Man Of Steel (film) - Directed by Zack Snyder

[EvilNed]

Oh great! People say this now ... Hee. For someone who had our trust with two X-Men films ( which rocked. ) to have the audience turn on him for Superman Returns was pretty wacked. Which is another thing which MOS was missing. That excitement when Supes finally got around to doing his super hero stuff. Return had it when he rescued the shuttle and plane - I was practically out of my seat. MOS, not once - and like I said earlier, I really wanted to enjoy the movie. It just wasn't happening. Wayz To be fair, I always kinda liked Superman Returns. I think it had the right tone for a Superman film. This super serious stuff they pull in the latest one just turns it into unintentional comedy.

[Neil]

Kevin Costners death scene was hilarious. Felt very contrived and ham fisted didn't it...

[wayzim]

Felt very contrived and ham fisted didn't it... Just to keep raising the ghost of the 70's Donner film, the emotional impact of when Pa Kent simply keeled over from a heart attack was jarring to the audience. And it felt more connected with the start of Clark's journey than simply getting whisked away to OZ in MOS ( did Costner meet Mila Kunis and James Franco there? ) As for that, a coronary was something which Supes couldn't save his father from, where a twister was; despite the hamhanded way in MOS where an open secret was kept by sacrificing a parent. Wayne Z "All these powers, and I couldn't save him. " Superman: The Movie

[Neil]

Just to keep raising the ghost of the 70's Donner film, the emotional impact of when Pa Kent simply keeled over from a heart attack was jarring to the audience. And it felt more connected with the start of Clark's journey than simply getting whisked away to OZ in MOS ( did Costner meet Mila Kunis and James Franco there? ) As for that, a coronary was something which Supes couldn't save his father from, where a twister was; despite the hamhanded way in MOS where an open secret was kept by sacrificing a parent. Wayne Z "All these powers, and I couldn't save him. " Superman: The Movie I agree - IMHO the writing/characterisations in Reeve's Superman 1 & 2 where far far strong that MoS generally.

[AcesandEights]

I agree - IMHO the writing/characterisations in Reeve's Superman 1 & 2 where far far strong that MoS generally. Sounds like rose-tinted spectacles, to me. You guys are welcome to the classic films, if that's what you want to call them. The first 20 minutes of the original Superman are classic, I'll grant you, but it's all crap after that as far as I'm concerned. I couldn't really sit through the last halves of the Superman films when I was kid, and I can't do it now.

[Neil]

Sounds like rose-tinted spectacles, to me. <snip> but it's all crap after that as far as I'm concerned. Sorry, when someone proclaim 4+ hours of fairly classic film making as "crap", you have to wonder who has tinted glasses? I really never felt the slightest concern for anyone in MoS. Maybe a little bit for Cosner, but that scene was so contrived even it was spoiled. The fight scenes were soulless and didn't progress the script/story in anyway! I think the only action scene I sort of enjoyed was on the oil rig, but even Reeve saving a frikkin cat had more charm than that scene And Superman as the plane engine? Classic! Of course it's aged... But none-the-less it's a far better and more interesting journey IMHO.

[shootemindehead]

"Fly. Just fly. We got... something. I ain't saying what it is. Just... trust me."

[EvilNed]

"Fly. Just fly. We got... something. I ain't saying what it is. Just... trust me." Stuff like that. There's not a moment of comic relief in the new film. At least none that works. It's so serious. That's a big part of it's downfall, because in the end, Superman is a kind of silly character and so is his universe. You need to joke about it.

[AcesandEights]

Sorry, when someone proclaim 4+ hours of fairly classic film making as "crap", you have to wonder who has tinted glasses? Perhaps you've been dreaming of better film making and more compelling stories whilst dozing through those classics. I really never felt the slightest concern for anyone in MoS. The problem I've had with every Superman film ever made. The fight scenes were soulless and didn't progress the script/story in anyway! I think the only action scene I sort of enjoyed was on the oil rig, but even Reeve saving a frikkin cat had more charm than that scene Uh, this sounds like more "Back in my day" reasoning, what was actually good about that scene or Reeve's version of Superman? And Superman as the plane engine? Classic! Classic iconography, not storytelling. Of course it's aged... Age has little to do with it, it was purposefully hokey when it was originally done, you're either okay with it, or not. I wasn't. But none-the-less it's a far better and more interesting journey IMHO. In MoS the fights seem overly long. In every Superman movie previous to this, everything seemed perfunctory and overly long.

