Raven on 15/6/2013 at 11:40

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Yeah yeah, star trek is so last month - so what about supe.... sorry man of steel.
I managed to catch this last night - very strange film.

It tries so hard to not be a superman movie that I spent most of the time wondering why I was watching it (i.e. the start is a strange mix of doctor who, game of thrones and avatar - but was definitely one of the better bits of the movie).
Yet it would seem that for you to be emotionally invested in this superman, the viewer has to rely far too heavily on the previous superman mythology i.e. there seemed to be more times when clark wasn't saving someone and at one point even engaging in petty revenge. The second act of the film is told in from a bizarre forth, or even fifth person perspective. It seems like they were desperate to separate the viewer from the story, were they embarrassed to be telling the superman story? (then why make the bloody film?)
The way that they distanced you and hoped that you didn't notice you were actually watching superman was through use of many, many flashbacks.

It even has one flash back scene:
[Spoiler] (1) A remembrance of ma' Kent (2), who is not speaking this to Clark btw (3), of the thoughts OF her dead husband and him (4) viewing a young clark kent playing [/Spoiler]
(5) where a child Clark is seen pretending to be a superhero (6) wearing a red cape and stomping around in traditional superman poses (7). So what was young Clark's inspiration for this? When I was a child and pretending to be a super hero it was because I had watched superman films! What was the genus of Clark's games?.......
So, we have seven separations from the film that I wanted to see - superman stomping around as superman being a hero!

Actually, now I think back about it, the film is really just a bit crap. It gets far too caught up in its own seriousness.
Superman is a superhero - in fact, for most people he is THE comic book superhero (which is probably why he is so difficult to capture on film).
This film would have benefited greatly by remembering it's origins. The new batman films managed to have humour dispersed throughout them, why is this superman so morbid? No, wait, bland is a better term.
The relationship between Dad and superhero is always a major tension point in any superhero story.... and yet this is strained and snapped in this imagining -
[Spoiler] Clark kent let his dad DIE in order to 'keep his secret'. Cause it would have been so freaking difficult to PR spin young healthy clark surviving the tornado... nah just let pa Kent die pointlessly no wait TO SAVE A DOG! [/spoiler]. I laughed out loud at this nonsense.

Despite still managing to be completely bland they tried to jam about 3 or possibly 6 films into one. It turns out that the standard superman story is in fact the correct way to tell the story
(Clark becomes superman and fights lex luthor and save lois, clark fights zod, clark then fights.... whoever - deathstar\pinky and the brain or whatever comic wank silliness that it descends into).
These guys instead just re-used art assets and set pieces from other blockbuster action films, while stomping over classic themes in an attempt to be serious and grown up.
The fight scenes and super speed were pretty cool. I am not sure about the superman saving people scenes, because I think there was only 1, count it 1, scene when grown up clark kent actually gets of his arse and save some people (separate from the main set piece - in which I think he is still pretty half-hearted in the whole 'saving people', e.g. only 1 person in a 5? man crewed helicopter?)
Possibly the material for a great superman film is in there somewhere - it has just been pieced together in a bizarre manner. Maybe an extended edition\re-edited edition would fix the timing problems and flow of the film - but that is not really going to happen.
I am going to ignore the crazy-ass physics because after all (despite the films best attempts to hide it) this is still suppose to be a superman film.
(Okay, just one question then - how feasible is it to walk around freely in the back of an in-flight aeroplane for a good 20 minutes while it's hanger door is wide open?)
My expectations were pretty low and the film pretty much matched them. They were exceeded at points, but the film is less than the sum of its parts.
Sadly I reckon there will be no direct sequel - sigh.
There is also no way they could launch the league of superheros from this mess - but then I never thought that was going to work (green lantern is rubbish supposedly?). Maybe a the flash film would have been easier to make, and they probably should have done that first.

/incoherent rant - over.

So, what did you think? Did it meet expectations? .

SubJeff on 15/6/2013 at 12:13

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I am pretty hyped for that too.

I had to stop that gadawful trailer though, when I realised it was basically telling the whole damn story in compressed form. AGAIN.

Why do they do this? FFS!!! :mad: The UK trailer at cinemas is fine, natch. Idiots.


I'll be seeing Man of Steel next week at iMax. I'll see Elysium there too.

SubJeff on 15/6/2013 at 14:54

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A Fantastic Four reboot? ugh. just get out.

After Superman I think I'm done with superhero movies.

Vivian on 15/6/2013 at 16:37

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If you've ever read even the most cursory plot summary of Elysium it really doesn't spoil anything. It's not like prometheus were they show everybody dying.

demagogue on 16/6/2013 at 14:41

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Saw Behind the Candelabra.... Best gay love story I've ever seen put to film.
There's something about being taken in by someone rich & powerful, but also being at their mercy -- it's romantic & scary at the same time -- that makes for good drama...
But I'm a piano player, so I like movies about piano players in any context.

Ultimately, Liberace is a little too much over the top kitsch & already alien to our culture to make it a classic though. I mean I didn't buy that he was all that fascinating once you took down the facade, which might have been part of the story.

The best biopics are about people that are inherently fascinating characters... The other one I saw this weekend was Luther, and that was a great biopic on a fascinating character & period. When he appears before the Diet of Worms and gives his "Here I stand" speech, you can really feel how brave a person would have to be to make a stand like that to that crowd, and how remarkable it was that he inspired so many others to join the cause so he wasn't just squashed like a bug like would have happened at any other period or place...