* It could really have done with some scenes of Superman being Superman, saving people, etc. .Otherwise why should we care about him? Superman Returns may have been over-reverential to the 1970s movies, but the mid-air rescue early in the film is a great set piece.
* Hero's journey crap again. This goes back to the JK problem: JK discouraging Clark from using his powers to help people forces Clark to do the 'refusing the call' stage.
* Underneath the rocky script, there's a really good potential Superman in Henry Cavill
* Gosh, 1 hr 46 minutes in there was almost a joke there...
* It's all about fathers again. Sigh.
* So why destroy the terraforming device in the Indian Ocean before the one in New York that directly threatens a large civilian population?
* Visually communicates the relationship between Supes and the sun well
* Zack Snyder, the director, made some snarky comments in a recent interview, I gather saying that the destruction of Metropolis is no worse than the damage to New York in Avengers. I would point out two things: 1) You see the Avengers very definitely trying to help the civilian population, which Superman doesn't and 2) after the climatic fights in Avengers, NY looks somewhat damaged while in MoS it looks like a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
* After the efforts Captain America makes to remove some of the more obvious jingoism inherent in the character, Man of Steel is all about Clark Kent being American. The rest of the world doesn't seem to exist (apart from the Indian Ocean apparently)
* Oh god, this final fight goes on and on and on...
* Killing Zod is the only choice the movie gives Superman, there are no other narrative possibilities. This is crap and lacks understanding of the character completely.
Overall, I actually didn't hate it as much as I was expecting. There's the basics of a good Superman in Cavill and Amy Adams makes a great Lois Lane. I can see what Snyder was trying to do, but he's just not a good enough filmmaker to make it work. I'm not sure what director could do this Superman and make it work frankly.
* No explanation given why the Kryptonians abandoned space exploration. The plot requires this to justify the birth control and exhausting Krypton's natural resources, but it isn't logical. What happened to all the colonists/subjugated locals (you know they have to be there)?
* The shots of Henry Cavill's face while he's flying and grinning (during his first flight) make him look scarily like John Barrowman...
* Jonathan Kent's death is every bit as dumb as people said.
* In fact I'd say that the fact they got Jonathan Kent wrong leads to all the other character problems in the film. There's something wrong when Jor-El is more humanitarian than JK.
* JK is also terribly contradictory. Clark is both 'sent to Earth for a reason' and 'shouldn't use his powers to help people.'
* Henry Cavill does actually look quite a lot like Tom Welling in some shots.
* The arrow pointing to Zod's spaceship in the satellite photograph is a little unnecessary. 'Big spaceship, taking up centre of photograph? Can't you see it? Here's a big arrow to help.'
* There are times when this is actually close to not being too bad. It gets less 'not too bad' as it goes along though.
* It could really have done with some scenes of Superman being Superman, saving people, etc. .Otherwise why should we care about him? Superman Returns may have been over-reverential to the 1970s movies, but the mid-air rescue early in the film is a great set piece.
* Hero's journey crap again. This goes back to the JK problem: JK discouraging Clark from using his powers to help people forces Clark to do the 'refusing the call' stage.
* Underneath the rocky script, there's a really good potential Superman in Henry Cavill
* Gosh, 1 hr 46 minutes in there was almost a joke there...
* It's all about fathers again. Sigh.
* So why destroy the terraforming device in the Indian Ocean before the one in New York that directly threatens a large civilian population?
* Visually communicates the relationship between Supes and the sun well
* Zack Snyder, the director, made some snarky comments in a recent interview, I gather saying that the destruction of Metropolis is no worse than the damage to New York in Avengers. I would point out two things: 1) You see the Avengers very definitely trying to help the civilian population, which Superman doesn't and 2) after the climatic fights in Avengers, NY looks somewhat damaged while in MoS it looks like a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
* After the efforts Captain America makes to remove some of the more obvious jingoism inherent in the character, Man of Steel is all about Clark Kent being American. The rest of the world doesn't seem to exist (apart from the Indian Ocean apparently)
* Oh god, this final fight goes on and on and on...
* Killing Zod is the only choice the movie gives Superman, there are no other narrative possibilities. This is crap and lacks understanding of the character completely.
Overall, I actually didn't hate it as much as I was expecting. There's the basics of a good Superman in Cavill and Amy Adams makes a great Lois Lane. I can see what Snyder was trying to do, but he's just not a good enough filmmaker to make it work. I'm not sure what director could do this Superman and make it work frankly.