My Analysis of Henry Cavill's Kal-EL

You missed one

Man of Steel is not a dark movie. Here's a quote from Henry Cavill himself that I think sums it up perfectly

“It’s not a dark movie by any means. Past representations of the character have been quite light… This is a more realistic view of the character, while still maintaining the very unrealistic, or potentially unrealistic features of an alien with superpowers.”

It's a very hopeful movie and it has a lot of heart and several touching moments as well. Just watch this clip

"Bland and Boring"


wrong.

He was a good Superman, they just made him a little oblivious.

Superman not Kal-El/Clark Kent

this Supes was perfect just like the movie awesome work man

@neihofft
reading this article made me realized i haven't watch MoS in a while, and how good the movie is

and i know this is prob gonna start a flame war but, i know Marvel is several laps ahead of DC, but i truly believe that if Batman v Superman is absolutely awesome, Dc has caught up with just that one movie, and i know people will say well marvel has 10 more movies than dc does, i don't care about quantity, i want quality. and not every Marvel movie is great, the only ones i liked were IM1,Cap2,The Avengers, & GotG, Batman v Superman is what people been waiting for, two of the most iconic Hero's in one movie for the first time ever, its going to be insane

@Neihofft

lol its paused on my tv as i write this arictle, and looking forward to reading them when there done.

Exactly, the movie is going to be great, Terrio is a great writer, and we already know that Snyder is brilliant and the visual effects, and that's another thing, I feel Justice League will have a bigger effect than The Avengers did just because there so more iconic.

Yeah, GOTG was great and i do agree about that part, i feel like they cheapened the the climax fight when they did it, and then Ronan just said "what are you doing", and stopped from destroying everything, and i hate when ppl complain about the destruction in Mos, But no one complained when that big ass ship destroyed pretty everything when it crashed. But i enjoyed Guardians alot

@Scorpion8125

"Buttflack, shrimpy Gadot WW, too old looking Adams Lois, & shrimpy snarky 90210 dotcom Luthor boy"

Yes i'm a troll

So he smiles in 7 or 8 scenes, that must men he's not brooding...

Seriously man o those photos are from the exact same scene. might even be the same smile from a different angle. The fact that he showed emotion for 10% of the film doesn't discredit the other bland 90% of the film.

And besides, just because he shows emotion a handful of times doesn't mean it's still not a dark and brooding portrayal. Even in the Dark Knight trilogy that you reference Christian Bale shows emotion, he smiles when talking to Alfred at times, he mourns over the loss of Rachel, he gets romantically involves with Talia, but none of that takes away from the fact that he still is a very dark and brooding character.

I wouldn't say it's Cavill's fault as an actor, because I honestly haven't seen him in anything else to judge his acting. It could largely be the directors or writers fault that he character comes off that way. But in any case I felt that this portrayal of Superman wasn't spectacular, and I'm sure we'll see better in the future.

@metropolisman I like both DC and Marvel both, though I'll be the first to admit I prefer Marvel over DC. However I still like DC alot, though Lantern and Flash are my fav's, with Bats and Supes both ranking a bit lower down (I even prefer Shazam/Captain Marvel to them).

But I do take offense to you calling Marvel's movies "action comedies", I don't think the Winter Soldier fits that bill at all. Sure there are a few snarky one-liners, but no more than having Alfred make an off-hand comment to Brue about the golf clubs in the car when he saves his life. And honestly Avengers was probably the most comedic, child-friendly of all the MCU movies and I hated that piece of S**T! Worst of the entire MCU, so I have no favoritism towards their brand.

And you may also be surprised to learn that I have never watched any Superman live-action film prior to Man of Steel, not even Superman Returns. All my knowledge of his character is based on what I've read in the comics and the few animated movies I have that feature him (just counted, it's 3 total) or borrowed. So my perception of him is not biased on those 'other' takes on his character as you seem to have assumed.

I don't see how at all you can call his portrayal light-hearted. The film constantly harkens back to his child-hood as an outsider, whether in school when his abilities overwhelm his senses, or when he's picked on as a kid. And as an adult he is no more accepted, constantly changing jobs and moving around because of who/what he is. It's a story of him being out of place amongst humanity and when Zod comes calling it becomes about who does Superman really see himself as? Very rarely is there a light-hearted moment, and I really, REALLY wouldn't call him destroying the guys truck 'light-hearted' it was an act of frustration with a comedic twist. But clearly based on the many, many poles stuck through the truck it was an act of anger and malice.

And finally DC's "realistic approach" is anything but. They say it's the Earth's atmosphere that give him his powers, yet there are at least 2 scenes where he is in space where there is no atmosphere and yet he is still super-powered. Where's the realism in that? We've seen with his exposure to the Kryptonian atmosphere aboard Zod's ship that the reaction is near instantaneous. And that's just one of many examples where realism goes out the window.

