Man Of Steel, the hottest movie at the moment, has been unofficially announced to be the biggest superman movie on its opening week ticket sales (in the USA, it is estimated to hit the box office with a better than expected result of $120 millions range). It is potentially the second biggest opening week of 2013, just behind the Iron Man 3 of $170+ millions. Even with it's mixed review from the movie critics, it is still expected to make a killing in the international box offices. By the way, Man Of Steel sequel is already a confirmed project!
That being said, just like any movie, there are always area that some viewers see it as poor, lacking or not up to par. Today, I am going to share one of the longest and most honest guest review by my friend, Ben. From the review, you can tell that he is a superman fan and he has written it with an heavy heart.
As per my blog title, I am sure many of you might not be agreeable with him (sorry Ben ;-)) and think that Man Of Steel is so amazing that it could possibly be the best superman movie to-date. So be it as I am sure both your view and Ben's review are valid ones as movie is one of the most subjective entertainment.
Now, read on for the longest and most honest guest review from Ben...
WARNING : SPOILERS AND CRUDE LANGUAGE AHEAD, PROCEED WITH CARE!!
It’s with a very heavy heart when I am typing this review, you see, Superman is the most iconic superhero and I really wanted to like this movie, especially when this MOS will signal the go ahead for the Justice League project.
Let’s start with the good part, the casting, the production values, the acting were all top notched. Those who complained the previous Superman Return lacked punches will get fulfilled literally. In fact the whole of second half of the movie was filled with CGI fighting, reminded me of the fight scenes Neo vs Mr Smith in the Matrix 3. Director Zack Snyder had once again proven himself to be great at directing CGI heavy scenes while Henry Cavil showcased that he is the face for the next Superman, a modernised Superman who is more bulky.
Kevin Costner and Diana Lane gave briefs yet memorable performances as Superman’s adopted parents while Russell Crowe had quite a meaty role as Superman’s biological father. They expanded Jor-el role to have Russell Crowe portrayed as a fighter, likely to justify Russell’s big pay check.
Granted, Superman is never an easy story to be written, he is almost an immortal with god like powers among us. The silver ages of comic treated the whole theme with a certain comedic touch, which even translated to the first 4 movies starring Christopher Reeves. At a good writer’s hand, the theme of why a god chose to live among us and spent all his time protecting, instead of ruling over, us, will be explored. That’s a good reason why I was excited over this when I heard of Christopher Nolan, of the new Batman trilogy, had taken the producer’s role. Indeed as compared to previous movies, MOS has a serious tone, probably over serious. The weight felt heavy as Superman’s origin was retold yet again.
Now here comes what’s bad about MOS, the entire plot felt extremely silly with loopholes and crazy events unfolding at such a pace that you wondered what’s the writer thinking of. Plus the sets designers seemed to have a perversion in mind, that’s why the phantom zone pods and Superman’s shuttle looked like giant penis flying all over the space. Someone should design a condom with the Superman crest right at the tip, seriously that looked like the space ship.
Half way through the movie, I would have thought MOS was directed by J.J. Abrams (Star Trek director) with all that lens flare. Why would Zack Snyder use a trick that’s associated as another director’s signature style?
For all the craps this movie thrown, I would rather they stick to the red underwear, at least there is something to look at. And save the 3D money, the 3D post production effects were mediocre. No need to stay after the credits, there was nothing on the coming movie, I guessed the producers weren't even sure there will be a sequel.
Verdict 3 stars out of 5; and the 3 stars were for the production and CGI effects.
The above reviews were spoiler free, so if you have not watched MOS, I would suggest to skip the below for it will be heavy with spoiler.
You have been warned.
Now where do I start of the plot’s crappiness? Let’s start with the beginning, if you have a dying exploding planet, why would you need to send the rebels to the Phantom Zone? Keeping them lock up in the cell would have guaranteed a punishment. So are you punishing or saving the rebels? And if there was a means to get into the Phantom Zone, why doesn’t everyone in the planet get into that zone? What the hell you have to lose against an exploding planet? Not only you spared the rebels of a certain timely death, you gave them a f**king ship that they could fly off? That’s crap!
