As I said in the teaser,
Man of Steel for me had moments of greatness, but also parts where I scratched my head or yelled out "WHAT THE [frick]". Since it's release, I've begun to sit on my thoughts and am ready to deliver not what I'd consider a review, but rather the good from the bad.
WHERE IT SUCCEEDED
Generally my biggest complaint with every Superman movie was generally the
Action And CGI which was increased tremendously in the sequel. Snyder is such a visual director, which you may get annoyed by but considering that film is such a visual medium (duh) I think he's so great in this regard, he does so much with the shots in this film and did a great job of showing off Krypton before it went the way of a spastic colon.
Even if you're hating on the destruction, there's so many scenes in the movie that sent chills down my spine and actually made Superman exciting, which for me is something I haven't seen since
Superman II in my opinion.
Superman Returns was the worst offender of this where he essentially didn't throw a punch the entire movie as we all jokingly love to reference.
Superman's Origin I felt was handled a lot better then it was in the other Superman origin story we got in recent memory,
Smallville. It's still surprising to me that it took Clark so long to learn how to fly in the show. Sure you can say it's because he was starting out, but even more then that it was basically a hook to keep watching the show. You watched it hoping you'd see Clark's various powers and/or the suit show up and damn did they tease the hell out of it. In the end it was a lot more filler then payoff (if you call it that).
An hour into
Man of Steel you see he has his suit, and he's flying. It makes sense too in the context of the film's universe. That's somethign else I thought succeeded was in how they handled the origin and gave each power a proper introduction, sure it was to entertain and had to stick to the medium but it wasn't a slave to it like
Smallville was.
In terms of villains it's hard to get behind some of Superman's villains plots. Creating real estate? Really!? That's why
Zod's Passion just was incredible. He had a simple goal and in many ways you can sympathize with him he's just doing his job and if you wanted to, could do an alternate take on this movie where Clark is the villain for being a Homo Sapien sympathizer. For me that's what always makes for a great villain, where in a way you could watch the same movie from their perspective and they'd be a near perfect protagonist.
The Soundtrack was just awesome I thought, Hans Zimmer killed it.
WHERE IT FAILED
Ultimately the battles in the game had a very
'Video Game-like' Feel which took me out of the moment every now and then. Such as when Zod emerges from the rubble to fight Clark one last time. I was expecting there to be a 'Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World' style text that floated above saying 'FINAL BATTLE'.
Expected final Zod and Clark fight to look something like this
Ultimately though, I don't mind the destruction in the final act but rather the lack of
Consequences.
Clark never really shows remorse for what happened. I would've loved the last shot to be Clark going in to the Daily Planet like they did but have Superman hanging out in orbit above Earth, contemplating his actions and showing growth for his character. Instead they show him being a prick to his allies and destroying their equipment.
In the upcoming
BATMAN VS. SUPERMAN it's entriely possible this destruction and Superman being a prick will show up as a through line for the story but they did nothing to acknowledge that. I'm more angry about that then the actual destruction, Metropolis could've burned to the ground if it meant Clark learned some humility.
What did you think of Man of Steel? Do you agree with my complaints? As always Thumb This Article Up and also share it on social media. If you'd like to keep up with my articles be sure to follow me on Twitter (The_Hulksta). Until next time!