I went to ‘The Man of Steele’ with my boys Friday night. The theater sold out but after watching it I asked my boys what they thought and one hit on exactly what I thought ‘It was good but not that good’. I actually liked the Krypton footage and Russell Crowe did an excellent job as Jor-El. I really enjoyed the first part of the movie and the very end. The rest was just too much. Henry Cavill was an excellent choice for Superman. He has the look, he has the presence and had he been in more competent hands this film would’ve been a true masterpiece but instead it degenerates into a tiring affair of cliché and special effects.
My biggest complaint is that they went all Prometheus with Kryptonains. If you didn’t know better you’d almost think that the Kyptonians were the ‘engineers’. There were just so many incredulous moments too that just drained away the substance and awe that could’ve been there. The point I identity things going down hill is with the arrival of General Zod and things get immediately better with his demise.
Lois Lane unfortunately is left as a truly filler character and though they didn’t pull in some Megan fox they might has well have given the lack of resonance and screen time she had. I suppose some who have no reason to expect better might be taken with this film but it was disappointing to me. I hope they do better in the next iteration. We can take a bit of solace that they didn’t portray Kansas as dullsville and they even displayed a warning of what happens when reproduction is severed from family and ones role in life is severed from individual choice.
I agree on Man of Steel. It was very good, but not as good as it could have bee. I think the authors were actually afraid of going for any more depth. There were a few good lines - about morality, love, etc. - and it’s interesting that (like Gattica) the character was conceived naturally and outside of the conception controlled by the government, where everyone was hatched designed for his station in life and had no freedom or possibility of change.
And as you say, it was positive about human life and even positive about Kansas! It was also positive about Christian imagery.
But I could have stood a reduction in the special effects and a little more focus on story.