For Father’s Day we went to see “Man of Steel” at the drive-in. Let me start by saying I am not a Superman fan. Actually I find the idea of his “secret identity” ridiculous. I guess it’s because I wear glasses and I know I look pretty much the same with or without them. Haha. Getting back to the film, it was not at all what I was expecting. I thought it was going to be a little about Krypton and Superman’s family, the Kent’s who raised him, his work at the Daily Planet, love affair with Lois Lane and then a fight scene with “the bad guy.” Nope!
The film is almost 2.5 hours and I think it could have easily been 2 hours and a better film if they had taken out some of the fight scenes. Most of them were inflated. Also, they used them to showing off how much the special effects budget was and how much destruction could come of two basically invincible beings fighting each other. There got to be a point where I was thinking “I get it. He’s invincible. Get to the point.” It felt slow and to be honest, didn’t have a lot of actual storyline.
I will say, the acting and graphics were wonderful. I thought that Henry Cavill made a fantastic Superman and I was so much happier with Amy Adams as Lois Lane. The villain, General Zod, was played by Michael Shannon. Now I had no issues with his acting but I found the character of Zod to be lacking. I didn’t find him a threat or even scary…the technology that he used to attack Metropolis was scary but not the character himself.
So all in all, I would give this a 7 out of 10. In no way was it a “bad movie” but I can say I was disappointed. With Christopher Nolan being attached to the project and with what he did with the Batman franchise I guess I had my hopes a little higher…even if it was Superman. I don’t think there was anything too scary for kids in this. If they saw The Avengers or any Marvel film in the last few years, this is pretty much the same as far as content. However, let me say this, if they make a second one, I think I would be much more interested in that storyline than this one!
Cat Says:
So to start off, I'm not a comic book fan. I think I've read maybe three in my whole life so, no, I don't know a thing about the Superman story except what they have put on T.V. I was never a fan of the black and white T.V. show, not a fan of the Christopher Reeve series of movies, never watched Smallville on T.V and a marginal fan of the last version, Superman Returns. So I was pretty tentative to go see this one. However I'm a huge Christopher Nolan fan and how he rebooted Batman and, in my opinion, finally got that right.
Today my husband, who is a comic book fan, and I went to go see Man Of Steel. They start out with the home planet of Krypton and outline how the society is and how it ended. One of the things I liked about this movie is that it made it clear that General Zod isn't some psycho, he's been genetically programmed to protect his people, at any costs, at any lengths. It really helped to see this guy as an ultimate warrior and not some crazy monster. It made you understand why he would go to such drastic measures in this movie. He's not supposed to be scary, he's supposed to be ruthless and determined and, while I'm not a fan of the actor who portrays him, Michael Shannon, I did love this new version of the character.
I have also had an issue with the "you don't know me when I put on my glasses" thing for Superman and here they have just begun down that pathway. It will be interesting to see where they go with it. This movie covers how he tried to stay undercover with his abilities and once he finds himself in a position to show them to a human he moves on and goes underground again, moving from job to job, location to location. This is how he finds himself in the position of meeting Lois Lane. He's working in a civilian go-fer position at a military site in Alaska when she, sniffing out a story, finds herself in the same place. It is also here that he finds his origins. Lois gets to see this up close and personal. So, in this version, Lois knows who he is from the very beginning. She is smart and resourceful enough to keep finding him even while he keeps trying to hide. This is a wonderful change for this character and for their personal story!
So you know the general story, Zod finds him, battle ensues over the Earth and, while taking out most of Smallville and a good chunk of Metropolis, Superman prevails. Some have had an issue with how this ends. I think it ended perfectly. They set it up perfectly for a sequel and we both felt that we are very interested in seeing the sequel!
There are some issues we did have with the film. The graphics, for the most part, are impressive. There were points where it was thin but most of it is fairly impressive. The biggest issue I have is with the alien spacecrafts. It really irritates me when they make things that are supposed to be from another world look like things from this one. In the opening Jor-El rides on a creature that resembles a dragonfly...well, a dragonfly mixed with a lizard mixed with one of those things from Tremors. But it was a creature so I was cool with that. But then Zod shows up in a ship that looks just like a big black beetle. HUH? The main ships look like they took a jellyfish and gave it crab legs. HUH? Please, people, imagination here?
For the most part the film was well written. Great cinema it is not, but over all, pretty good stuff. Except for one line...Zod says, in the end, that it can only end one way...either Superman dies or he dies...uh...isn't that TWO ways? LOL! Ok, had to chuckle and roll my eyes at that one. Someone should have caught it and reshot it. Zod isn't an idiot in this film. He is written as being extremely smart and resourceful. Along those lines, none of the characters are written to be idiots. This isn't for camp which, in my opinion, has been an issue in all of the previous versions of the story. As with Batman, this edition is a much more dark and serious version and I like it!
We were both very happy with all of the casting. I'm not a huge Russell Crowe fan (A Good Year is the best one from him in my opinion) but he is perfect here. My own, personal, heartstrings were pulled when Jor-El and Lara are forced to send their son away to never see him again as well as the once scene that deals with Clark's adoption by Martha and Jonathan Kent (played very well here by Diane Lane and Kevin Costner). So this movie isn't all about blowing things up, it's about family as well and raising your kids to be the best person they can be as they grow up and enter the world. Henry Cavill was great in this role as was Amy Adams as Lois Lane. I'm hoping they will return for another story...after all, we still need to meet Lex Luthor right? I'm giving it a solid 8. Worth seeing on the big screen.
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