Man Of Steel Ten Years Later - What’s Your Thoughts On It?

[Amadeus Arkham]

As we head into the next iteration of Superman-On-Film, today marks the ten year anniversary of Zack Snyder’s highly polarizing Superman reboot. Immediately following the lukewarm received Superman Returns where it was criticized for being too deferential to those movies, Man Of Steel was in many ways had the complete opposite as it couldn’t be more a bigger departure from the Donnor movies that once had Superman cheerfully rescue cats from true with a smile. Man Of Steel had great trailers/marketing and was coming off the heels of the concluding Nolan Batman franchise. Matter of fact Chris Nolan, was a producer on the film and David Goyer who wrote the screenplay was the writer for Begins, and had story credit for its two sequels.


In fact, when you think about it the Batman association the movie may have played in it’s favored considering the trailers weren’t shy about it being from the one who gave you The Dark Knight trilogy. The movie had a good opening weekend but was met with mixed reviews and fan reception. Among the many criticisms the film received was the third act battle with portrayed a litany of massive CGI destruction, and lack of humor, and last but least - a complaint that still the topic for fiery debates online was Superman killing Zod. For myself, watching the movie ten years later I still find enjoyment with the film and still think it’s the best of the Snyder DC trilogy but I’m honestly not as high as I was when I first watched it. I wonder after ten years, what’s your thoughts on Man Of Steel?

[JBatmanFan05]

My thoughts haven't changed, I hated it then and still do. My background though was of someone who used to rail against the PZ murders (and their terrible stain on Superman and his comics) on Steve Younis' Superman Homepage long before MOS came to screens.

Snyder's cut of JL is his best Superman/superhero film IMHO, oddly I really enjoyed that (even despite its flaws and the prior films). Though 300 is Snyder's best comic book film, it's a film where Snyder fits the creator/writer (Frank Miller), fits the material, and Gerard Butler helped it be Snyder's best as well.

[All Star Superman]

Utter deconstructionist garbage. It did possibly irreparable damage to the zeitgeist's understanding of Superman even thought it's not a Superman movie. No Kents, no Superman. It's a nightmare that I have lived with for a decade and hope it's one I can wake up from one day.

[Vordan]

MOS had a fantastic take on Zod which has gone on to form the foundation for modern Zod in everything from how he looks to what motivates him. It’s take on Clark however leaves much to be desired with regards to how shallow and passive he is, often serving as little more than a prop shuffled from scene to scene with no real driving presence. The Kents are awful, and that could have worked if Snyder was aware they were awful, but the hasty course correction in BvS with ghost Pa shows that he did not realize how they came off. It was the first movie to show that the tech was there to make Superman fights as exciting and impactful as Batman or Spider-Man, and Snyder’s portrayal of Superman’s powers has gone on to have a major influence on all other adaptions of Superman. That scene of Supes pummeling Zod through the skies over Metropolis have been recreated countless times in animation, video games, and even the Supergirl CW show.

Looking back 10 years later, I now give the movie a 5/10. It did some things well and some things poorly. If it had led into a proper Superman sequel perhaps its flaws would have been better addressed, but instead it led into one of the worst movies of all time in BvS. Happy to put both it and Snyder in the rear view mirror.

[bat39]

I plan to rewatch it in a couple of days before The Flash, but sharing some thoughts today as well, seeing as it's the 10th anniversary.

It remains my personal favorite Superman movie, and among my favorite interpretations of the Man of Steel. It brought Superman into the 21st century, whether the fans wanted it or not. It treated Clark, Lois, and the Kents as people first and foremost, and not some idealized paragons. And the final battle, and the scale of destruction, is pretty much what a superhero vs. supervillain fight would look like if it happened in real-life, and not the sanitized PG portrayals we typically see (most notoriously, Superman II, which has a crowd laughing and cheering while Superman fights Zod, Ursa and Non in the skies above ).

Honestly, its the best of the three Snyder DC movies, and probably still the best DCEU movie overall (or maybe second to Wonder Woman). I'm prepared to call it one of the best DC movies ever...yes I will die on that hill! The biggest problem with this movie is not the movie itself but the fact that we never got a proper follow-up to it. BvS was ultimately more a Batman story, and a set-up for Justice League, than an MOS sequel in the true sense. And yes, it's a crying shame that this was Henry Cavill's only solo turn in the role.

Happy 10th Birthday, MOS! Thanks for the memories

[Last Son of Krypton]

I saw it the last time around the last Summer. The vfx aged really well. I can't stand to rewatch the 3rd act anymore, it drags too long. Overall a good but flawed movie.

[DochaDocha]

Was an extra on the movie, still disappointed I was left on the cutting room floor .

It was a movie I enjoyed enough to pay full price twice in theatres and I bought the BluRay, but ended up being a movie I might've rewatched once out of theatres. My gut reaction is to defend the movie, but my actual eagerness to rewatch it really paled in comparison next to the various Marvel movies that come out from 2012-2014 or the Nolan Bat-films.

