Movie Review: Man of Steel

[inverarity]

Well, this was not the worst Superman movie ever, but it was not the best.

First of all, I don't know why every superhero has to be "rebooted," origin story and all, every 10-20 years. We all know the Superman story. I'd rather see a movie that does something interesting with him, with the assumption that we all know who he is and what he does, than yet another iteration of death-of-Krypton, donning-the-cape, etc. I mean, James Bond didn't need to be rebooted for almost 50 years. Nobody needs James Bond explained in the first hour of the movie before you get to the plot.

So anyway, in this version, they play up Superman's loneliness and alienation from his adopted planet. They kill Pa Kent in a sequence I found particularly hard to believe (I'm sorry, Clark would never let someone die, especially not his father, to protect his secret identity!), and then General Zod arrives from the Phantom Zone to wreak a huge special effects budget on Earth.

Holy crap, Amy Adams is a lousy actress. Lois Lane almost seemed to be reading from cue cards. And chemistry? Forget about it.

The action sequences were impressive, though I thought the visuals borrowed too much from Alien and Independence Day. I can't recall many other movies with such blatant product placement, though, including the U.S. military.

The ending also annoyed me. Okay, you want to break over 60 years of Superman tradition by having him kill the bad guy? You should at least respect the canon and show it to be something more wrenching than his angst over being the last Kryptonian.

I understand there is a Superman-Wonder Woman movie in the works. I await it with mixed feelings - it might be good, but it has the potential to be very, very bad.

Comments

[inverarity.livejournal.com]

While I'm not a huge Superman fan, I'm somewhat of a traditionalist, so making the Big Blue Boy Scout kill just seems like casual disrespect to the mythos. That said, in the real world, I agree that a Code vs. Killing is pretty stupid, and I always hated the way the Batman would keep locking up the Joker, knowing that sooner or later he's going to escape and kill a bunch of people again.

I did like the battles; I am a big fan of how SFX technology is finally making superhero movies actually look awesome instead of cheesy.

The "random badass colonel" is Christopher Meloni, of Law & Order: SVU fame. He was a surprise, and I liked him. Not such a fan of the sultry waifish Kryptonian chick.