Man of Steel - A gateway to the DCEU

Hi CBM the home of the Marvel fan and hi to the 10 people that are proud to call themselves a DC fan.

Since the second full trailer hit for Batman v Superman DOJ was released on Jimmy Kimmel Live, there has been a ton of debate about, is it going to be good, why was Doomsday revealed etc.

I thought about what else we have from the same director in that same narrative and what was shown back then in the trailer sort of to compare my expectations for the movie coming. Well re-watching the trailers for Man of Steel  got me hyped up.



Last night I watched Man of Steel for the 13^th time, there quite a few days left until Warner/DC release Batman v Superman Dawn Of Justice,  so I had to take a dose of DCEU to make myself feel better in the meantime.

What I realized after the fact is very interesting to me and I was wondering if any of you feel the same way (and by any of you I am not talking about the Marvel fans that will fill the comment section of the article with hate).

So what did I realize after watching Man of Steel, two things right off the bat – first this movie is really good within the narrative that it exist in (Comic book movies) , I rarely am able to watch a movie more than once. Films that could be watched a dozen of times for me are unique

The Shawshank Redemption, The Godfather part 1 and 2, The Dark Knight, Pulp Fiction, Fight Club, Star Wars 4, 5 and 6, Inception, The Matrix, Forrest Gump , Goodfellas, Se7en, The Silence of the lambs, The Usual Suspects, Leon, Interstellar, American history X, Untouchable, Terminator 2, Alien, Training day, Batman 1 and 2, Batman Begins, Reservoir Dogs, Taxi Driver, 2001: A Space Odyssey , The Shining, Casino, The Game….and many more.

and usually are envelop pushers.

The second thing is that this might be the most under ratted comic book movie of all time. I wondered for some days what seems to be the problem with the movie that people have.
I mean judging from the reactions of Anthony Mackie and other industry related people you would think that this movie is Green Lantern quality.



Well I love the movie and I must tell you guys, listening to negative critics’ 24/7 from anyone from Collider Videos, Screen Junkies, Cinema Sins, Double Roasted etc. I kind of started to fall for that stuff myself..

“damn Man of Steel is bad, Zack Snyder sucks, why is Superman a killer, why did they destroy Metropolis”

Now there might be people that don’t like the movie and I understand them , non-comic book fans find this to be a bit more sci fi for their taste, in general I would say that they don’t like 90 % of the comic book movie no matter if DC, Marvel, Vertigo or simply brand new material. I don’t attack people like that because they are not fans of this specific narrative and they have the right to.



The problem comes from the so called “comic book fans” that say that this is not a Superman movie and all the clichés you can think of coming from “fans of the narrative” that we have read a billion times in the same article on all media pages related to comic book movies.

Let me start off with the following, this is something that people in general are saying about the movie

-its dark and gritty like Batman, they should have just made it like Superman bright and colorful
-Superman doesn’t kill
-He wrecked Metropolis, so he is not a hero

 
Let’s start with the dark and gritty part, where does that come from? I mean is the film in a certain tone, yes visually it is. Does that make it dark and gritty in the way that is bringing a dark and hopeless message, not at all!



The opening scenes on Krypton were absolutely amazing, I must say that is something that I despise in the DCEU, that Krypton is now dead and we will never get to explore that amazing world visually. I would watch a Krypton movie directed by Zack Snyder and the same team that did the visuals on MOS, I mean there is so much to explore there. This however is not an option since the story demanded that we stick to the origin.

I loved that they approached Clark as someone who has been struggling with the fact that he is an alien,  trying to find something to do in helping other and remaining as low-key as possible. The idea itself of “an explorer” in the character of Clark Kent really appeals to me. I understand that the origin story requires him to work in the Daily planet and wear glasses for cover, I don’t really need it in the movie to keep me happy personally.  There are people that believe that anything from the comics is the best option for eternity and canon (and in no way stupid).

I believe that people that want to bash something will always find a way, especially now with the Internet you can nitpick it for decades based on memes and false information. Now most of the trolling came from the people that don’t like Nolan. Since MOS was ex. produced by Nolan due to a general pitch he had to Warner Bros. people assumed that it will be Batman-like and that Clark Kent will have a weird voice when in costume. (Where are the drugs going?)

If you don’t like Nolan, then don’t watch Nolan movies. This is a Zack Snyder movie, which  was overseen to a small degree by Nolan in terms of general story, was not scripted or edited by him in anyway or capacity. I do love the TDK trilogy, I do believe the TDK trilogy is the last of its kind for the upcoming 20 years – a solo characters movie trilogy outside of a shared universe. I however don’t think that it has anything to do with Man of Steel in terms of realism, tonality, storytelling, cinematography and acting.



