Stop Whining About Man of Steel

I get what you mean about Superman being the "first" superhero and all, but if you were to go into a short study, you'd probably wind up with Robin Hood.

Anyways, yeah, Supes is definitely the most iconic. People are always telling me I look like Clark Kent, and at the movie theater last week, this little boy got all excited because his mom told me that's who I was.

There are core traits that need to be defined in the sequels, but I think it would be foolhardy to expect all of that in an establishing origin story like Man of Steel.

Nice Write up!

I think what this film has done...like IM3 has provoked lots of Critics/Fans/GA.

This is a good thing.....makes the GA want to know more about a characters.

Me being a CB fan...knows about change is required for a relevant time.

MOS is not perfect but as a CBM it is like a CB come to life in more ways than others.

The sequel will have a Superman which we all know and love.

I agree they should ditch Goyer as screenwriter and can someone who can actually follow through on ideas well.

I disagree with the last part of the article about it not being clear that Superman is Earth's protector. I thought it was very clear that he is that person in the script and in the movie. I loved the movie and can't wait to see Goyer and Snyder work on a sequel. Goyer is extremely talented, he wrote that very controversial story about Superman renouncing his US citizenship, he was Geoff Johns' partner in a run on JSA, he wrote the story for Call of Duty Black Ops, and he wrote a good script here. I think a lot of the things people have problems with can be explained, though I would agree that he should have slowed down the pacing a little bit.

i try to look at it like superman begins , not a perfect movie at all but needs the cash to start DCU's rise aside from batman flicks.
still an ok movie it made my top 10 atleast for cbm's

@KryptonianAbominationClone Heard that Goyer and John Nolan will write the film WB sees the complaints they will probably use someone else with the writing IMO WB has a habit of seeing critics and saying get the person out of the shit.

I think the fault lies almost entirely on David S. Goyer. Yeah, Chris Nolan does get some fault, but he really only came up with the story while Goyer wrote the screenplay. Screenplay and story are two different things. The story is just the general idea of what will happen, but the screenplay is the fine details: dialogue, specific scenes and moments, etc.

I mean, if you think about it, there were some pretty good ideas in the movie. I loved learning about why Krypton became so corrupt and seeing Superman as more of a loner before he became a hero.

I think the editing also had a big part in why the story was weak. There were several moments that I wanted to linger on so the emotions could simmer, but then we would cut to another action scene or a poorly-placed flashback.

In short, yeah Nolan takes some blame, but that really should be placed more on Goyer and David Brenner (the editor). There were some great story ideas, they were just ruined by a weak screenplay and poor editing.

Oh well, at least we got some awesome action and a bunch of fun easter eggs!

Very good review, you have some points, interesting good point.
I like to think in this movie like a origin movie, with the Superman character not complete development at all. Is a young and inexpert new hero.

I think we can see a most iconic version in the sequel, but the most important thing is: we have a brand new superman, and of course is very cool again!

OK, exactly how does this Superman not represent the "core" of Superman? Because he killed Zod? As I've posted before, I'm glad they did that. Not only did the situation call for it, but maybe it gets us away from this whole DC holier than thou "never kill" attitude, exemplified by Superman & Batman. I love DC comics, but I hate that aspect of it. To me, it denigrates every cop who has had to kill a criminal to protect someone else, every person who had ever killed in self-defense. No, you wouldn't want someone with superpowers going around killing humans, or Batman becoming judge, jury, & executioner. But killing does have to happen sometime, & it is far more moral to kill the Joker or Zod than to allow them to kill hundreds, thousands, maybe even millions. (While we're at it, explain to me why Batman supposedly has a "no gun" policy, but in both the comics and movies puts either cannons, rockets, and/or machine guns on his Batcycles, Batcopters, Batpod and his Batplanes? In the 89 Batman film it shows him targeting and firing from his jet at Nicholson's Joker with both missiles & bullets-evidently, that jet had the worst targeting system ever. I'm gonna guess someone will say Batman did that on purpose to keep from actually killing, but having a bad targeting system would just place others in danger.)

As for being Earth's protector, at the end of the film Superman makes clear that he will be that, just on his own terms instead of taking orders. So if this film did miss Superman's core, it did so in a good way. I'm tired of comic fans who always whine anytime a film diverges from what is done in the comics. The films aren't comics, they're films.