I think it was treated unfairly both by critics who weren't willing to accept a darker tone on Superman and by the studio who decided the logical follow-up was a bloated movie to introduce all the other DC heroes. I kind of look at MoS and 2013 as the halcyon days before WB totally screwed up the DCEU, a hopeful time when I eagerly anticipated DC movies and was optimistic for new movies instead of whatever feelings of disgust and dread I've had from 2016-2023 whenever an in-continuity movie was announced. But despite my overall positive feelings, there were a ton of things I would've done differently in the movie itself. Even though I don't think critics rated it fairly, the truth is also that some of the poor reception was self-induced.

I think some fans would say the DCEU got off on a bad start because of MoS. My take is the DCEU's first major misstep was BvS and it really went all downhill from there.

[Last Son of Krypton]

I think some fans would say the DCEU got off on a bad start because of MoS. My take is the DCEU's first major misstep was BvS and it really went all downhill from there.

I feel the same.

[bat39]

Was an extra on the movie, still disappointed I was left on the cutting room floor .

It was a movie I enjoyed enough to pay full price twice in theatres and I bought the BluRay, but ended up being a movie I might've rewatched once out of theatres. My gut reaction is to defend the movie, but my actual eagerness to rewatch it really paled in comparison next to the various Marvel movies that come out from 2012-2014 or the Nolan Bat-films.

I think it was treated unfairly both by critics who weren't willing to accept a darker tone on Superman and by the studio who decided the logical follow-up was a bloated movie to introduce all the other DC heroes. I kind of look at MoS and 2013 as the halcyon days before WB totally screwed up the DCEU, a hopeful time when I eagerly anticipated DC movies and was optimistic for new movies instead of whatever feelings of disgust and dread I've had from 2016-2023 whenever an in-continuity movie was announced. But despite my overall positive feelings, there were a ton of things I would've done differently in the movie itself. Even though I don't think critics rated it fairly, the truth is also that some of the poor reception was self-induced.

I think some fans would say the DCEU got off on a bad start because of MoS. My take is the DCEU's first major misstep was BvS and it really went all downhill from there.

I tend to agree, though I personally liked BvS. And then all the behind-the-scenes drama surrounding JL, and the Whedon cut of JL obviously tipped things over the edge.

In hindsight, I think we really needed an MOS2. It could have introduced Batman and/or Wonder Woman as supporting characters, but it needed to be a Superman movie first and foremost. And maybe Flash and Aquaman solo films before JL, in addition to Wonder Woman. Hell, if not those, then at least a solo Batfleck film, which would allow this take on the Dark Knight to shine without stealing the limelight from Superman!

Leaving the theatre after my second viewing of MOS back in 2013, I too felt really good about Superman's future on the big-screen and the DCEU. And in the decade since, I've honestly liked a lot of what we've got - even stuff like Birds of Prey or WW'84 that are otherwise universally hated. But it all pales in comparison to what could have been...

[superduperman]

I literally left the theater traumatized. Seeing Superman snap someone's neck was jarring to say the least. The symbol was...a choice. I hope Gunn goes back to the more traditional look with that one. The whole codex storyline was very unnecessary complex. I get that they were going for the Byrne origin which was fine, I guess, but they still made it more complicated than it needed to be. I think I've only watched it once since seeing it in the theater. Which isn't a good sign. If I were to say something nice about it, it would be showing how his powers worked. And Krypton looked cool. But it's offset by his parent's attitude of he doesn't have to help people. His parents upbringing is the whole reason he became Superman.

[The Frog Bros]

Generally speaking I’m not a fan. However, for me it has little nuggets of cool scenes that I do like.

For example, the oil rig sequence is pretty awesome, imo, and among my fave “Superman saves a bunch of people” bits. And I also like when he saves the bus load of kids as “Superboy.”

Liked Fishburne (as usual). I don’t think Amy Adam’s was terrible per se, and I do think she’s a really good actor, but yeah, def lacks the chemistry of other pairings.

Shannon’s Zod is pretty great.

The Krypton stuff was alright but the opening sequence is waaay too long and bloated.

I’d say upon my first viewing, my initial thought was neither “I loved it,” nor “I hated it,” but more of a “huh?”

[TheCasualReader]

I went to see the movie with my best friend when it came out in theaters and there’s nothing really I can remember about the movie now - it’s only a vague recollection of a few pictures - and that honestly ends up being a more succient condemnation of the movie than any review I could have made. For comparison, there were scenes in Thor: Love and Thunder that I remember and enjoyed enough to rewatch. That movie was a messy piece of overindulgence.

I think there’s one scene that stuck from Man of Steel and that’s the scene between Clark and his mom in the closet where she’s helping him because his powers are basically overstimulating him. I felt so much sympathy for Clark, I related to him (I have autism) and it was a sweet moment between him and his mother. I remember thinking it would have been nice if there were more moments like this. It felt human.

His dad was just an *******, though. I can't even say he was a well-meaning ******* because his way of doing it is so dumb it's surprisingly he didn’t screw up Clark mentally and emotionally as badly as he could have. The scene in the yard could have just have Jon point out that there are people who have the skill and mind to be firemen, but they decide not to and that doesn’t make them bad people. Just because Clark has powers doesn’t mean he has to save people: he can live an ordinary life if he wants and shouldn’t feel guilty about that. Maybe his point was something else and the analog wouldn't be applicable (like I said, I don't remember scenes) but whatever his point was, I remember thinking the writing just wasn't there.