Now the part where everyone is complaining, Superman is a god like figure that is an iteration of Jesus and doesn’t kill, he imprisons them or in any way prevents them from being bad ever again ( I am smiling as I write).

Dear people, let me explain (Kevin Hart voice) something to you, you claim Man of Steel wasn’t a good superman movie, you point out facts describing your favorite Superman and how the movie should have looked in details, yet when that movie came out in 2006 under the name Superman Returns it made 391 Million Dollars, so I assume not a lot of you went to see it.

A lot of DC haters point out that MOS sucks and that is a failure, then you tell them that for a movie that sucks it made a lot more money than their first attempt Iron Man, what you get after that is a 20 minute rant on how Superman is this iconic character that needs to make a billion dollars just because he is so widely known.



Now let’s be serious, what Superman was before Man of Steel is a character that was coming from 3 previously not so successful movies like Returns and Superman 3 and 4. He had been shown on TV in things like Lois and Clark, Smallville and all those D grade small budget entities that can’t afford to have him battle Zod and destroy half of Metropolis and make it look like it’s really happening. They however can afford to make him all small town and corn fed, wearing the underpants on top of the costume and with a kilo of hair gel looking like a CosPlayer straing outta ComicCon.

I am sorry guys, but we have been getting this epic Superman since the 90s in comics and DC Animated movies, I simply refuse to get on board with the Superman for 12 year old kids any longer. If this is what you love, you have a dozen to choose from – 50s, 70s, 80s and a bunch of TV series that follow the same pattern. You have material worth 4 months to stream, no destruction, no killing and certainly no super fights –good old cat saving from the tree.



In a world where terrorist blow themselves up out of hate for your religion or your affiliation with certain countries, and kill hundreds of innocent people – it sounds really stupid to blame a guy that kills his enemy, when the other just demolished 4 blocks and was trying to laser from existence a family before your eyes. A very terrorist like behaviour.

Also Zod mentions on the film a couple of times that it’s either him or Superman that is going to die, so he really didn’t have a choice all that much. I also don’t understand the issue with DC killing of one  bad guys and Marvel being allowed to kill them, make them with a different origin, have them turn allies after destroying half of New York, create their own villain and then fight him by tearing up an entire city -- do  whatever they want basically and not get heat.
 
This brings us to the destruction complaints, the main destruction came from the World Engine terraforming – in the BVS DOJ trailer 2 you can see the center of the destruction being used as a Superman statue and you can see the nearby buildings and approximately add up the square feet that were destroyed.


 
When the World Engine was activated and then we cut to a scene of the Daily Planet employees running out of the building in the opposite direction, then later on we have Zod fighting Superman and demolishing Wayne financial and a few other downtown building which looked pretty empty to me. I assume the bigger number of people inhabiting them were forced to run for their lives as soon as the World Engine hit, they also destroyed a satellite and crashed the ship where the genesis chamber was.

Did people die, yes! Would this whole scene sound a little retarded if they didn’t, hell yes!

So you are telling me two superpower-ed individuals battle and no one dies, yeaah right – that could only happen in the sun shining, smiles throwing, unicorn riding universe of Ant-Man.(Pun intended) 

Man of Steel sucked because it destroyed a couple of block in Metropolis, but when Ultron (A Tony Stark operating system) ripped the entire city in Sokovia and dropped it from 20 miles, that’s fine. It’s fine because Joss W. took the time to show me a scene where Iron man saves a family of 3 people in a bath tub, that is OK we are all good to go then. This shows you the exact level of stupidity people project, so my favorite hero can wreck it Hulk style because in the movie we address this and in your mind that justifies it.



I mean, I don’t believe that there is someone from the Marvel roaster of directors that could have made a better Superman movie than Zack.  I also find this movie to be a visual masterpiece that goes beyond and paints a picture.

I was reading so much hate towards the new BVS trailer that didn’t really make any sense at all, I forgot people that do that think any of the Marvel produced solo movies is better than MOS. Well now I am calm because of BVS is anything like MOS or better I am all good in the hood.



Also I find the secondary villain Faora-Ul to be a much bigger and better threat than some of the villains introduced in the Marvel universe. She was written better, she played it better and at end I enjoyed her performance more than I did with the main protagonist in Iron Man 3 for example or any other Marvel movie for that matter.
 
