The cast was was great, yeah. Michael Shannon was a bummer because he's normally great and was only OK here. Faora was way more menacing of a character. The guy playing Superman was surprisingly great. I'd only seen the first three trailers going into this, which were all Russel Crowe or Kevin Cosner acting, and all you saw of Clark was him walking around and looking handsome and like Superman; went in thinking that's why he was hired. I like Amy Adams and other than some hamfisted script awkwardness during her introduction, she's great. Both sets of parents are good. Um, there are two cast members from Battlestar Galactica that show up together.
Overall I'm positive on the movie and partially because it's good groundwork for future Superman movies. I appreciated how it's more science fiction than space magic.
What I liked least about the movie spoiler (click to show/hide)
Jor-El hologram moving things forward. Superman is on the alien ship, Jor-El shows up and tells him "Zod's a bad guy, you should be superman, in fact, here's a ready made costume with cape and everything. Yeah I know this is a scouting ship that's been here longer than you have, but roll with it. Now go outside and learn to fly." and later he shows up and tells Lois how to defeat Zod's forces. For all the talk about a child's right to choose, a lot superman's idea is thrust onto Clark. Like, Clark's suit is blue with a red cape. At this point it's been established that the standard suits are black and without capes. It would've been nice if Clark had some agency in deciding what his suit would look like. There's a flashback towards the end where young Clark is running around wearing a cape. I think it would've worked better if he chose to wear a cape based on his human upbringing.
This is such nitpicking. Sorry.
There are some strange similarities this had with Amazing Spider-Man probably not worth getting into.
The scene in the movie when the audience (or just the kids behind me) went crazy:
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Superman and Faora destroying an IHOP. The 5 y/o kids were yelling "INTERNATIONAL HOUSE OF PANCAKES OMG" and it was uncomfortable.
And the action is very fun. I thought of Speed Racer leaving the theater, where you have these overindulgent special effects heavy action scenes at key parts of the movie, and sort of empty but really exciting to watch.
Pretty sure Zod had a cape but it was burned off at the gas station
yeah spoiler (click to show/hide)
Zod, Faora, and I think Jor-el wore capes while wearing the armor. I didn't notice anyone else wearing a cape without the armor. Superman's suit is the chainmail without the armor. I just wanted Clark to have more influence over how Superman is portrayed. I could see a scene where holo Jor-el presents him with with the full Kryptonian armor, mask and all, and Clark refuses it. The same reason he wears the handcuffs and surrenders himself, he chooses to appear as nonthreatening as possible.
Again, it's a nitpick. Some of the most enjoyable scenes in Batman Begins, Iron Man, and Amazing Spider-man are the characters creating their costumes.
Kryptonians are OP.
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spoiler for an easter egg (that I didn't notice while watching it): apparently the satellite Superman and Zod briefly fight on had a Wayne logo on it, implying that at least Bruce Wayne is part of this universe. If there is ever a World's Finest or Justice League movie, I can't imagine how unbalanced the team would be. Batman can't roll with this version of Superman.
It's not that he's as overpowered as other portrayals of Superman. Man of Steel showcases kryptonians' power in a really raw way. That one Shaq looking one tears apart an A-10 and splatters the pilot in two seconds.
At least Days of Future Past will be a good movie. :rock
Days of Futures Past and Amazing Spider-Man 2 both sound ridiculous and bloated and I can't wait to see both. ASM2 must have like 5 or 7 villains by now.
I believe Singer can pull off Days of Future Past because he pulled off large casts well in X1 and X2.
However I can't say much of anything positive about Mark Webb and ASM1. ASM2 will be a great hatewatch.
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Still bitter Raimi got booted from the series.
it was aiiight with moments of good. Action, obviously was well handed. Lots of cheesy lines and plot nonsense... one that bugged me immediately:
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WHY THE FUCK WAS LOIS ON THE BOMBER SHE HAD ZERO PURPOSE TO BE THERE
edit: agree with awesome-o pretty much to a T. I definitely came away with an 'average' feel, but man, the smallville fight lawd.
Oh I know, it just seemed like such a transparent "character should be here because reasons and so they can be saved dramatically" kind of thing. It's also like my only pet peeve in movies like this.
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It would have made much more sense if she was the one trapped in the rubble and supes saved her dramatically there
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All the events of man of steel are still kinda superman's fault. He was the one who activated the distress beacon and lured Zod to Earth. He wanted to find out about his birth parents, caused problems, and then fixed those problems. Humanity would've been better off if his ship was knocked off course and he suffocated on Neptune.
It's almost exactly like the Amazing Spider-Man. Peter wanted to learn about his birth parents, helped create the lizard formula, and then stopped the lizard. At the end of the day if both weren't eager to learn more about their birth parents there wouldn't have been a conflict to stop. Neither film establishes the need for a "hero," like there isn't a crime problem in New York or Metropolis, and then shit goes down.
Thor and The Avengers are similar. Thor caused all the problems in both those movies, again, because of daddy issues. Batman also had daddy issues, but it was established that Gotham was a shithole and Batman fought to fix it....except in Dark Knight Rises; that was Batman's fault.
Having said that, whatever, it's not a criticism as much as it's just part of these movies. These are expensive summer movies based on comics; the shoe fits. Maybe one day film will have its Citizen Kane moment.
also, superman, avengers, and spider-man all had to stop blue lasers from destroying the city. wtf?
Apparently after the GL movie sucked bad and wasn't much of a success they nixed the idea of it being the first and are rebooting it at some point. My guess Bats, GL or both get the Avengers Hulk treatment by just having some new dude show up with GL being the most likely especially with all the JGL as Batman rumors.
They've already said that it's a new Batman, but no one needs an introduction to Batman. Originally WB/DC wanted to do the opposite of The Avengers and make a Justice League film first to introduce those characters and spin off individual movies. Green Lantern has the benefit of several members. Swap out Hal for John, add in some diversity. Or a mash of John and Kyle, just so he'd smile more. Flash can't be the only character who smiles.
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there were a couple easter eggs in the movie, like the wayne enterprises logo on the satellite. Green Lantern only had Amanda Waller, I think.
WB should just hire Justin Lin and put "My Name Is" tags on the Fast cast. Paul Walker for Aquaman, Han as Batman, etc.