Man of Steel thoughts
So, my dad thought we should go see Man or Steel today, and since it’s Father’s Day that’s what we did.
And I really didn’t care for it. I feel like there were some decent ideas, and a good story buried in there, but what we got was not very good.
For starters, the cinematography just hurt. It wouldn’t have been fun to watch even if it had been an otherwise good movie because the camera work was so wonky. I didn’t have a problem with the shakey cam in say Hunger Games but this hurt my eyes constantly. Probably too much CGI and shakey cam.
I really didn’t care for the characters or characterizations we got here. I normally like Superman stuff, but if this is how others see the character I can see why people think Supes isn’t that good a character. He’s boring and yet devoid of the all-American boy-scout quality that is supposed to define Superman. Supes is not that complicated, but he should be way more interesting than this. And basically everyone eels got even less character development than blandy.
If it hadn’t hurt my eyes so much I would have wished for some kind of Last Days of Krypton story rather than a Superman story because the stuff on Krypton was marginally more interesting than the Earth story; but it was at least as hard to watch if not more so, so I can’t quite say I wanted more of it. Jor-El was possibly the most interesting character though.
Gods damn did Pa Kent get some awful characterization. Jonathan had to be both the Uncle Ben and the wet blanket on this. No son, don’t come save me, you better just let me die, I’ve served my purpose in the story now. And it ties in with the complete botching of Clark’s character, because the suit shouldn’t make him the hero, being Clark Kent is what makes him the hero. Or maybe that’s just the way I’ve always seen the character because I grew up with Lois & Clark which put the situation as “Clark Kent is who I am, Superman is what I can do,” and he’s a hero because of who he is, what he can do is just how he does it.
And for a movie so consumed with what Superman symbolizes, they didn’t actually make it about him symbolizing anything to the world. He didn’t touch anyone’s life in any meaningful way to inspire the human race to be the best version of themselves.
Also there are plot holes wide enough to drive a fleet of spaceships through, the dialog is clunky and forced, while some of the reimagining elements work a lot of them don’t do it for me, and no one’s actions really make a gods damn bit of sense. And most of the people are idiots. And the action drags and is repetitive (along with not taking any time to build up Supes as much of an actual hero). And it’s too long for so little happening. And...it just wasn’t very good.
Like I said, I think this could have been made to work, I *wanted* it to work because I like Superman stories, and I don’t think it was devoid of talent. It just really didn’t come together very well.
Now I think I’ll go watch some L&C and put this movie out of my mind.
And I really didn’t care for it. I feel like there were some decent ideas, and a good story buried in there, but what we got was not very good.
For starters, the cinematography just hurt. It wouldn’t have been fun to watch even if it had been an otherwise good movie because the camera work was so wonky. I didn’t have a problem with the shakey cam in say Hunger Games but this hurt my eyes constantly. Probably too much CGI and shakey cam.
I really didn’t care for the characters or characterizations we got here. I normally like Superman stuff, but if this is how others see the character I can see why people think Supes isn’t that good a character. He’s boring and yet devoid of the all-American boy-scout quality that is supposed to define Superman. Supes is not that complicated, but he should be way more interesting than this. And basically everyone eels got even less character development than blandy.
If it hadn’t hurt my eyes so much I would have wished for some kind of Last Days of Krypton story rather than a Superman story because the stuff on Krypton was marginally more interesting than the Earth story; but it was at least as hard to watch if not more so, so I can’t quite say I wanted more of it. Jor-El was possibly the most interesting character though.
Gods damn did Pa Kent get some awful characterization. Jonathan had to be both the Uncle Ben and the wet blanket on this. No son, don’t come save me, you better just let me die, I’ve served my purpose in the story now. And it ties in with the complete botching of Clark’s character, because the suit shouldn’t make him the hero, being Clark Kent is what makes him the hero. Or maybe that’s just the way I’ve always seen the character because I grew up with Lois & Clark which put the situation as “Clark Kent is who I am, Superman is what I can do,” and he’s a hero because of who he is, what he can do is just how he does it.
And for a movie so consumed with what Superman symbolizes, they didn’t actually make it about him symbolizing anything to the world. He didn’t touch anyone’s life in any meaningful way to inspire the human race to be the best version of themselves.
Also there are plot holes wide enough to drive a fleet of spaceships through, the dialog is clunky and forced, while some of the reimagining elements work a lot of them don’t do it for me, and no one’s actions really make a gods damn bit of sense. And most of the people are idiots. And the action drags and is repetitive (along with not taking any time to build up Supes as much of an actual hero). And it’s too long for so little happening. And...it just wasn’t very good.
Like I said, I think this could have been made to work, I *wanted* it to work because I like Superman stories, and I don’t think it was devoid of talent. It just really didn’t come together very well.
Now I think I’ll go watch some L&C and put this movie out of my mind.