I think that this is the best Superman movie we could have gotten, I find Krypton scenes to be a better movies than Avatar, I don’t think the destruction is pointless, the level of destruction shows the audience how insignificant the villain thinks humans are, and how powerful he is. Very often with movie from the Comic Book genre, villains seems either too cartoony. Something that has been brought up in regards to Lex Luthor’s performance in the trailers. I watched the trailer a dozen million times and what I noticed in his performance is that there seems to be a very complicated evil person, playing good on the outside but rotten on the inside. I think what Eisenberg is doing, is finding what drives himself bad and using it, it might seem cartoony now, but I think in the movie people will recognize the effort. He has never let me down in any other movie he did.


 
The same people that for decades always bash someone’s acting choice or looks for a part. Don’t get Michael Keaton, Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Ben Affleck for this role, then in 2 months they all chant – Ben is the best, Chris is the best and so on. I mean not to sound offensive, but I am done measuring my movie taste compared to idiots that are quick to judge and then if it’s commercial to like it, posters of BVS will cover their entire apartment.

With Man of Steel the other big issue that people that want to find an issue have is Goyer, the man has his up and downs, I can agree with that, but in this specific case I didn’t really feel his presence at all. I mean with the exception of the dramatic Zod neck-plot twist, which I don’t really mind and don’t consider a bad thing, I didn’t really feel his style in the movie. There are a couple of lines that refer to the S on his chest that I feel it could have been produced by his brain, but that’s it.
I think Chris Terrio looks promising for the follow up and I don’t think if there is an issue it will come from the writer.


 
I loved each fight scene in the movie, it felt like I am actually watching people that can smash through a building fight each other, with most of the other companies it all feels a bit out of place.
What do I mean, with my favorite X Men movies, I feel as though some of the mutants are dumbed down in power levels to be able to co-exist with lesser more untrusting in the sense of power set mutants. So let’s say having in mind the comics and what some of them can do, we always seem to get one or two scenes per franchise that actually match the comics. For the X Men original trilogy, it was Magneto vs Bridge (and Jean in Phoenix mode) and in this one so far it’s again Magneto vs Stadium. I feel like Rogue has been misused, Cyborg as well, and not to go into details – most of them.



For the other Marvel (the OG) studio, I am a bit confused to what power level are we looking at for the most part. I look at Captain America, one scene he is jumping of an airplane with no parachute and the next one he is struggling to fight 6 dudes in an elevator (no power skills or abilities) Then I look at Thor and what I personally think he can do and wonder, how did Iron man survive that battle in the woods in Avengers 1??


 
And let’s be honest, some of the Avengers battles in the first one looked like a cheap TV show. They kind of fixed that in Age of Ultron with the slow motion Avengers moving poster pose, but still I wouldn’t even compare it to the visuals in MOS.
 
To me Man of Steel was this beautiful looking alternative version of a superhero origin, it nailed Krypton and brought heart and visual stunning moments to the screen. The scene that he learns to fly over the ocean and a field were amazing.

Now comparing Civil War to let’s say MOS in a visual style of the battle, from what I only saw in the trailer, I think it looks like they tried to go for the Jason Bourne of the superheroes. I love Jason Bourne, don’t get me wrong, but its Civil War – one of the most epic comic book Marvel novel they had in the past 20 years. I expected a lot, and if I ignore the fact that we will see Black Panther and Spiderman for the first time, it does sound like a Captain America movie where he deals with a personal choice as to the loss of his best friend and trying to fix this. Marvel just isn’t stupid to focus on that is that is why you see another 12 characters coming along to advertise it as an Avengers movie. The title at this point may simply say “MARVEL” and put anyone that has been for more than one movie in the franchise.


 
Not to be harsh but the Russo brothers are the first directors in the MCU that are bringing a vision, a style in cinematography, story development and overall seem to have found an angle to the superhero genre that is refreshing for Marvel. The other one is James Gunn, but if he relies only on the humor for GOTG 2 he will fail miserably. He needs to really expand to that Space mythology and the million possibilities that it holds in terms of action.



So far for me Man of Steel is a much better movie than any of  the Marvel ones or the Fox ones, I don’t consider the box office or anyone critic’s opinion to be 100 % honest and truthful.

The fact is that the movie business is a business and if the new trend is Marvel, people especially in the USA will repeat that until a new trend comes.

I see a lot of people bringing MOS down in statements, but I find their judgment to be irrelevant since I don’t believe they know anything about movies in general and appreciate cinematography.
 
Not to sound like a movie critic or all high and mighty, but sometimes on this site, some people get to cocky because they are surrounded by trend followers and don’t think for themselves and begin to imagine that their taste is great because another 20 people told them so in the comments section.
 
Until I see Civil War and BVS I still think Man of Steel is the best CBM to come out from a shared universe.
 
Now let the flame war begin.



P.S - i hope all the Marvel characters rights go to Netflix and they get a 200 Million dollar budget to make those 12 episodes....