Man of Steel (There Be Spoilers)

[Golden Girl]

I have to say that I partially agree with GG.  There was something 'magical' missing from Man of Steel.  As much as I loved finally seeing Superman punch someone and get punched through a building.  The movie was missing Superman being... well Superman. 

Superman Returns I did not like. Mopey stalker dead beat dad Superman is not something I like in my superheroes. But it did have that great scene with rescuing the plane.  Even from the first Superman, when the plane loses its engine, Supes takes its place and when the pilot looks out he just gives him a waves and a smile.  Saving Lois and catching the helicopter.  Man of Steel was missing those moments that just make you want to cheer.  The closest Man of Steel had was Clark catching that tower on the oil rig.  Beating up the bad guys with superpowers is great, but there's just a different type of elation from seeing him perform these acts of heroics when saving people. Because unlike Batman, Superman is about trust and hope. He needs those feel good shout out loud moments, as well as those visceral punch the baddie moments

Man of Steel lacks the magic, warmth and humanity required for a Superman story - it's a pretty well made and well acted sci-fi movie with enough disaster porn to fill more then one summer blockbuster - but it has no heart and soul, and fails to do any justice at all to one of the most iconic fictional characters in human history - the makers simply don't "get" Superman.

[houtex]

*SPOILERS* :P

As a long time fan of Superman I am really conflicted when it comes to this movie. There was a lot to like about it but in the end it really missed the mark on the heart of the character in fundamental ways. In fact, I enjoyed the first 2 hours (minus one tornado) a lot. It wasn't until the fighting started that I noticed that things were "off".

It started gradually with brawls in the streets of Smallville and escalated into unbridled destruction in Metropolis. I couldn't put my finger on it until I realized that They were brawling in the streets.

As I watched them punch each other through buildings I kept waiting for the point when Superman would take them away from the inevitable collateral damage.

Because, you know, that's what he does.

I have read a TON of Superman comics ranging from the Golden-Age all the way up until the late 90's and there isn't a whole lot that is comparable other than the "Death Of" with Doomsday. Even then, Superman's first priority was to protect the innocent. In Man of Steel he could have at least minimized the damage by moving the fight somewhere else. Once Zod decides that it's time to kick in Supe's head, he could have forced him down somewhere less populated after, I don't know, they careened off of a satellite?

So... in all the comics and Justice League and Superman animated... hell, Superman II why don't we... Exactly how much was destroyed before Superman left the scene?  Pretty much buildings come down, and the bad guy doesn't WANT to leave, because if Superman leaves... hell yeah, more rampant terrorizing destruction!  C'mere puny humans...  I mean, really, if he left?  And Zod is in his state?  Free rampage.  All you can eat.

Also, if you didn't notice, ol' Zod decided to set up his half of the world engine right in the heart of Metropolis, so... yeah, it was already pretty much taken out, so what's a couple of other buildings?  And in the span this went down... sure, people were still stuck there.    That's one of the problems of getting out in an attack... you simply don't have time unless you weren't already in the city.

Here are 2 scenes from Superman Returns, featuring Superman looking and acting like Superman, but removed from the context of the stalker/deadbeat dad storyline:

The airplane rescue:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xiwISrp1H4

And saving Metropolis:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIMbqMmkZCI

Which parts of these traditionally presented Superman scenes are goofy and campy compared to what we saw in Man of Steel??

Oh, which AREN'T?  You did ask.  I have nothing better to do at the moment, so be warned... I'm gonna SO beat everyone over the head with how horrible, hokey, goofy and campy these two are.

First, the entire airplane scene is completely whack, and I thought so, and all of these things, the very first time I saw it.  BAD WRITING.  Horrible, and hokey as all get out:

1) Lois must be part Kryptonian, because she should be DEAD by then end of that scene.  Period.

2) When the shuttle's main engines go on?  That airplane is TOAST.  The forces being acted upon it would simply rip that plane to shreds, much less allow it to climb along with the much overpowered shuttle.  Shuttle *MIGHT* survive the experience, but nobody on that plane is making it.