He honestly didn't feel like a person to me - he felt like a character. Basically, the illusion of a fictional person being a real person just wasn't there. Usually, characters like him provoke something in me, but there was just nothing. Mind you, I don't remember anything about Martha beyond the closet scene I mentioned. Don't remember Lois. Remember Zod and that one henchwoman, but nothing about them as characters.

I know it was a big thing, but I didn’t have a problem with killing Zod because Clark was left in a no-win situation where he had to act in self-defense for the family. That said, I think it makes perfect sense for Superman fans to criticize that the writers made it a no-win situation because it's not like this happened in real life: it was fictional characters in a fictional situation with fictional stakes that had been constructed by the writers with an outcome that had also been decided by them.

I also think I remember the movie being non-chronological and how unnecessary a choice that was because it didn't really do anything for the story. I don't remember the action because I don't care about the characters, it doesn't matter how well-choreographed the action is.

When I try to remember what I thought about it, the words that come to mind is "Pretentious." I think I remember mentally rolling my eyes at the scene where Clark floats in space, for example. I think the movie is shot and treated by itself as something that's doing something serious and deep or at least thoughtsome, but it really isn't.

I also didn't like the choice in color lighting, color palette or whatever it's called. It made the movie look viusally dull/unimpressive, if that makes any sense. I really didn't get why they didn't just use natural colors.

It’s one of those movies where I keep swinging back and forth between the “It just wasn’t my thing” opinion and the “This was not a good movie" opinion.

I feel the same.

As someone who was a member of the casual audience, I have to both agree and disagree.

MoS set a very specific impression of what the DC movies were going to be like and that impression was only reinforced by BvS. Because I hadn't enjoyed MoS and wasn't interested in BvS for the same reason, I assumed this was what all the DC movies were going to be like, so I didn't watch any of them. The DC movies having that kind of "color scheme" was also not a good idea because when I saw marketing for Wonder Woman, it felt like it had a similar "color scheme" going so, again, I thought "Oh, it's going to like MoS and BvS." and didn't go to see it even though I had been tempted beforehand.

DC really should have followed MoS with a different movie to show a diversity, in my opinion. Shazam was the first time I went back to see a DC movie because it looked more like it was going to be my thing.

[Kuwagaton]

That opening night was the right moment in the right place in my life. Damn, that experience was amazing and I wish I could go back. I'd seen the movie a few times after, but not since 2019 at the latest. I'm really not one to sit down and watch stuff.

I like Clark Kent. He had this PTSD thing that gave him an actual heroic arc. This isn't the comic character and so it's important to show why a regular minded guy in a realistic world would have some issues with just enjoying what should be the greatest life in the world, and why he finds it important to overcome those feelings. The other important thing is that he on the other hand, didn't have to develop his Superman persona. There's no reason to believe that he isn't the guy he was when he was arrested, and that's even more fantastic than the way Cavill looks.

I like Zod. Historically his relevance comes from being a scene chewing cornball from an older movie, but here he feels like a guy who's dangerous without super powers. The alien invasion broadcast and "thousands of years ago" creepiness really helps. The threat is threefold with the other two (Faora and Nam Ek are great references) and the terra forming macguffin is a cool idea.

I like Krypton. Crowe El is cool and actually felt like Cav-El's father. Lara feels like she could be featured in a story as a character and not the wife or mom of a character. The firefalls/fantasy stuff mixed with the Kryptonian genetics stuff is actually even better than the random ideas and imagery that comics were offering at the time.

I like the DP. It was utterly important for Perry to corroborate part of what Pa said. Lois, well I didn't feel like they gave her much but Adams is very respectable.

But I know, this is a retrospective and not a review. What I have to say now is that the screenplay set a watermark and the (provocative?) direction makes a deal breaker situation for all DC going forward: they have to directly win people over now who didn't like it if they want any hope. Unfortunately I think it's got a chance of giving us a pandering, lcd, feel-good baby food Superman movie that doesn't at all get away from Tony Stark having a burger in the middle of a press conference. "Hey guys, he's cooler than Batman and faster than Flash and has all the feels and doesn't make mistakes, please like it after hating exactly that in the first place and essentially causing the other stuff you don't like." As a cycle. I like Gunn, but the worst thing ten years since MoS is now that there's an obligation to defy it.

[Johnny Thunders!]

It is a visually gorgeous movie and I do think Batman V Superman is the sequel along with the 4hour Justice League cut. I don’t agree with the take on Clark or Jonathan Kent. I think the dialogue can be bad at times and some of the storytelling choices don’t make sense to me.

[billee0918]

Well, my heart shattered in disappointment when I saw it 10 years ago and I knew my dreams of a DC cinematic universe to rival Marvel’s would have to wait.

I’ve rewatched a few times over the years and always find some things to appreciate. Cavill certainly looks the part (if a little wooden and not busting with charisma), some cool effects and I really enjoyed the scenes on Krypton.

My hopes are tightly pinned to James Gunn now.