'Man of Steel' IS an Excellent Movie!! MoS Appreciation!

[Legato]

Even as the bar keeps getting raised for comic book movies, I can't for the life of me understand why Man of Still gets so much hate. I don't see how anybody can put a movie like Superman Returns and Man of Steel side-by-side and call it push. Man of Steel had everything anyone could want in a Superman movie. It had heart, it had drama, it had passion, and it had action. At no point was Superman, Lois Lane, General Zod, or any character made too different from the source material. Compared to how badly movies like Elektra, Catwoman, and the entire X-men franchise have butchered their characters, Man of Steel deserves a great deal of credit on that alone. After seeing Man of Steel, I put it above all three Iron Man movies and nearly every other comic book movie except for Avengers and the Dark Knight. Now I think Captain America 2 and Guardians of the Galaxy exceeded it, but Man of Steel still deserves to be in the conversation for one of the best movie adaptations of all time. I even went on a long, angry rant about it on my blog. So rather than just repeat myself, here's a link to my official review of Man of Steel. I think it'll convey everything I need to convey with respect to this movie.

X-men Supreme Official Review of Superman: Man of Steel

Saw your blog and I applaud you in taking a stand against the critics attacking MOS. MOS might not be the perfect Superman film but nowhere near as bad as the other Superman adaptations, looking at you Superman Returns.

Least MOS tried to be different than the Reeve Superman film, which is more than I can say for the other adaptations that would try to mimic Reeve Superman. Don't get me wrong Reeve Superman will always be iconic in my book but it's time to move on and do something different with a Superman movie.

[SiegePerilous02]

Neither can I, Zod is better than most of the MCU villains.

This. All of this.

The only two Marvel villains I sort of liked were Loki and Nebula. But I can see the former eventually becoming this franchise's answer to Spike (from Buffy) and that's horrifying. And the latter I mostly like because I was impressed by Gillan's range.

If Zod and Faora turned out as awesome as they did with just Goyer's shaky writing, I can't wait to see how future villains fare with screenwriters like Terrio. A well executed Legion of Doom would totally destroy the competition.

[Guy1]

This. All of this.

The only two Marvel villains I sort of liked were Loki and Nebula. But I can see the former eventually becoming this franchise's answer to Spike (from Buffy) and that's horrifying. And the latter I mostly like because I was impressed by Gillan's range.

If Zod and Faora turned out as awesome as they did with just Goyer's shaky writing, I can't wait to see how future villains fare with screenwriters like Terrio. A well executed Legion of Doom would totally destroy the competition.

I liked Winter Soldier, and Nebula was kinda hot and was fairly cool for her limited screentime, I agree.

Faora was utterly amazing though and set a new standard for Action Girls, good and evil. Diana must be at least that badass to succeed.

[Legato]

I liked Winter Soldier, and Nebula was kinda hot and was fairly cool for her limited screentime, I agree.

Faora was utterly amazing though and set a new standard for Action Girls, good and evil. Diana must be at least that badass to succeed.

As long as Superman/Batman don't Gamora, Diana then DC is off on the right track when it comes to female characters in live action

[KonFan78]

I loved MOS. So much so that I'm nervous as hell waiting for B v S. I just don't want it to turn into a Batman movie that Superman is a guest star in. Or a look how awesome Batman is, he can kick the super alien's butt movie.

[Guy1]

I loved MOS. So much so that I'm nervous as hell waiting for B v S. I just don't want it to turn into a Batman movie that Superman is a guest star in. Or a look how awesome Batman is, he can kick the super alien's butt movie.

I have faith in Snyder. This film is gonna be great.

Batman isn't gonna walk up to Supes and pick a fight. He'll be smacked down. Even with armor, with the power level that Superman showed, he'll still be screwed.
If they do have a physical fight, Batman is going to need a looot of prep work and help from Lex Luthor to stand a chance.

My best guess? Lex will help Batman design a super armor to take on Superman, but then remotely hijack it while they are fighting in an attempt to kill them both. May or may not involve unleashing Metallo on them too.

Where Diana fits into that, not too sure, but I'm sure she'll be awesome. If not Lex, then the final showdown will be against the rumored reanimated body of Zod, which may or may not turn into Doomsday or Bizarro...or start out as Bizarro and mutate into Doomsday!

[Charmed]

Awesomeness piled on top of awesomeness.

[Dark Soul # 7]

I recently rewatched Man of Steel and I think that it's just fine as far as superhero movies go.

The first time Superman flies is pretty much perfect, the fight scenes are generally epic, the villains are fun and I rather enjoyed the flashback heavy nature of the narrative, it kept the flow going and made it somewhat different from how superhero origin movies go.

