Man of Steel World Premiere #manofsteel

It doesn’t often happen that I end up with tickets to the world premiere of blockbuster films. In fact, it’s only happened once. And while I wasn’t at the official premiere in NY, here in SF we got to see the film at the same time as the NY showing, so I’m going to count it. I’m not a film reviewer, so this is just my own personal thoughts on the film, and as an author, I admit that I have a tendency to spot logic issues and plot holes, but none of them were so egregious to ruin the film.

 

I hadn’t been really keen to see this one. I’d seen previews and figured it would be standard superhero fare. We’ve had a hell of a lot of really good superhero films lately, so it’s tough to stand out anymore. But this was a very fun ride, and even if you’re not into superheroes, you’ll probably enjoy it. If you wait for the midnight showing of every superhero movie, you might have a different opinion. I’d say the first Iron Man film was better, but Man of Steel stacks up well.

 

The writers wanted to show two sides to both Superman and Zod. Superman has learned to be human, and that’s supposed to be a good thing. They wanted to show him struggling with how and when to use his powers, and holding back to avoid being noticed. If you watched Smallville, you’ve already seen a Superman who has plenty of moral dilemmas to face, but for films this is supposed to be something new. They gave Zod a purpose behind his plan to kill everyone on earth, but it felt tacked onto the character, and we could have used more scenes to set that up.

The special effects were really super. The flying scenes mostly felt as realistic as flying scenes are going to, and less of the manic CGI motion that I particularly hate about how other films do this kind of thing. The opening scenes on Krypton were incredible, and some of the most creative. I thought the 3-D worked very well here, though I generally don’t like it. Once the fight scenes start, there’s all sort of things flying out at the audience.

 

Overall, the film was a lot of fun, and that’s what it was meant to be. It’s not as dark as The Dark Knight, but it’s not full of laughs either. It does take itself a little too seriously, and there could have been more humor. There are plenty of “really?” moments, but logic flies out the window in these films. Jor-el and Zod wear armor back on Krypton and have pretty impressive weapons, yet in their fight scene they don’t wear helmets, and basically punch each other in the head and face a lot. Superman only wears a stretchy outfit and a cape and he still can withstand Zod and his army, even though they are wearing heavy armor. You get the idea.

Not that I don’t like Superman’s stretchy outfit. I like it a lot. And I like Henry Cavill in this role. He’s a Brit, but he completely pulled off the American accent for me. I never once doubted he was the Kansas-raised boy Clark Kent is supposed to be. He doesn’t have a lot of chatty scenes, mostly short dramatic lines, so I can’t tell how good of an actor he is, but I’m inspired to look into his other work now. Even if he were a really crap actor, I’d still enjoy watching him for two hours. He’s in nearly every scene, and there are a few gratuitous shirtless scenes that give you a good idea how much time he spent in the gym. Those bulging…muscles… under the blue spandex are all Henry. No need for fake contouring on this body.

 

One thing I found funny was spotting other films and television shows that seemed to be inspiration—intention or not. I even wrote them down.

The rest of this will contain spoilers.

 

After a very obvious anti-fracking opening scene on Krypton, I felt like we’d been transported to the world of Avatar (they ride flying dinosaurs).  You’ll spot some Battlestar Galactica-like creatures that reminded me of Cylons. Krypton felt like Avatar meets BSG meets Jurassic Park. When Zod and his cohorts get punished they end up in something reminiscent of bronzing in Warehouse 13. Other aspects felt like Stargate Atlantis, especially the episode where an interactive Rodney hologram from the past helps Sheppard. You’ll spot an X-Files scene (what is the government trying to cover up?) and a run from the FBI scene. A forced TV broadcast reminded me of Dark Angel, and there are lot of Close Encounters-inspired scenes. Another scene felt like a carbon copy of a Supernatural episode where the villain enters Clark’s dreams, complete with over-saturated colors and clothes flapping on a laundry line.  There’s even a journalist called Woodburn (Woodward +Bernstein), whose website is full of “expose”-type stories. And there’s a “Release the Kraken”-type line that made me laugh, but no one else did. I’m sure you’ll spot even more than I did. But keep a list; it’s part of the fun.

 

The film action starts with Clark in his early 30s, rescuing some men off a burning oil rig–probably a not-so-subtle jab at BP—and all of the scenes of Clark’s childhood are told as flashbacks, which actually works very well. It eliminates the need to rehash familiar territory, while choosing a few key scenes to show us, some of which have been changed from the original story. The action moves forward quickly and never flags, because almost as soon as Lois turns up, Zod and his army arrive to threaten earth.

 

They’ve changed up some of the canon, including having Lois seeing Clark become Superman right away. In fact, I didn’t like this aspect at all. She follows him as he discovers the film’s version of the Fortress of Solitude, and he’s barely absorbed what Jor-el has told him about his real past before he has to rescue her. It ruined the potential impact of his reaction to the implications of what he learns. But it does show how pushy Lois is in a particularly TSTL scene of her running around on a glacier and nearly falling into a chasm. Zod’s plans threaten the whole planet ,but only the US military seems to do anything to stop him. No other country comes to the aid of US, though he does some major damage to other parts of the planet.

 

My favorite character in the film is Martha Clark. She’s a tough-as-nails mom who will do anything to protect her kid, and I think she learned as much from Clark as he did from her. She barely flinches when Zod throws a truck into her house and demolishes it.

 

I could go on, but I’ll stop here. I don’t want to give too much away, but I would love to hear your opinions after you see it. And I do recommend seeing it.

 

NOTE: I do not own the images used in this posting. If I have used an image you own the rights to, I will be happy to remove it.  Please let me know.