Superman: The Man of Steel

[metal_bryan]

[O.Supreme]

[Rodanex]

[MouthForWar]

[king_ghidorah]

[Dr Kain]

[king_ghidorah]

Yeah, there were a few moments but I would have preferred a few more.

[MekaGojira3k]

[king_ghidorah]

[O.Supreme]

[MouthForWar]

[O.Supreme]

[MouthForWar]

[Gargantuan Gargantua]

[Rodanex]

[Henry88]

[jellydonut25]

Michael Shannon is a FANTASTIC actor. How is it that any film fan has never heard of him before?

[Dr Kain]

[MouthForWar]

[MouthForWar]

[canofhumdingers]

It was good, but definitely uneven. I'd give it a 7/10. And, thankfully, I think they got the really important things right. Most of the issues I had were more about execution than anything.

Some of what follows might be spoilerish...

The good things:

Casting - I think all the major roles were cast pretty much perfectly. Cavill was excellent as Supes

The character of Superman. This was the single most important thing IMO and they nailed it.

The story. I thought it was engaging, entertaining, and very interesting. Really liked the overall plot line here.

The score. Much like John Williams, Hans Zimmer has a sound that has become instantly recognizable. You know immediately that he worked on it, and that's not a bad thing. It was also very fitting.

Zod and friends' costumes. Those suckers looked freaking awesome.

Tone. I did NOT find it to be too serious. I thought the humor that was there was mostly appropriate and inserted at the right moments. Superman as a character can tackle some pretty powerful ideas and concepts and having a more weighty tone is appropriate if you're really going to delve into those issues, which I think this film was trying (and at least partially succeeding) to do.

And now the bad:

Pacing. I think this film could've used some editing. I felt the pacing was very uneven at times largely due to....

The action. I thought the fights were really well done, but when one fight leads into the next that leads into the next it starts to be a bit much.

The effects. This was probably the most uneven thing in the movie to me. Sometimes they were great, but too often the cgi was just really bad. The tornado in particular looked terrible. And much of Krypton in the beginning looked terrible too. It reminded me of the prequels where practically everything onscreen is clearly computer generated and there's little to nothing remotely familiar onscreen so that it becomes just a jumbled cartoon mess.

Suspension of disbelief. There were several shots that just made me roll my eyes that, even in the established universe of the film, were way too silly. The distance shot of Lois on the ice ledge and the shot of Pa Kent not having to brace against the wind of the tornado at ALL until it suddenly swept him away were too of the most grievous.

Score. Yeah I know I listed it in the positives, but there were two issues I had with it. One it could help, and one it couldn't. The first is that while the main theme was good, it was too simplistic to be used so much and therefor started to get too repetitive. The second issue is that while good, Zimmer is still no John Williams and, much like Elfman's Batman theme will forever be THE Batman music, Williams' Superman theme will forever be THE Superman music and seeing a film without it was a little sad.

[O.Supreme]

[canofhumdingers]

[MouthForWar]

ALSO ALSO ALSO

(SPOILER)

I know this is something people are split on, but I loved how Pa's death was handled. Supes NOT rushing into action against his father's wishes was perfect and showed that above all else, Clark truly trusted his father's word. Right after Clark is being a douchey teen and says "You're not my real dad," he ends up going against his every instinct to show that he trusted his father after all, that he DOES love him and take what he has to say seriously, and to show that his father can trust him in return. It was tragic and Cavill and Costner totally sold it.

[Rodanex]