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Re: “Man of Steel: It's a bore! It's a pain! It's Stuporman!”
Wow! Thanks, Matt! I have to say, I've been trolling the internet for a great reviewer since Roger kicked it and I am thrilled by your stylings! I'm now sifting through your reviews and I'm loving it. Thanks for the props and look forward to reading more!
Re: “Man of Steel: It's a bore! It's a pain! It's Stuporman!”
Spencer, I haven't read the thread, so I'm not sure of the other comments, but I don't think it was as bad as Green Lantern. Very few things are that bad. It is what it is: A film about special effects, loosely based on the Superman mythology. I did think it was about on the level as a Transformer film and not as good as one and 3 of the X-men films. But I actually kind of liked the Transformer films for what they were. Good loud fun. And Transformers (the first one) was at least funny in parts! That was a surprise. Anyways, I thought the flight scenes were pretty great, though the 3-D fell very flat for me. Compared to Into Darkness the 3-D and the last Batman... it was poorly done. A couple of parts popped but the rest... might as well taken the glasses off. But like it or not, Superman is a cultural icon with a deep-seated cultural mythology. And the first film REALLY IS a great film. Remember, in 20 years, the special effects in this Superman will look dumb, too. I'll admit that Superman 2 is not so great (still campy fun and a better Zod portrayal) and 3 is horrible with a horrible bastardized soundtrack. But Superman the Movie was a film of its time and it was taken seriously by the filmmakers and film-scorer and critics. It was sort of like the first Rocky (which was a great film and won Academy Awards) or Star Wars in that Superman is really a coming of age story, revealing a hidden glory, a veiled greatness. The kind of greatness we all hope we have. You couldn't make that film today and you shouldn't try and that's why the last Superman reboot ultimately fell flat for me, though I enjoyed it in a sad nostalgic kind of way. And then I never wanted to see it again. I have seen the first trailer for it about 500 times though. Probably the best superhero trailer ever made. haha. Most of the gripes that I stated about this film had to do with being derivative, heavy-handed, and poorly cast. It may not be the worst film ever made, but it sure isn't the best. By a LOOOOOOOONG stretch.
Re: “Man of Steel: It's a bore! It's a pain! It's Stuporman!”
Great review. I'm a sucker for good Christ-allegory, after-all, sacrificial love and redemption are in every great story, but this was so heavy handed, I thought Superman was going to get saved and baptized. This film was incredibly goofy. It had zero real heart and felt like the writers fished two rejected scripts out of the Twilight pile and the Transformer pile and made a superman/x-man movie. It was bereft of all real Superman mythology and fell short of resembling Superman at all. Even the little temper tantrum with the trucker's semi-truck fell flat on movie goers. Wolverine doing that? Yes. Superman? No. The whole theater just kind of gave a muted chuckle and then puzzled silence. I don't know if it was bad CGI or if it was actually little scary and indicative of the film-maker's subconscious and the weird undertoning of how we deal with aggression in our world today-- Don't actually square off face-to-face in peace or violence, but when they aren't looking, drone the crap out of them- but it seemed incredibly strange and unsatisfying. The real Superman never "gets even", he defends and protects.
I suppose the only scene that I liked was the oil-rig scene but that felt too much like a Wolverine film and at one point I had to double-take because he looked so much like Jackman's Wolverine with the body and facial hair. Other than that, it was too referential in almost every scene... and it didn't help that their casting department seemed to have mined the Matrix cast for generals and important leaders. I suppose no one saw the similarities in how superman took off and how Neo took off?
As far as mythology goes.. It was almost as if, in their Nihilism, they just couldn't come to terms with Superman, a man that can do no evil. And this is what makes Superman a different kind of comic book hero, and the most unique of all of them. He is perfection coming down to live with imperfect man, and his man-identity, Clark Kent, is his real secret identity. His super-self is his native form. He wasn't bitten by a spider or genetically altered by radiation. He wasn't a rich billionaire with expensive toys and fancy karate lessons in the alps by some mystical Asian guy. Nay, Superman came from somewhere else and from a higher and infinitely more evolved form of man, sent to earth, not as a backup drive for the Krypton population (whatthecrap?), but to be a force of good to a race of similar beings that need guidance and help in such a way that they cannot actually achieve their greatness without outside help. In a sense, humanity, through the mythology of Superman, is hopelessly flawed without the help of a "savior." And this is why Superman was sent, so that some greater good could come of Jor-El's line, and this is why it has resonated with fans for ages. But here? Superman is reduced to cracking the neck of Megatron, I mean... General Zod, and passive-aggressively maiming some idiotic trucker's semi rig and then telling his earthly father that "your' not my REAL dad" with the sensitivity of a modern-day sociopath. Forget the neck snapping of Zod; in that scene alone, with Clark and his dad, the director robbed Clark of all his "humanity." He might as well have transformed into a Klingon. I know what they were going for: A Luke Skywalker Tosche Station or Peter Parker moment, but it fell flat and the ultimate sin of a writer is to cause your character to do something out-of-character.
Yes, gentle commenter holding your twinkie crusted x-box controller, the first Superman film is still the greatest superman film ever made because it is actually a film and not a vehichle for the Director to transform Superman into the Dark Knight and to flex their special effects. The cinema photography in the first Superman is beautiful, it is perfectly paced, perfectly cast, and perfectly acted. I even like the special effects better. Shoot, the twister in the Wizard of Oz looked better than this twister.
As far as story, the flash-back narrative is a weak one and a real sign of laziness. As-in: Hey guys, whats the quickest way to write this story so that I can show Superman's pecs and fists pounding Zod. A strong driving narrative is always better and when you do use a flashback, it should always be a surprise. Flashbacks used in this way are right up there with, “oh, it was only a dream!” Only way it really works is in a film like Memento or Pulp Fiction where the flashback IS the narrative. It’s a character in itself. It's got to be creatively done. This was by the numbers.
Also, all the obi-wan dad stuff (both his Crowely and Kevinly father) was pretty dumb and felt once again indicative of some kind cultural cry for the modern gen-x man's perpetual need for guidance because their baby-boomer dads raised a bunch of indecisive crybabies. So, what do we need??? We need dad appearing around every corner and bailing our butts out, telling our girlfriends to dodge like Morpheus with Neo. Daddy Ex Machina, baby. In the original Superman, Cal-El must ultimately make his own decisions and Jor-El is confined to a inactive role in his son’s decisions, thereby forcing Superman out of the nest and to be his own man. But here, we have a more "Halo" influenced version of Jor-El where he is ever-present and actually doing some of Superman's goodness for him where Superman falls short. Philosophically or subconsciously, one could see how the filmmakers toppled the problem of Superman's "goodness" by using this device: it was all dumped into Jor-El, who was basically unable to do anything real to help and therefore rendered ineffective. Now that I think of it, in a subtle way, all real good was defeated in this film. Eventually, all good must die and you just gotta kill someone to make it happen. Nihilism sucks. Every 50 years we learn this lesson and unfortunately we learn it the hard way.
