so I got around to watching Man of Steel

[thedeadparrot]

I had a very fantabulous dinner + Man of Steel hatewatch last night. I knew the movie was going to be bad, but my anger was mollified by the good company and the delicious food.

I also went back and found my long rambling entries from, um, seven years ago, about Superman (and Batman) after Superman Returns and I was a much less jaded and bitter fangirl back then. I think Superman Returns has plenty of flaws (some of which are repeated in Man of Steel), but I still have some fondness for it, since it feels like a movie made with love. Man of Steel feels cold, for all that we get sad, angsty expressions from Henry Cavill. It doesn't feel calculated and commercial, but it does feel more like an intellectual exercise than an emotional one. I want my Superman movies to be filled with joy. Ripping off Terrence Malick in place of actual emotional depth will only get you so far.

Also, it would be more convincing as an intellectual exercise if anything made sense.

At least they didn't knock up Lois Lane with Superman's kid and then have him run out on her? Small mercies, man. Small mercies.

Comments

[hannah]

Man of Steel was half of a fair movie with some good setpieces and character development, especially with Lois Lane figuring out everything on her own, and half of a gratuitous action scene. I'm glad I didn't have to pay for it.

[thedeadparrot]

I strongly disagree with you on the character development, actually. It felt like the movie was pretending that there was character development, when the character scenes never felt like they added up to something. The flashbacks sure were pretty, but it felt like they were more Obligatory Flashback Scenes than actual development of Clark as a person. I really liked Film Crit Hulk's takedown of that aspect of it, but it very, very long and written in Hulk-speak. I was going to read it again today when I got a chance.

[hannah]

I'd forgotten about the Film Critic Hulk review. You're right; development is too strong and good a word.

[thedeadparrot]

I think the actors did a good job, which may be what you're getting at. Unfortunately, they were doing a good job with crap that made no sense, so the overall effect was still generally not-good.

[thirdblindmouse]

What flaws did you see Superman Returns and Man of Steel as having in common?

[thedeadparrot]

The big one is the Christ imagery. Superman is super boring as a Christ figure! It's cheap and it's overdone, and I'd like Superman to be more than the Christian feelings from a bunch of white dudes. I know that this is my own biases showing, but I'd want to see more of an immigrant story and a whole lot less 'Jor-El is God giving us his only son! don't you get it? isn't that really cool how I did it?'

I think the movies both have a hard time understanding why Clark Kent, intrepid Daily Planet reporter, is important for modern retellings of the Superman story. The whole 'Clark Kent is a mask!' thing tends to be played in a dismissive manner, and it really limits the character, imo. I like the idea that it's possible that both Clark Kent and Superman are true to who he is, and the movies seem to always want to dismiss that out of hand.

[thirdblindmouse]

Ugh, yes, Superman as Christ figure is the most boring non-story. Biases or not, a focus on Superman as an immigrant would be far more interesting, and much less done to death.

There's no rewinding the clock, and it got changed within the first decade of his existence, but the Superman/Clark Kent of my heart is the inner city orphan who learned to use his superpowers leaping tall buildings rather than corn fields, and whose superheroics were an extension of his daily heroics as an investigative reporter who exposed corruption and injustice with his partner (who bravely investigated mobsters and other powerful figures without the protection of superpowers).

[thedeadparrot]

I would watch all the movies about Clark and Lois fighting corruption and winning Pulitzers together. All of them. That is probably the Superman movie I've always wanted and know that I will never get. Woe. WOE.