3) The *MOMENT* one of those bolts is heated off by Supe's heat vision?  Yeah, that shuttle is attempting to fly off, now that the one bolt is gone.  Perhaps the second one will do it.  But that third wouldn't even get a chance to be melted away, because the different aerodynamic forces on the shuttle, now with an ability to lift off on the left side, and have it's nose come up because it's unencumberd... the third mount for sure is ripping that plane apart, because ol' Supes isn't holding on to it, just steadying it.

4) Yeah yeah, some sort of magic forcefield or whatever, extending to both airplanes causes them to be 'stable'.  Right.  Nope.  We'll get back to that, hang on.

5) The airplane, now unencumbered by the shuttle, is now on the *outer reaches of space?!*  People are floating in it.  Yeah... well, perhaps it's on the vomit comit trajectory, but let me tell you... it's not.   Thankfully, the tube was already compromised as evidenced by the dropped oxygen masks... oh wait, Lois should be dead YET AGAIN, or at least unconcious due to lack of O2, 'cause she STILL DOESN'T HAVE A MASK ON.

6) Further extension... *everyone* should be dead of embolisms because guess what?  Near-to-space.  Blood boils.  Too bad, so sad.  Not to mention there's not enough pressure to even let you breathe with those masks... and forget your hearing, 'cause exploded eardrums, even if you survive.

7) Ok, so EVEN IF you forget all that, the moment Supes quits pushing the shuttle, the airplane is now falling back to Earth and is in a flat spin.  But he is a honey badger, 'cause shuttle launch.  Shiny.  Good job, Supes.  "Oh wait, yeah, houtex, I totally was mesmerized by that whole shuttle thing!  My bad!"  *Vroom*  The problem is this:  ONCE he detaches the shuttle, he should PUSH it off the airplane and LET IT GO.  And then save the damn plane.  He had SO MUCH time to do that.

8) Ok, now the plane is in a flat spin.  That is a Boeing 777.  It is designed to go one way:  Forwards.  It is not designed to go into a flat spin.  Ever.  They do not even test that.  It is an event that the Engineers understand that if the aircraft in that size gets into that shape, it is a doomed aircraft.  Fighters, small planes, they can escape this condition, potentially, but it requires two things:  Altitude and a conscious pilot who knows how to recover.  Large aircraft of the type of a 777, 767, A300, A380, 747, 787... those are doomed.  It is not *impossible*, I'll grant, but it's so unlikely to even survive the spin, much less get recovered from it.  Anyway, by the time Superman gets to the airplane it is spinning VERY rapidly, sideways (yaw).  It should not last very long with that much yaw.  I point you to this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lauda_Air_Flight_004
That aircraft had the exact same thing, in effect, happen to it when one engine's reverse thrust system was engaged in flight.  The entire ship was lost, as were all occupants.  The ship went into an immediate left diving turn as it lost lift on that wing, and broke up fairly soon after that, as the aerodynamic forces were just too much for the ship to sustain it's integrity.
Point is, that 777 should not be surviving at this point.  But hey, magic force field, Supes has made it, I guess, but...

9) He's on the right WINGTIP!!  And look how boss he looks holding it back and all.  He's freakin' Superman!  He's gonna stop that plane from spinning and... Oh look, there it goes, wing came right off.  Brilliant plan there.  The correct placement is at the *wing root*, or worse case, at the engine pylon.  Not the wingtip.  It's not nearly strong enough, and Superman *should know this*.  He's not stupid.  He's *never* been stupid.  Here', he's stupid.

10) Also: During all this, BOTH sets of spoilers are up.  Not the right idea.  But that's a technical error of the people not knowing how an airplane works, as evidenced by how far we've gotten in this scene anyway.

11) At this point, when the wing rips off, the entire ship is lost, and people should be being flung out of it by their seats being not attached to the rest of the plane, fuselage pieces scattering... Not even Superman's magic field can help.  This is a job for the Green Lantern and his ring making a big bubble around the people.  And then looking askance at Superman, asking "So... that was real awesome with the grabbing of the wingtip, Clark."  Also, explosion from fuel being flung around and fire and hot things in the vicinity, so there's that.

