Man of Steel

[mf_luder_xf]

Surprisingly, perhaps, I really liked it. The beginning was a bit slow, but ultimately, a brief exploration of the mythos behind Superman was interesting. I wanted more in the end - like why the machines were bug shaped and how exactly the planet was harsher. But, that's for comics, right?


Things I liked:

• The scene near the end when Clark has killed Zod and he breaks down. Gorgeous. And then Lois comes up and hugs him...beautiful. The best Lois/Clark moment, IMO.
• The mythos
• The mix of flashbacks with the rest of the plot moving forward.
• I really got a sense of Clark's morality that was perhaps less evident in Brandon Routh's quiet presence.
• The supporting actors. I mean, we had Helo/Paul (Tahmoh), the actor from Firefly and Dollhouse (Harry Lenix), former White House Communications Director (Richard Schiff), and hey, Chris Meloni, too.
• Diane Lane as Mama Kent.
• Antje Traue as Faora. She looked bad ass and was generally the HBIC. Much better than Zod.

Things that were 'meh':

• WTF was that tornado flashback? World's most giant twister literally descends in 5 seconds? I don't think so.
• Kevin Costner as Papa Kent in general.
• I really have a thing about non-brunette Lois'. I thought Amy Adams did a fine (if not great) job, but seriously. How hard would it have been to dye her hair?
• I didn't really feel the romance. I guess, it seemed to go too far in the span of the movie? Like, they jump from her finding out who he is to making out and seemingly being in love. IDK. Maybe it's just me. But it reminded me of the sibling feeling I got from IM3 between Tony and Pepper. Like, they just didn't sell me on it.
• Zod just made me think of an angry Quentin Tarantino the entire movie.
• Russell Crowe. I just wasn't sold.
• It went by quick despite it's 2 hours and 20 minutes...but it could have delved into the plot a little more, a little less on the massive fight scenes.
• The dick-shaped pods that everyone got sent off to the Phantom Zone with in the beginning. I mean, WUT.
• That the sun over Krypton still looked yellow.
• Also, if Clark absorbed radiation and grew into his powers...why was Zod able to get the powers the instant his helmut busted? But then Clark grew weak immediately in the Kryptonian atmosphere?

Overall, I really liked it. And now I can't help but imagine LexCorp comes in to rebuild Metropolis (much the way Tony does with NYC) and that slowly builds into his secret experiments and leads into the next movie showdown between Clark and Lex. But yeah, it was a strange version of indie meets blockbuster. And I really liked the emphasis of alien/sci-fi over general fighting crime in Metropolis. More sci-fi, the better!

Random question...what have you guys always thought about Metropolis as a city? In this movie, it was clearly NYC and according to Wiki it is based on NYC, but I always imagined in the comics that Metropolis was basically Kansas City, just differently named. Gotham seemed more NYC. Apparently, I'm weird. Why do you think DC went with fake cities where Marvel uses the real ones?

What are your thoughts?