My Man of Steel Review (spoilers I guess)
Yeah, yeah, yeah it's a different take on the General Zod character blah, blah whatever. Terrence Stamp played the character with such a cool, silk pimp shirt wearing malevolence kind of way that he actually seemed more threatening because you knew what he was capable without actually seeing it.
Michael Shannon does not really do much to elevate the material but he doesn't detract from it. He's a genious much like Stamp, but a brawler pure and simple. However nothing is left to the imagination in this film. He and his henchmen (and woman) whips out the proverbial beat stick and they dont let up. This is super hero/villain fighting at its finest. It's loud, long, flashy and frequent.
The editing.... Oh boy the editing.. It felt like someone had taken all the trailers and spliced them all together and set it to music like some kind of wierd fan edit. That is my main issue with the film. The movie never really sits still long enough to get any real meaningful dialogue. It jumps from one person to another then from one location to the next. It doesn't really get a chance to breathe. The editing really kills it. Fighting scenes jump quickly to flashbacks, or scenes of other people "doing stuff" and a lot of it is not really in service of the plot. The movie didnt really stay still or in one spot for very long except for the fight scenes. But most of those were pretty jumpy too.
You have people all over the place in this film. The chief offender is Lois Lane. This chick is everywhere. I swear she can move as fast as Superman himself. One minute she is being saved after falling from space, then shes on an AC130 suicide mission, (which she falls out again to be save by our hero in the nick of time and set down gently somewhere in Metropolis) and then showing up magically (teleportation perhaps) in the final confrontation, all in a matter of minutes. Keep in mind that the final battle wipes out half the city, but she is able traverse what seems like a great distace through wreckage, debris, bodies, fire, glass and the sheer horror of an obliterated city just in time to see Superman put the final kibosh on the whole Zod invasion thing.
Costner and Crowe were good. The chick who played Faroa wasn't too bad either. She was actually pretty menacing. Fishburne didn't really do much to elevate the material and most of his scenes looked like they could be filed in the "give the character something to do category".
Kryptonite didn't really have a place in this movie. It's more of a plot device for villains who aren't on the same power level as Superman to even the playing field. Since all of the baddies were on the same power level, kyptonite had no purpose in the movie. But rest assured we will see it in the sequel if there is one. (When he fights Lex Luthor. Come on, we all know that's coming next. They wouldn't dare step out of THAT comfort zone)
The movie is really heavy handed with the "You are here to save/change the world..." After a while we were like, Ok I get it already! Jor-El said it a bunch of times, Jonathan Kent said it a bunch of times...
Now this might be just in my movie theater, but there was a scene where Clark is talking to Lois in a graveyard and the music starts but then just abruptly stops. It didnt fade out, it was like someone hit the "music off" button. My friend and I just looked at each other like, "did you just hear that?"
The pros? Faora was cool. Bitch was wrecking shop. Every time she showed up, you KNEW somebody was about to get fucked up.
Snyder was true to his word when he said that he wanted to convey a sense of speed amongst the Kryptonians. The fighting was quick, fierce and brutal. Punches, heat vision, exploding buildings, the ground cavetating whenever somebody got body slammed or took flight. Gunfire, missiles, rockets, bombs, lasers, knives... It was all there. Everything blew up real pretty like.
So that's it. Just my opinion. Go see it if you want, or wait for bootleg here on bgol. Just remember, I watch the bullshit, so you don't have to.
I'm out.