12) But anyway, plane stays together otherwise, doesn't explode, just starts a roll to the right, towards the missing wing.  And now is nose down and not flat spinning.  Huh.  How'd that happen... but whatever.  Now it's slowly rolling as it is aimed Earthwards, and then the other wing, FINALLY, rips itself off the plane, where Superman bashes right through it without a care.  Ho. Key.

13) And during that, all of a sudden... everyone's flung... FORWARD?!  By what?!  The plane is GOING DOWN.  And accelerating now.  You are never going to bash your face on the next seat in front of you until you smack the ground.  But hey, again, whatever...

14) And now, finally, we get to THE moment of pure goofy and campy crap that is this scene, as if the rest of it weren't enough... Superman takes *forever* to fly to the front of the ship (we know he can reverse the planet's spin, so why so slow?) He gets to the front... and starts pushing on the radome.  Let me explain how stupid this is.  The radome of an aircraft is a fiberglass or hard plastic piece that is invisible to the radar behind it. The weather radar is behind it, and behind that, the pressure bulkhead, and then the cockpit and avionics in this case.  The plane is somehow still together, which is unbelievable, but that superman can magically put his hands on the radome and it simply *collapse* and not break apart... that's one goofy thing.  That he can continue to do this and the radar doesn't break (which apparently it doesn't) is two, and that three, this entire ship of a Boeing 777 fuselage is NOT GOING TO RIP APART LIKE TINFOIL is absolutely the cream of the crap in this scene.  And yes, I said 'crap, 'not 'crop'. 
The forces involved are literally childs play.  Do not make it so fanatical, so dumb, as to try to pass this off.  We aren't that dumb.

15)  NOW you can be flung forward in your seats, and die. 

16)  And the entire tube does a rippling collaps like a slinky?  Riiiighhtt...

17) And then... the thing rather gently is put down!?  That's... amazing structural integrity.  Beyond that, though, you just liquified everyone in the back with the G forces... the chairs should be in the cargo hold, because there is no way it doesn't slam with a gigantic force into the ground back there.

18) And the scene continues (not with this clip), that whole "Statistically speaking, it's still the safest way to travel" line was yet again used.  As were SO many other items from previous Superman movies, particularly the '78 one.

19) And finally, capping that scene?  As if Lois is the first and only one to go out the door, fainting yet again, to slide down the slide.  Goofy.  Hokey.  Unless of course she's *FINALLY* succumbing to her grievous injuries, to which, Superman should have Xrayed her (and all of them) and seen she's hurt, badly, and got her to the hospital... instead, just wafts away. 

20) And there were two face slamming events on that plane...  Someone was dead from it, as their nose got buried into their brain... but I can forgive that, can't be all morbid and things.

And that's just the airliners scene.  You gotta be kidding me if you or anyone else don't see some of that and go... "OMG, seriously guys?  You wrote AND shot this?!"

---

As far as the saving Metropolis scene...

1) Shaking buildings in Metropolis (nee Manhattan/New York City)  A city not built to withstand earthquakes with their old style, brick and mortar buildings.  Some of those are coming down immediately.

2) Awesome job for JUST those people who needed to not have debris falling on them by using your heat vision to vaporize the stuff.  Lil' odd you chose THOSE people, but whatever.

3) Magic cigar to light a fire.  Just *happens* to get dropped with the old' OMG I can't believe I saw that! thing.

4) Again with the shaking of things... Yet no buildings down yet.

5) So Superman goes into the underground access tunnels to put out the fire. Fire caused by a leaking gas main.  He blows it out from a larger gas supply and sends it backwards to... where? 

6)  And did anyone fix the gas leak, because I bet there was more where that came from.  Gas lines do not magically have "just enough to let Supes save the day".  But hey, creative writing, onwards.

