icemann on 5/7/2013 at 13:39
Watched World War Z tonight. For a zombie apocalypse movie it's pretty damn good. Loved the bit in Israel. Damn stupid people playing music.
And the end was unusually cheerful for a zombie flick. Looking forward to the sequel.
The original ending sounded alot more interesting though I do have to say.
Scots Taffer on 8/7/2013 at 04:23
So Man of Steel was kind of a mess. Not particularly surprising given Snyder's involvement, but it would've helped if any of it had made sense by the end.
SubJeff on 8/7/2013 at 07:25
I've heard this a couple of times now. What didn't make sense?
Scots Taffer on 10/7/2013 at 03:27
A lot of things really, not sure where to start. A lot of the problems can be narrowed down to one defining factor - too many events were used as plot devices in a poorly written fashion.
Why do the Kryptonians use a giant spaceship to banish these superwarriors?
Mass insurrection, destruction and war? 30 years in the sin bin. Really? That's it? This part was rushed over in the movie so I may have picked it up wrong.
Why do the Kryptonians engage in a skirmish one-on-one fashion with Supes? (I know this is something that can levelled at 99% of action movies but here it was particularly pronounced, when a spaceship of these super-warriors show up to save a struggling Zod instead of all pouncing on him)
On that note why do the Kryptonians have Supe's powers? He's supposed to be different?
Why does Supes continue to engage the Kryptonians in densely populated areas? Start the fight with Zod or whoever and then fly away to somewhere else remote and desolate - oh wait, then we can't cut to reaction shots of Lois etc.
I could also complain about the ST:TNG feel of the intro scene on Krypton and the "reverse the polarity" babble of the climactic battle, the leaden dialogue ("RELEASE THE WORLD ENGINE"), the terribly cliched let the dad die for a dog scene, and a host of other issues, but I won't.
june gloom on 10/7/2013 at 09:48
Too sleepy to cover most of this so I'll tackle these:
Quote Posted by Scots Taffer
On that note why do the Kryptonians have Supe's powers? He's supposed to be different?
Why does Supes continue to engage the Kryptonians in densely populated areas?
Remember that they're wearing powered armor built for war. And remember that until Zod loses his mask, they don't have the sensory powers. Flight (or at least long jumping), speed and strength, yes, but not super-hearing or any of that. Remember that they're following the post-Flashpoint (the 2011 reboot event) explanation for Superman's powers in that the whole of Earth's atmosphere gives him his powers, not just the sun like it was pre-Flashpoint. So while Zod may be in a suit built for war, he's not explicitly exposed to higher-level superpowers -- the kind that require practice -- until his suit is breached. It's likely that they initially thought the atmosphere would be deadly to them, given the sensory overload, breathing troubles, et cetera -- hence Zod's "what did you do to me!?" reaction.
As to the other question... well, I want to ask, why is it that when the Avengers tore the hell out of NYC nobody complained, but as soon as a bunch of Kryptonians do it everyone is up in arms? I know better than to think it's some sort of cultural bias against DC because Marvel has really really played up their mainstream outreach with movies and shit, but it does bug me that Marvel pulls the exact same sort of shit DC does yet Marvel gets a pass while everyone happily bashes DC. (And I'm not just talking about the movies.)
But to actually address your question, remember that Superman was A) almost completely untested in combat, B) alone against a number of jerks who could meet him punch-for-punch, and C) didn't seem to have much choice in arenas, as he was on the defensive for most of the Smallville fight. By the time the Metropolis fight rolls around, obviously much of the city is evacuated or already dead thanks to Zod setting up shop, so it's not like people getting hurt is as big a worry.
I want to note that Invincible also touches on the consequences of when superjerks get into a fight. When Mark and his dad slug it out early on in the series they plow through several buildings and practically level a city or two, and it's implied that thousands die. MoS is the first Superman movie -- and indeed, it's one of the rare Superman anythings -- to really show destruction on this large a scale, though it's probably because Superman's traditional enemy has always been Lex Luthor, who generally doesn't cause a lot of destruction when he slugs it out with Supes. It's fairly obvious the next movie is going to feature Luthor, and Luthor is going to have a lot of ammo in his Superman criticisms thanks to this scale of destruction.
Oh, and btw -- they weren't released from the Phantom Zone. They escaped. Not like they actually were even meant to be released -- and besides, who'd release them, with Krypton gone?
Scots Taffer on 10/7/2013 at 11:17
Ok, the explanations make sense - now that they've been explained by someone who clearly gets all of it - however given you raise DC and Marvel comparison, I didn't need the plot or background to be explained with Batman or Avengers and so on, so I go back to the script failing to do it's job for the layperson.
SubJeff on 10/7/2013 at 17:14
I didn't know the background either and I thought it was pretty well explained in the film. Zod even made a speech about how easily he had adjusted to not needing the armour and getting the hang of the super powers because he's a trained warrior.
And I didn't think 30 cycles meant 30 years- I thought it was more like 3000. They escaped because the destruction of krypton affected the prison ship somehow.
Renault on 10/7/2013 at 17:40
I give it 5 years for the next Superman reboot, and maybe 4 for the next Spiderman.
SubJeff on 10/7/2013 at 17:41
2 years after the rebooted Spiderman sequel? Optimistic.
