Man of Steel Spoiler Discussion

I recently rewatched Man of Steel and the AMC spoilers review with John Campea, and I must admit…I agree with Campea. I loved it. I still have flaws with it but am curious why everyone hated it so much. Basically this is an in-depth review thread for such a controversial film that I happened to really like. Any others agree? Did you hate the film? I’d love to talk. Below are some flaws that come to mind for me:

-The early pacing is a bit of an issue. The passage of time during the krypton scenes is hard to follow.
-After they destroy the world engines, the scene of Lois and Superman kissing feels forced and tonally inconsistent in comparison to how much horror the world engines had just caused.
-The ending scenes after the final battle don’t expound upon Clarks grief after killing Zod. It seems everything gets packed up in a nice bow all too quickly. I do love however the “welcome to the planet” moment haha.

Man of Steel came out almost fifty-eight years ago.

moviefreakedmind said:

Man of Steel came out almost fifty-eight years ago.

Sorry. Batman V Superman Ultimate Edition recently came out, I watched them back to back and was curious to hear out people’s criticisms. What problems did you have with it?

Well, I absolutely despise Man of Steel, and I’d rather watch Superman IV than endure that torture again.

I hate the needlessly dark atmosphere, it tries to be realistic while also being completely over the top and stupid.
The overt symbolism shows that Snyder is one of the most pretentious directors out there.
Henry Cavill is bland as bland can be.
Amy Adams is bland as bland can be.
Kevin Costner is bland as bland can be.
Russell Crowe is bland as bland can be.
Michael Shannon is over the top as over the top can be.
The colour palette is horrendous.
The camera work is horrendous.
The music is bombastic and bland.

That pretty much covers my problems with the film, though there are surely plenty more.

I award the film a two out of ten.

DuracellEnergizer said:

LuckyGungan2001 said:

The music is bombastic and bland.

In other words, Hans Zimmer remains consistent.

You betcha. No idea how he’s so popular.

The Aluminum Falcon said:

Really, there is a way to do a flawed, imperfect Superman (Byrne’s first Man of Steel issues showing the post-Crisis Superman’s formative years), but this just isn’t the character. You can have Superman making mistakes but in the end, he is the ideal towards which we strive (as the MOVIE ITSELF SAYS BUT DOES NOT SHOW). Even if the world is dark, Superman should show them the light rather than stoop to their level of anger (Smallville scene) or violence (neck break). His parents, normally essential to forming Superman’s heroic nature, are wasted in this film, with Costner’s diatribes coming across as truly confused.

While some may reasonably argue (and Zack Snyder even stated) that Zod’s death at the end was the key moment in which Superman learns the horror of taking a life, the opening of BVS shows this to be a fallacy. The VERY FIRST thing we see Superman do in the sequel is kill another guy, and, again, there are no ramifications in subsequent scenes.

All those so-called inspirational speeches fell flat to me because they were just words without actions to back them. Jor-El’s big speech at the Fortress, lifted verbatim from the magnificent All-Star Superman, didn’t have any resonance with a Superman, who didn’t seem particularly heroic. Even with all the obnoxiously on-the-nose savior/god imagery, I didn’t really see the example that the human race would supposedly follow. All words, no actions.

Worst of all, I just found the film horribly dull and boring! The action sequences just seemed endless, and I wasn’t sufficiently interested in the characters, none of which I found particularly charming or likable (despite the fact that the cast is filled with memorable actors). The cinematography was absolutely garish, horribly desaturated and filled with drab colors (even the BD copy). Shaky cam was employed too frequently. Never did we get a great, nice flying shot, which wasn’t either an extreme close-up or a long shot.

I daresay that I enjoyed BVS more than this because, though qualitatively worse with a muddied plot line, it was at least new and entertaining.

Honestly, the worst part of MOS was the writing.

This, +1, Agreed, etc.

DuracellEnergizer said:

LuckyGungan2001 said:

The music is bombastic and bland.

In other words, Hans Zimmer remains consistent.

This is why Agent9’s version is so much better! Sadly it’s still riddled with flaws, at least you can hum along to Williams’ spectacular score.