7) OF COURSE, Jimmy is gonna be standing around in danger taking his pictures.

8) OF COURSE the Planet's big globe is gonna come off it's mounts, but nothing else in Metropolis is going to collapse except one hotel sign.

9) OF COURSE Superman is going to hear a rumbling and know exactly what it is (or so the cut implies.)

10) OF COURSE a semi-modern skyscraper is going to have an outdoor wooden water tank on the top of it, making it look even more regal and stuff with it's spires and giant planet, only to amazingly right under the now broken planet so it can get crushed and send... only water down.  No wood chunks... odd.

11) "Great. Ceasar's. Ghost."  Seriously.  Of course, that particluar clip cuts out a little before Supes catches the planet (OF COURSE he catches the planet), but still.  Really guys?

12) "Hm... where can I put this?  Well... Surely I can't throw or move it somewhere that makes sense like a park or maybe send it back up onto the building and weld it back on... I know!  I'll set it on these here cars and cause their insurance to fail to pay them because it doesn't cover Acts of God... and I'm akin to a God, so there ya go.  Yeah.  I like it."  Plonk.

Less problems with that scene,  but still. 

---

Now I'll admit, all mine are technical details, but I reiterate... First time, all this.  All of this went off in my head.  I can suspend disbelief only so far, then it becomes ludicrous, campy... almost a comedy at that point.

Oh, I could go ON about how Superman Returns is campy, just dramatically so.  The entire Green Kryptonite infused island scenes is my favorite.

/And still... STILL... I liked it because, hey, suspension of reality and just go with it.
//But it was campy and goofy.  And hokey.  And bad.  They really didn't need to do it, and shouldn't've.

[Blondeshell]

*whew*

+1 for you, sir!

[houtex]

Hehe... told ya I had nuthin' better to do. :D

[Taceus Jiwede]

Well I think the big reason Ol supes here didn't do anything like that in this movie was because he didn't really decide to become the Iconic supes we all know and love until right before the fight with Zod.  He did things like save the bus which I agree wasn't cheer worthy but he was being told by his parents to hide his power's until the time was right so all the acts of heroism had to be kept secret, like the oil rig.  He was too busy defending his home planet by the time he was superman to be saving planes.  Now that Zod is defeated he is saving planes left and right I imagine.

[Tenzhi]

Now I'll admit, all mine are technical details, but I reiterate... First time, all this.  All of this went off in my head.

Your head is a horrifying place. ;)

Those sorts of technicalities are largely things that I understand but which I would probably never begin to consider in the context of either a comic book or a movie - much less a movie based on a comic book character.

But flying the small continent of kryptonite into space...  that one was pretty unforgivable for me.

[Olde Glory]

Despite the whole, "I'm going to kill everybody" stuff that Zod spouts, he was 100% focused on killing Superman. If at some point he was dragged away from a population center I doubt that HE would have fled the fight. This isn't a guy who was going to retreat and come back again later wreaking havoc. So, Superman knowingly lets an untold amount of people die before deciding that one more family is too much and snaps his neck.  The set-up and execution is pretty weak with the end goal being Zod's death.

In any case, DC has made their money and this is the new direction for the character. The entire plot was based around fear. Fear of humanity, fear of rejection and fear that the hero will eventually turn against us. From this point on (for better or worse) Superman is a darker individual who is a symbol of power instead of hope. Sorry, "quasi-realistic" or not, it isn't a Superman story.  I think that I'll stick to their well thought out animated movies and leave the live action offerings alone. 

[houtex]

Your head is a horrifying place. ;)

You don't know the half of it.  Eidetic memory is a helluva thing, and couple that with inquisitiveness? 

I'm a mess. :)

Point was, there were so many things wrong with those two scenes that belivability has to be suspended.  Hence, dramatically campy, and definitely goofy, to me, anyway.  Not 60s Batman campy, granted, but campy is by definition "An affectation or appreciation of manners and tastes commonly thought to be artificial, vulgar, or banal."  Or one of them anyway.  And goofy is "Silly, ridiculous".  Definitely that applied to a ton of stuff in that movie.