I understand you love DC and want it to do well, but your arguments just don't hold up. In contrast I want DC to do well also, but I won't defend everything they do just to try create a shared universe when everything is sub-par. If they're going to do it I want it to be done right or not at all. As I said before I like me some Green Lantern, but I hated the Green Lantern atrocity that they produced, and i certainly won't defend it.

@metropolisman "first of all on the action comedy thing....you got one movie, the winter soldier... out of 9" Really? Was the Incredible Hulk way, way, way too light-hearted? I felt that film was incredibly serious in tone. I can only recall 2 moments from that movie that I'd call comedic (the part where he's getting intimate with Betty and has to stop from being 'too excited' and she asks, 'not even a little?' and the scene where he tries to speak Portuguese and says 'you wouldn't like me when I'm hungry' by mistake). And BTW I only listed one movie to make an example, not because I could only think of one.

Oh and "it discredits the genre when the characters aren't taken seriously". What a load! How the hell will DC ever make a decent Shazam or Booster Gold movie if the characters and story aren't light-hearted? And that's EXACTLY what was wrong with MoS, it wasn't light-hearted at all, they tried going dark and gritty like TDK. But that doesn't work because Superman stories are usually light-hearted fare, not dark and gritty. It goes against the character.

And again, just because Clark smiles in a few scenes doesn't make him or the film light-hearted. Batman smiles in TDK, but it's the furthest thing from what anyone would call a 'light-hearted romp'. And how am I reading too much into him destroying the guys truck? He demolished it, leaving no chance of salvaging it. He could have say...ripped the engine out of the truck and left it next to the truck, or picked it up and smashed it directly on it's front end. Either would still have been funny. It's the difference between crumpling up a picture of your ex and throwing it into the trash or cutting her eyes out of her picture and drawing devil horns on her. No one would bat an eye if you got rid of the pictures of your ex, but if you act with malice and desecrate it then people notice. That's the same principle here.

And I'm not looking for reasons to be negative, the film clearly shows and WANTS us to know that he is frustrated and angry. The scene where the bullies are picking on him and push him against the fence SHOWS that the whole time he was pissed off and wanted to hurt them, but instead just CRUSHED the fence post with his hand. Or when he is arguing with his dad in the truck before the tornado arrives also shows his frustration. Like I said, it's not me looking for these things, it's YOU actively ignoring them.

And LOL at how you are trying to pick and choose when realism applies and when it doesn't! "realism in films is making the average movie goer believe that it could possibly happen in the real world". OK, so how does Superman fly? I mean there is no propulsion mechanic moving him after his initial jump, he just takes off and goes. How does that happen in the real world? There's no aerodynamics behind it or anything. But ok, you said you don't want to look at the heroes because anyone can find holes in their powers (which is arguable, but not the point so I'll pass it), but Lois falling from the plane despite a black hole-like explosion pulling everything in, including things much heavier than her also sticks out as something that would not happen in real life. Or Lois somehow finding Clark due to seemingly random and unlinked events that happen throughout the world in a matter of days. Yeah...realism...that's for sure...And there are many, MANY more points like this throughout the movie.

And please...handheld camera-work makes it more "realistic"? No..just no. Are you saying that if the Incredibles had used this technique the movie would have been more realistic? And don't get me started on the political and social situations presented in the film. From the start of the movie on Krypton nothing made sense in the realms of politics and socialization.

And I wasn't really trying to imply you were a DC fanboy, I was just echoing your sentiment to me when you said "your probably more of a marvel fan and enjoy the action comedy thing they have going on and its all fun and stuff but i think most of us appreciate what DC is doing in taking the more realistic and serious approach to these films...". A back-handed compliment at best, or a clear insult to most of us. But clearly your name doesn't help, nor does your attitude that Marvel's light-hearted fare does a discredit to the genre. In fact it's actually thanks largely in part to Marvel that the genre is doing as well as it is. Most people credit the X-Men series or Spider-Man series with bringing back comic book movies to the mainstream after the debacle that was Batman and Robin. And Iron Man only served to solidify that notion.

And I have to disagree, I thought MoS was a pretty bad film. This is mostly because I didn't feel like this was truly Superman the entire time. Sure he had the powers and origin of the character, but none of the personality of the big blue boy scout. And even if this wasn't a Superman film I'd still say it wasn't a good film, average at best. Too many things in this film just didn't make sense, or had poor characterization (and I'm talking about secondary characters and the like). I mean yes, there were good things to be picked up from this movie for sure. Zod was done well and so was Faora (she seems to be the favorite of this film for those who saw it). Aside from that I thought Russel Crowe a Jor-El did a good job, although he didn't have much to do. But honestly that's about it, I can't think about much more of this film that I liked.