Man of Steel: To Krypton and back again
We put off watching Man of Steel while we wrestled with laziness, superhero movie fatigue, and various questions. Today we finally went to the cinema and got our answers.
1. Superman is perfect. Perfect is boring.
Solution: The filmmakers give him a very human problem: the fear of being regarded as a freak. Besides the usual existential questions.
2. Man of Steel is directed by Zack Snyder.
Pro: Snyder made 300, which was entertaining.
Con: Snyder made 300, which was stupid.
3. Man of Steel is produced by Christopher Nolan.
Pro: It probably won’t be garbage.
Con: It will be ponderous and take itself very, very seriously.
4. Man of Steel is written by David Goyer.
Pro: None. You see that name in the credits, find the nearest exit. Case in point: Da Vinci’s Demons. Aaaaaaaaaaaa. All Starz series should end in Z so Da Vinci’s Demonz. Spartacuz.
Solution: They hide the name until the closing credits. Clever.
5. Man of Steel stars Henry Cavill as Superman.
Pro: Henry Cavill is beautiful.
Con: Henry Cavill is too beautiful. (Masyadong maganda, nakakaumay. We always thought Henry Tudor in The Tudors was in love with him.)
Therefore Superman is the one role he actually looks right for. (Apart from assorted deities.)
6. Amy Adams plays Lois Lane.
Pro: There are no cons. We’ll watch anything with Amy in it.
7. Michael Shannon is General Zod.
Con: No one is scarier than Terence Stamp in black tights and goatee as General Zod. He looks like a megalomaniacal ballet dancer. He will plié you to death.
Pro: We like Michael Shannon, he sounds insane.
8. There have been too many Superman origin movies.
Solution: They make it a combination Superman and first contact movie. And they make Krypton Brave New World.
9. Are they going to use the classic John Williams score?
No, it sounds like every Hans Zimmer score in existence.
10. The advance reviews
We ran into Teddy-Wan Kenobi on our way to the theatre. His review: “Henry Cavill coming out of the water…Man-boobs! No padding! Not so much as a panty-liner!”
Teddyboy noted on Twitter that in the movie, the “S” on the suit does not stand for “Superman” because there is supposedly no letter S on Krypton. The S is their symbol for “hope”. Well the Latin for “hope” is “spes” and that starts with S, and Kal-El’s father is played by Maximus ergo he’s Roman.
Teddyboy ran into Robin Padilla after watching Superman. Robin Padilla’s review: “Ang tigas ni Superman!” (Tita Louie Locsin’s review of Robin Padilla: “Why can’t you look like that? He looks vacuum-packed.”)
11. And…?
We enjoyed the movie! It is earnest but not cheesy, and the statement of the big themes is assigned to the two fathers, Russell Crowe and Kevin Costner, who carry the burden gracefully. The two mothers, Ayelet Zurer and Diane Lane, are lovely and fierce. Oh look, Christopher Meloni! Richard Schiff! (Laurence Fishburne, what is going on?)
Every superhero movie needs a healthy dose of ham, and Michael Shannon is a jamon iberico raised on mushrooms. It’s refreshing to see a female journalist character who is actually doing journalism and not modeling cute outfits—Amy Adams makes Lois Lane real. After a very long wait, Henry Cavill is finally a star.
Man of Steel: Highly recommended. (As if you had a choice. Nothing else is showing in theatres.)
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
June 15th, 2013 at 12:50
I wanted so much for this movie to work!
Kal-El looks nothing like the skinny blonde /pretty boy bully Humphrey in Stardust,. They’re two species of impossible beauty.
And yes, it’s good that Henry is finally a star! After losing to Robert Pattinson forthe same Harry Potter and Twilight roles, he has every right to feel super now.
June 17th, 2013 at 07:46
3. Man of Steel is produced by Christopher Nolan.
Con: Very loud background music that drowns out the dialogue?
June 17th, 2013 at 20:17
I like Henry Cavill he’s too pretty to be just on television, so glad that the man of steel didn’t wear a red brief, I really enjoyed the film I just wish there’s more Henry Cavill in that costume…who do you think should play Lex Luthor….how’s Jason Statham?
June 19th, 2013 at 01:26
I enjoyed Man of Steel save for the tiliian of the girls in the cinema during the man boobs scene.
The Kevin Costner scene almost ruined the movie for me. Why couldn’t he have just asked Clark to get the dog and if the tornado spins the trailer with him in it and he survives then just call it a miracle.
Cut us of from Kevin Costner facing General Zod which would probably have been awesome.
I get that in a sense it was 50% of his conflict and was probably necessary but I wished there was a way it was conceived differently.
June 20th, 2013 at 06:46
Best superhero movie for me since The Dark Knight.
I didn’t realize Goyer did Da Vinci’s Demons. I’m not much aware what his film works are (though I know he does films), but I’m familiar with his comic book works – and on those, I like him. His was the only JSA (Justice Society) run I ever followed religiously. At least he did good with Superman.
This movie has the world divided. Critics are panning it (58% on Rotten Tomatoes), but the audience at large have mostly rave reviews. I am with the latter on this one. Most critics are complaining about how serious and joyless it seems to be, which I disagree with.
I also cannot wait for the sequel. The prequel comic book featured Kara Zor-El, so it’s almost a given that Supergirl (or my hope is that it’s Power Girl) will show up down the line… especially since her presence was already, um, alluded to in the movie (explicitly, if one has read the prequel comic).
Besides, Henry shirtless is enough for me to have watched it four times. See it on IMAX; Henry is huge! :)