[wayzim]

Stuff like that. There's not a moment of comic relief in the new film. At least none that works. It's so serious. That's a big part of it's downfall, because in the end, Superman is a kind of silly character and so is his universe. You need to joke about it. Which is why the Singer film was so important for Supes to move on. The humor was muted in SR, less of a goof than with the Donner film ( which even the director himself admitted to. ) and Lex Luthor ( as played by Kevin Spacey ) was actually dangerous when it was time for him to be. The moments when he was beating the crap out of our hero was pretty nasty, for the type of movie it was. With the Superman myth you do have a big playground to mess around in, and the Man of Steel himself can be as dour as you want - so long as he's from Krypton, dons some familar version of the uniform, and most importantly displays a clear form of heroism and self sacrifice in the end. Truth, Justice .... all that stuff. But the reason why MOS could fit two out of three of those requirements and still fall far from the mark ( For me at least. With or without the Donner movie, that doesn't matter, as Lois and Clark as well as Smallville ultimately fulfilled those goals also. ) was that the growth of Supes humanity seemed muddled and confused throughout - scriptwise - in Snyder's vision of it. Wayne Z "You say the world doesn't need a savior. But everyday I hear people crying out for one. " Superman Returns

[bassman]

Blu Ray features: “Man of Steel” Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack, Blu-ray Combo Pack and 3D Limited Collector’s Edition contain the following special features: · Journey of Discovery: Creating “Man of Steel” – This immersive feature-length experience allows you to watch the movie with director Zack Snyder and stars Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Diane Lane and others as they share the incredible journey to re-imagine Superman. · Strong Characters, Legendary Roles – Explore the legendary characters of the Superman mythology and how they have evolved in this new iteration of the Superman story. · All-Out Action – Go inside the intense training regimen that sculpted Henry Cavill into the Man of Steel and Michael Shannon and Antje Traue into his Kyptonian nemeses. Includes interviews with cast and crew. · Krypton Decoded – Dylan Sprayberry (Clark Kent, age 13) gives the lowdown on all the amazing Krypton tech, weapons and spaceships featured in “Man of Steel.” · Planet Krypton – The world’s first exploration of Krypton and its lost society It's released on November 12th. There's also a lengthy press release that strangely keeps mentioning that this is the Theatrical version of the film. Knowing Snyder's blu ray releases, i'm betting an extended cut is inevitable. However, he also has great special features and "Journey of Discovery" sounds mighty enticing. This might be a double dip for me.

[bassman]

The picture and audio quality of the blu ray are top notch. Decent special features, the meatiest being "Journey of Discovery", which is a visual commentary that runs the length of the film. Much like what Snyder did for Watchmen. The actors pop in and out as well. It's funny that you can see that Michael Shannon definitely doesn't want to be there and basically says "Just watch the movie" everytime he comes in. lol Also....even though I enjoy the film, they gave MOS the Honest Trailer treatment, and it had me cracking up...

[MinionZombie]

Just watched "Man Of Steel" last night and I quite enjoyed it. Not a patch on the Nolan Batman movies, sure, but I rather enjoyed it. Thankfully none of that slow-mo-fast-mo-slow-mo bullshit that Snyder is usually known for ... although there were a lot of 'shaky cam crash zooms' instead. It felt 'more human/emotional' than Snyder's other flicks, although still somewhat distant, but definitely better than his previous efforts. I thought all the father/son stuff worked very well in showing Kal El/Clark's journey towards becoming Superman. The one big problem with it though - the action at the climax of the movie just went on and on and on and on and on and on ... good lord, give it a rest, man! The street fight in Smallville went on way too long, and didn't feel like it really did anything other than smash shit up ... some good stuff in there, but it simply didn't need to go on that long. Then another action sequence straight after - in which seemingly half of Metropolis is obliterated (although it seems it was just a few blocks ... but still ... geez!) which went on quite long ... and then another rumble. The amount of falling buildings and huge explosions actually became quite distracting after a while - not only because of CGI fatigue setting in hard by the final battle, but because I kept thinking "there's gotta be at least several thousand people dead by now ... oh, there go a few more, and some more" ... I mean sure, some people would die in such a battle, and it was right to show some of that peril and danger, but it just felt too over-the-top. To go the way of 'The A-Team car crash survival' would have been just as distracting ... I think it was more the frequency of massive skyscrapers falling and huge damage being done that led to the distraction. Keep some of it, but not all of it. Actually, it felt like Snyder got carried away with the action and didn't know when to stop or how much to use. It felt like he couldn't decide on which bits were best from a whole bunch of ideas, so just tossed in everything. They could have trimmed all that smashing and bashing down by ten minutes easily, and the flick would have been stronger for it. Indeed, I think the heart of the movie was somewhat lost amongst all the explosions at the end - the flick had done so well to inject some emotional stakes into proceedings, and then it was kind of thrown aside when the CGI took over. So - overall - I rather enjoyed it, far more than Superman Returns, and I think this did a better job of re-introducing the character for the 21st century. It wasn't as dark and brooding as I was initially expecting, and I think the tone was generally about right - there does need to be some struggle in there to make it mean something - and the action was good, but there was absolutely, positively far too much of it in the last 30/40 minutes of the movie. 7.5/10

[Neil]

I just felt the whole human element was very vapid. Didn't really care for anyone as their motivations felt tied to a very "constructed" story. eg: Jon Kent's death - He could easily have been saved... but no the script required some over engineered death scene. The entire final battle scene is a good example of how often less is more. CGI characters bouncing around soon got tiresome and meaningless, until queue the next contrived scene/moment. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't a bad film. Just felt very paint by numbers and over engineered for the sake of special effects rather than story. I cared more for the characters in 300!

[AcesandEights]

I don't know. I've been watching the hell out of MoS now that it's on cable and still find it very enjoyable. Good review overal, MZ.