And really, as much as I like Spacey's Lex, that whole "WROOOOONGGGG"... awesome, over the top... camp.  Scenery chewing at it's very best.

[houtex]

Despite the whole, "I'm going to kill everybody" stuff that Zod spouts, he was 100% focused on killing Superman. If at some point he was dragged away from a population center I doubt that HE would have fled the fight. This isn't a guy who was going to retreat and come back again later wreaking havoc. So, Superman knowingly lets an untold amount of people die before deciding that one more family is too much and snaps his neck.  The set-up and execution is pretty weak with the end goal being Zod's death.

In any case, DC has made their money and this is the new direction for the character. The entire plot was based around fear. Fear of humanity, fear of rejection and fear that the hero will eventually turn against us. From this point on (for better or worse) Superman is a darker individual who is a symbol of power instead of hope. Sorry, "quasi-realistic" or not, it isn't a Superman story.  I think that I'll stick to their well thought out animated movies and leave the live action offerings alone. 

Zod pretty clearly stated that Humanity's fate was to be ended if he has any say so.  Zod knows that it will come down to him or Kal, and that one of them has to die, and that was said right out by Zod too.  But the fact is that they are both in the thought process of "we're invulnerable", and so their sparring is simply a matter of them keeping each other occupied.  Remove Kal from that equation, and Zod is just a vengeance machine, and is GOING to go take out all of humanity because, simply he can, and has no other purpose.  Genetic engineering at it's very best.

There is NO real expectation that Kal could actually snap Zod's neck, with the sole exception that Zod was still not qute as awesomely endowed with invulnerability as Kal, but I kind of doubt that.  So I agree, the actual kill, while shocking (and I actually jumped a little in my seat in horror that Kal did that) was a pretty lame thing, and opened doors that had never been opened before.

And to that end, once again, I reiterate... THIS WAS NO SUPERMAN MOVIE.  It is a Clark Kent movie, with a Kal-El aspect of it.  They went so far out of their way to not use the word 'superman', I would have hoped by now that the difference in this is clear.  He *could* be Superman at some point, but he is simply not that in this movie.  He has aspects, similar storyline, but really, he's clearly not Superman.  And won't be until, maybe, the third in this trilogy. (As I expect it to go to.)

Which is the point.  This is not some rehashing of the tale... this is a reimagination being shown to us.  And that will differ from the expected lore.  I think this is what rubs a bunch of the older readers.. the change is not cool with them.

But think about this... Superman didn't fly at first.  He leaped about.  Never flew.  That came later when they reimagined his powers.  And again and again until we get the Superman most of us understand him to be.  To have that mucked about in any way?  Yeah.  How dare they. :p

Look at Ledger's Joker and tell me that this sort of change is a bad thing.  He was not much of anything like the Joker as we'd all seen him before... And that new take was *glorious*.

/Overall, I think this rebooting of Kal-El is a good thing.  Batman, Star Trek, Kal-El... Kinda wish they'd done Green Lantern like this.  Nothin' like a little chaos... Now where have I heard that sentiment before...
//By the way, I'm the older reader too.  And I'm a Star Trek TOS baby, and don't have any problems with the new crew.  But my mother does, and doesn't like any of the other Trek besides TOS.  Go figure.  I think she'd be one of the people disliking the new direction for Kal-El.

[Tenzhi]

Ah, but a good villain should chew the scenery at least a little.  This is why guys like Jeremy Irons and Christopher Walken are awesome villains. 

[Arnabas]

And saving Metropolis:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIMbqMmkZCI

.

I loved the "Saving Metropolis" scene, perhaps even more than the plane scene

[Lightslinger]

Despite the whole, "I'm going to kill everybody" stuff that Zod spouts, he was 100% focused on killing Superman. If at some point he was dragged away from a population center I doubt that HE would have fled the fight. This isn't a guy who was going to retreat and come back again later wreaking havoc. So, Superman knowingly lets an untold amount of people die before deciding that one more family is too much and snaps his neck.  The set-up and execution is pretty weak with the end goal being Zod's death.