I'm not quite sure how I feel about Superman killing Zod, beyond that it could've been presented better. But I do tip my hat to Snyder & co for going there with the character. If nothing else it creates a discussion amongst the fans about superheroes and the no killing policy many of them are supposed to have, and I'm always for discussions like that. It wasn't just tossed in there and Superman isn't just going to run around and snap the necks of everybody he fights. It was a carefully measured move and it'll be interesting to see what kind of effect it has on the coming films.

As for Superman vs. Batman: Dawn of Justice. I am just tired of seeing people say that it's going to suck when we've seen nothing but what the big three are going to look like and a short teaser, and recently the Bat-mobile. How about we just wait until it comes out and we see it before we judge it? Yes, it looks darker than the Marvel movies but if it didn't people would probably just say DC is ripping off Marvel's style. I can't say that I'm pumped, yet, but I am totally interested in seeing it and where they go with this whole world.

[CliffHanger2]

Yeah Mos was pretty good hope Zack sticks to his guns on the next one. Wish he would have had some slo-mo fight scenes in Mos though stop listening to the haters. The new batmobile looks awesome!

[MikeP]

Yeah Mos was pretty good hope Zack sticks to his guns on the next one. Wish he would have had some slo-mo fight scenes in Mos though stop listening to the haters. The new batmobile looks awesome!

I do too. It would have made sense in this movie, with Superman's speed.

[Charmed]

I kind of like that for the first time (that I've seen) super speed wasn't portrayed using slow motion. I personally got enough of that in Smallville, which I understood as it didn't have the budget MoS did.

[CliffHanger2]

I do too. It would have made sense in this movie, with Superman's speed.

Yeah I hope he goes more to his original style in the next movie.

[asiansupes]

Yeah I hope he goes more to his original style in the next movie.

I actually loved the "real-time" speed that Snyder implemented for Man of Steel. One could get the sense of how fast and how hard the Kryptonians were hitting each other. It created a sense of danger, fear and actually being there. It's like watching the Bulls' Derrick Rose in person. You don't realize how fast he moves with the ball unless you see him in person.

Bullet-time speed may have taken the audience out of the action and lessened the elevation of danger. I think bullet-time would have softened the critics on the fighting, though. The real-time speed was almost too real in spots, in terms of a city being destroyed.

[billee0918]

Watched MOS again for the first time in a while last night. I was really disappointed when it was first released, but now have a new appreciation for it. Henry is perfect and Adams' Lois much stronger than I remembered.

[GrandKaiser]

I found this on tumblr. TL;DR: A MoS fan defending the film from Marvel fans who decided to trash it in favor of the Avengers. Absolutely wonderful.

http://amouria.tumblr.com/post/10801...yish-ellidfics

You can read the whole response in that link but here is the response to the trashing:

Like literally I have legitimate concerns about the observational powers of Marvel fans. Does the glut of irony and pratfalls make you incapable of absorbing a different style of cinematic storytelling? Are you just so high on the billion-dollar box office success that you can’t see how obviously hypocritical it is to compare a superhero team up movie to the first movie in a franchise starring a single superhero against nearly impossible odds? Really, like, I want to know, because I don’t get it. I don’t even get why you feel the need to ENDLESSLY compare your team-up movies to Man of Steel, is it because YOU feel insecure about something? Is it because YOU feel defensive? Because WE are fine. In fact, most Man of Steel fans LOVE the entire MCU because we recognize it as what it is- a win for geeks, a win for comic book fans, a win for superheroes. But here, let me help you-
1- an elementary-aged Clark Kent lifts a school bus full of his peers out of a river at great risk to his personal identity. This isn’t the Marvel cinematic universe where you go “oh I’m an alien” and the whole human race just goes oh cool, superheroes, we learned about this in 1945; this is an ET situation where they may or may not roll you away for dissection and exposing yourself to your entire grade school class leaves that totally in their hands.
2- When the planet is threatened, Clark hands himself over TO US. He’s already got flight, so he could easily just fly up into the atmosphere and try and deal with Zod or hell punch a hole in the ship and get the element of surprise, he’s certainly capable of breaching their ships hulls. But he doesn’t, he surrenders himself to humanity so that humanity gets the credit for handing him over, to protect the planet, to give US the choice about how best to save ourselves because he’s not a messiah or savior, he’s just one of us who can do more than most. If Lois hadn’t saved him, that would have meant GIVING HIS LIFE to protect the planet.
3- When the fight in Smallville begins, he instructs citizens to go back inside, he stops fights he’s losing in order to catch falling soliders in mid-air, he throws down with not one but two opponents who clearly outmatch him in terms of skill, and everything is actually not too bad until the military shows up and blows up the block. If you’re paying any attention to Cavill’s performance, you’ll notice that Clark is ALWAYS aware of bystanders. His ability to do anything about it when he’s being used as a projectile is obviously limited.
4- Superman HAS a team, they are just not all blessed with combat skills or firepower. You will notice that Tony and Thor don’t do a lot of rescuing civilians in the Avengers fight, that makes sense because they are more valuable elsewhere, they are better situated to take the fight to the skies where the innocent people aren’t. Superman’s team consists of Lois Lane, Colonel Nathan Hardy, General Swanwick, and Dr. Emil Hamilton. Two out of the four members of his team LAY DOWN THEIR LIVES during this battle to defend the earth, to prevent further casualties. Lois provides the plan, Swanwick provides the manpower, Hardy not once but twice enters a fight he has no chance of winning in order to gain the tactical advantage, and Hamilton saves everyone by figuring out the alien technology.
5- Colonel Hardy and a plane full of military personnel give their lives to save their planet because everyone in the Superman universe has the capacity to be a hero, because they were bound by duty, brave as hell, and inspired to greatness. THAT’S why Man of Steel is a more faithful adaptation of the comic books than any media to come before it, and if you don’t like that about it, you probably don’t like Superman.
6- This seems pretty obvious but it’s possible due to the flimsy criticisms I’ve been seeing that nobody caught it- Clark isn’t in the first fight. The terraforming machine that is punching Metropolis flat is both the cause of the destruction and not something he can do anything about while he’s trying to stop it on the literal other side of the planet. For all the complaining about how OP this character is, you would think people would be pleased to see some reasonable limitations put on the character in this film, but apparently there’s no winning so I won’t even get into it. Superman ain’t there. He can’t be there to get down on one knee and adorably wipe the soot and tears off the cheek of an orphan because he is too busy saving the world.
7- There are SO MANY heroes in the first half of the Metropolis battle. They are people; they are people in uniform, doing their job incredibly well the way that heroic people in uniform often do their job incredibly well. They are normal people like Perry White who struggle against ridiculous odds to save an intern, and people like Steve Lombard who decide to offer what feeble help they can on the off chance they can risk their lives saving someone else. We see these people doing, trying, succeeding, failing, and they don’t have supernatural powers and they don’t have government spy training, and they are wearing uniforms and not costumes so maybe they are easy to miss. Go back and check it out- they are there, and they are so important.
8- People die. People die terribly, people die on-screen, bodies are picked up in the air and hurled back into the ground. It’s is terrible and horrifying to watch, and it doesn’t feel good. Here’s a thought though, should it? Should it feel good to watch a scene of battle, a scene with innocent bystanders, a scene where people are losing their lives to an invading alien force, senselessly? Because it happened in the Avengers, and as evidenced by the memorials in the final scenes, it happened A LOT, the casualties were large and memorable to the people of New York, and maybe for the tone of that particular movie that was sufficient, but Man of Steel is not- this might be shocking, hold on- Man of Steel is not The Avengers. It doesn’t want to be, it wants to be a different kind of movie, and that’s okay. Man of Steel doesn’t want you to be ever ever be comfortable with the violence. So you will see people die, you will see the horrors of war, and you will feel uncomfortable, but I for one learned something about the nature of violence. I’m not sure what I learned from the battle in New York.
9- Superman is not in charge of the final battle with Zod. This is a huge sticking point for naysayers, so I’m going to say it again: Superman is not in charge in the final battle with Zod. He is outmatched and outclassed. He is a farm boy fighting a military General and even if he were out to kill Zod from moment one of the fight (he’s trying to find an alternative, because killing someone, even a not human someone, is a serious thing- again, we’re not taking violence lightly here) he would still be getting his ass kicked. I don’t understand how being used as a wrecking ball by Zod translates into “not caring” about the human casualties. I don’t get it, I don’t know how to refute it because it makes zero sense to me. Like I’m sure that Clark Kent the character feels super terrible in the aftermath about the various people Zod was able to kill while fighting with him, but that doesn’t mean he should feel terrible or responsible. Like if someone picks me up and throws me at you, are you going to yell at me? I hope not. The last moments of this fight are him giving up his clean hands to SAVE INNOCENT BYSTANDERS. Even Zod knows from limited contact with Clark that his biggest weakness is his desire to prevent bloodshed, but somehow that didn’t penetrate a huge number of viewers. I don’t get it, I truly don’t understand.
10- If you are really putting Christopher Reeve up as the ultimate ideal of pacifist Superman, I think you need to watch the Donner films again.