Breed as a scientist, Jor-El, could outmatch General Zod who was breed as a soldier.
I liked the part when Superman asked his father why didn’t the parents followed him to Earth, though the answer was one of the stupidest ever, if Jor-El felt that he was the relic of the old system, why would he bother to have Superman born in such a manner? That’s a lame excuse.
One of the loopholes of the plot had to do with timeline, the spaceship found in the Artic were thousands of years ago, that was their planetary exploration plan before the Krytonians founded the way of harvesting babies artificially, and Jor-El explained that that’s why the planetary exploration plan was abandon and led to those people in the outposts died. Now how did that Artic space ship contained the technological means of harvesting babies? Hello Hollywood, some audiences remembered the plot.
And so FBI knew Lois Lane knew the identity of Superman, they did absolutely nothing to extract the info from her? The military would rather spend millions deploying unmanned aircraft rather than drilling the info from Lois Lane? Since when FBI became such a pussy? Speaking of identity, putting on glasses will hide your secret identity in a room full of reporters? “Nar! Clark Kent cannot be Superman, see Clark wears glasses and not skin tight costumes.”???
There was one scene which the movie wanted us to see the ultimate sacrifice of Papa Kent so as to teach Superman a lesson. Papa Kent sacrificed himself to save his family dog. I knew Americans really like their pets but this was ridiculous! Tell me again what kind of lesson a son would learn to see his father died in front of him? Papa Kent was not afraid of the emotional scar on Superman for failing to save his father while he had the means? What’s wrong with getting Superman walked into the tornado? The wind would have hide everything and Superman just need to show up few miles away, or even go home straight from there and no one would notice!
The first phase from the transmission of General Zod was “You Are Not Alone!” in different language. WHAT? Did someone ask them that question or this was the intergalactic way of greetings? Not only that was cheesy, it failed to serve any purpose.
Part 2 of Krytonians being creepy, their entire DNA were encoded on half a skull face? What with that level of weirdness? And Jor-El, there got to be a better way for baby Superman to bring the DNA out, how are you expecting him to extract from his DNA cell? What’s with even giving him the DNA? Jor-El would definitely know that for Krytonians to live on Earth they either had to change the world atmosphere or breed a race of gods, both would have led to breakdown of Earth. So what’s your logic of getting Superman to bring the DNA over? At least the older version, it was simply an escape pod for baby Superman, nothing more.
Once again, Hollywood had insulted the law of physic again, a wormhole will not selectively pull in targets, it will suck in EVERYTHING, that’s why it’s called Blackhole. Realistically the whole of Metropolis, maybe the whole Earth would have suck inside.
Explained to me, why the rebels asked for Lois Lane to be taken to their ship? Not to mention she was conveniently locked in a room with access to entire ship system and yes she had just been given the key. Talked about probability. For an Earth woman, she was great with Krytonian weaponry as she took down a few rebels soldiers while escaping. Why need Superman, when she could have wipe out the entire crew in no time?
Does heat ray vision has a use limit? Why didn’t Superman fire his heat vision on the World Maker machine from a distance? That would have saved everyone the time and trouble.
Here comes the BIGGEST SIN of MOS. Superman kills! In all superheroes stories, the number 1 rule is Superheroes don’t kill, regardless how evil the villain is. That’s an unbreakable code of conduct that separates superheroes from mere vigilantes. That’s why Batman never killed the Joker even though Joker had killed the second Robin and tons of peoples. That’s why Lex Luthor survived all these years without Superman firing a heat vision into Lex’s heart. (Looked back at all the Superheroes movie, from DC to Marvel, has any hero killed his/ her enemy on purpose?) That’s what made superheroes special as they had the power and yet choose not to use it. By letting Superman killed just because of 4 persons, this movie had literally destroyed what Superman has stands for. What’s next? As long as there are more than 4 persons killed or in danger, Superman can kill his opponent? That’s Bulls**t!
Have you watched Man of Steel? Do you agreed with this guest review? Feel free to drop a line or two in the comment section.
Cheers!
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