In any case, DC has made their money and this is the new direction for the character. The entire plot was based around fear. Fear of humanity, fear of rejection and fear that the hero will eventually turn against us. From this point on (for better or worse) Superman is a darker individual who is a symbol of power instead of hope. Sorry, "quasi-realistic" or not, it isn't a Superman story.  I think that I'll stick to their well thought out animated movies and leave the live action offerings alone.

Hardly, he even makes a point to tell Lois his family symbol means hope, Jor-El talks extensively about the hope he can bring humanity, how he can inspire them to do good.

What you're complaining about is a problem, but the problem was the fact this was an origin movie. We are watching Superman Begins, as he stumbles, figures out who he is, and in the middle to last act embraces it fully though he is still very, very inexperienced.

That's my main problem with this movie, and its a problem with most origin movies, we don't get to see all of the character we're looking for. It's why in so many cases for superheroes, the sequel exceeds the first movie. X-Men 2, Spiderman 2, The Dark Knight, Blade II, Superman II, etc etc. It's a very unique genre in that sequels are often just as good as the original or even better.

I believe Man of Steel gave Superman an amazing backstory so that in the future when he is a stubborn idiot for refusing to kill a character, we know exactly why. When Superman spends time being the charming, inspiring character we know, we have seen the carnage and turmoil that forged him into that.

Snyder and Goyer have both said a lot of what I said here. I fully believe that they've set the stage for a Superman in Man of Steel 2 that spends time saving/inspiring just as he does fighting.

[Tenzhi]

Hardly, he even makes a point to tell Lois his family symbol means hope

And like Lois replies, here it's just an S.  They may have wanted been going for hope, but the story they told didn't get much hope across.

[Lightslinger]

And like Lois replies, here it's just an S.  They may have wanted been going for hope, but the story they told didn't get much hope across.

Counterpoint: Superman chose Earth. He had a chance to side with the Kryptonians at the expense of Earth and he chose us. Then he went on to save humanity...all of it. That's pretty hopeful.

[Tenzhi]

All of it except the thousands who had to have been killed in all that destruction, you mean.

[Lightslinger]

All of it except the thousands who had to have been killed in all that destruction, you mean.

Yeah, but in my mind tens of thousands dead is still WAYYY better than extinction, that's just me though :)

Zod might not have been stronger than Superman, but he was definitely the superior fighter. On at least once occasion Superman tried to take the fight away (into space) and Zod threw him back in Metropolis. Zod was responsible for those killed by the terraforming and those dead in Metropolis.

However, I do think blaming Superman for the destruction would be an excellent angle for Luthor to take in the sequel.

[FatherXmas]

Standard superhero problem that tends to be glossed over far too often.  A problem all first responders have. 

You can't save everyone.  You can't be everywhere.  You can only do the best you can.

[Tenzhi]

Here's a review from Zod.

[Golden Girl]

The best way to approach this movie is probably to treat it as an elseworlds/what if kind of deal, rather than as a real Superman movie.

[Sugoi]

The best way to approach this movie is probably to treat it as an elseworlds/what if kind of deal, rather than as a real Superman movie.

I'm constantly reminded that as much as I love comics and the movies that have been spun off from them, that Alan Moore said it best in "Whatever Happened To the Man of Tomorrow?"  "This is an Imaginary Story... aren't they all?"  (For those who weren't reading the 60s Superman books the way they described their 'Elseworlds' type of stories was as 'Imaginary Stories' that weren't considered in-continuity (such as it was back then.)

With all the reboots I've gone thru since I started reading comics back in the 50s, I've always treated movie adaptations as alternate reality versions of the stories I've enjoyed in comic format.

And I don't mind admitting that I was highly ticked off when Zod's neck got broken, and just before it happened, I told my son... "Oh, crap, he's going to kill him..." I just hope the payoff further down the story line is worth what they put me thru in that moment.