Man of Steel--Or Man, Do I Miss Christopher Reeve

[ElleCee]

I'm a big Superman fan so I've been looking forward to this one. It didn't really do it for me which makes me sad. Too somber, too much Christ allegory and way too many explosions to the point I felt like I was watching a Michael Bay movie. Henry is fabulous though and as much as I've been dissing the casting choice, Amy Adams makes a pretty impressive Lois Lane. Shannon is a great Zod and while I enjoyed Russell as Jor-el he was in the movie way too much.

Bit more detailed spoilers:

SPOILER: Click to show

Man of Steel spoilers
Martha and Jonathan are downers here. So damn depressing. Too many young Clark flashbacks to the point it felt like Smallville the Degrassi years. Metropolis was basically razed to the ground here as was Smallville and it was just endless destruction with no real story behind it which made me wishing for the movie to end. Lois Lane has mad reporter skills considering how fast she found things out. There's a pretty huge thing that Superman does which I'm not sure how I feel about it. Still mulling it over.

While I'm glad I saw this one it's not a movie that I'll see again or even purchase. There were a few nice moments and it's filmed quite beautifully but for a Superman origin story it was very lean and it skipped over too much of Clark's important moments. It felt more like a Jor-el/Krypton/Zod story at times. I wish that the movie had more of feel of the last 5 minutes. Henry owned both Clark Kent and Superman there.

[narm]

I am interested in seeing this, for sure. We showed my superhero-obsessed son the CR original about a month ago and we giggled the whole time. Man, I loved that movie.

I'll give this one a whirl, sans the 5 year old. I do wish someone would make an awesome superhero movie I could take my son too. But he's just too young for a lot of the violence I see.

Spinderella, I just now caught your comment! I may have to electronically dust that off the DVR this weekend...

[carrier76]

I liked it. Henry Cavill did a good job, I thought (not to mention the fact that he's so dreamy that I MAY start stalking him...I don't know). I actually enjoyed Russell Crowe. Something about Amy Adams kind of bugged, and I think I would have enjoyed someone other than Michael Shannon in that Zod role. He seemed like a petulant child at times.

My biggest gripe is

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}that it felt too...sci-fi. Too much alien/spaceship stuff for my tastes. I did like the more somber tone though. I think critics get too pissy because they want the '80s Christopher Reeve, smile-and-a-wink Superman, and this is a different story for a different time.

[Spinderella]

I guess I'm more of a purist. If what you're saying is how it's all going down in this version, then it's not the Superman/Man of Steel for me. Which is pretty much how I figured it would play out. And I know I've said it before, but I do want that type of Superman, carrier. He was always sort of that way to me (even during the TV series) and I think that he was very tongue in cheek to mask his somber side.

Now I have to go and watch the 80s version just to cheer me up. /sortakidding

[carrier76]

Spinderella, there were

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}hints of a more joyful Superman at the end of the movie. I saw this referred to as the "Batman Begins" of the Superman series in a review...I think this movie is about him coming to grips with his power and what all of that means and what he has to do with it, and how it relates to where he came from. The feeling I got is that once he came to terms with who he is, it MAY be more light-hearted in the next installment (I can't deal with a Dark-Knight Superman movie). The tone of this one made sense to me for this particular story.

I don't know how much of this I'm supposed to spoiler-tag, but it just came out, so.

[ijustworkhere]

God, I hated this. Possibly the worst script I've seen in years, terrible casting, criminally underused actors ("Hey, Amy, got a role for you, all you'll have to do is fall, scream, and occasionally stumble upon secrets with a look of awe... you up for it?") and no development whatsoever between characters, to the point that I actually had to remind myself at the end that Diane Lane was Clark's mom, and the romantic moments between Clark and Lois were confusing because it felt like they'd just met ten minutes ago. The whole movie consists of: SMASH SMASH SMASH. Bad dialogue. Exposition. SMASH. SMASHY SMASHY OH WAIT LET'S SMASH SOME MORE STUFF.

Just a joyless, soulless pile of excrement. The visuals were pretty, and Costner had a couple of effective moments, I'll grant the movie that much.

And it goes on forever. If I had not been with friends, I'd have walked out at the 3/4 mark.

[forever1267]

I was about 14 when Superman II came out, and I can still recall the awe and joy of the battle scene between Superman and General Zod on the streets of Metropolis. The bad guys throw a bus load of people at Superman!!! There is nothing memorable about this film. It was very Batman Begins, which I also found kinda dull. Crowe and Costner were good, though. and Cavill definitely fills out the suit very, very, very well. A major disappointment, because I was really looking forward to this of all the summer movies.

[Deleted]

I really didn't like it and I'm actually surprised that this is the way they decided to go with a reboot. Maybe it's because I spent my teens addicted to the Lois & Clark series, but to me, Superman is Clark Kent being a reporter for the Daily Planet, bantering with Lois and turning into Superman when somebody needs saving. Not being a loner hobo for half the film, then going into inter-galactic battle for the other half.

carrier76 is right, it was too sci-fi; basically an aliens-attack movie. They didn't spend enough time building up the normal, human, every-day side of the character. It was hard to believe Supes cared so much for the human race when he barely spoke to anybody.

[GoldenFleece]

I thought Amy Adams and Lois came off pretty well here, a lot more capable and interesting than the Kate Bosworth version (not that that's hard), and Margot Kidder has always seemed especially brash and shrill to me. Lois is a reporter, a human and not combat trained, so she is only going to be able to do so much as an action heroine. There have been infinitely more useless/helpless women in superhero movies than Lois in MoS.

I liked MoS infinitely more than Superman Returns and I wasn't constantly thinking, "But the Reeve movies would have done it this way!" as I watched. Not to say that MoS wasn't without its flaws, like too much with the Christ imagery, and too much mindless destruction—seriously, Metropolis would take decades to come back from it. I hope the next movie addresses that. Maybe Lex will try to win over people with the argument that thousands have died because Superman is on Earth. The twist of Superman killing Zod, I liked that the movie went there instead of contriving a way to get rid of the bad guy without Superman having to sully his hands, because rocks conveniently fell out of the sky and conked Zod on the head at the last minute. Was he supposed to let Zod keep killing people until he figured out a way to rid the world of Zod that wouldn't involve breaking his moral code? Is there just some unwritten rule that a Superman script is just not supposed to go there? I thought the movie did a good job of showing his distress about it without turning him into a Batman-style brooder. As for the movie not doing enough with Clark's personality, I think that was intentional and they are saving it for the sequel. MoS was more about how Clark felt defined by his superpowers for all of his life, but as he settles in as a reporter, he'll discover other sides of himself that he hasn't focused on in his loner/drifter years.

[azaleaqueen]

I didn't think it was bad but I think I would've enjoyed it more if I'd never seen the Chris Reeve version. He had a kind of sweet naivete as Clark that I found endearing. I did, however, enjoy Amy Adams more than skanky Margot Kidder. I hated her. No more explosions than The Avengers or Iron Man. (Azaleaprince is becoming a superhero fan so I'e seen them all.)