I am soooo disappointed. This movie sucked. Superman should have definitely been more edgey/conflicted.

6/17/2013 9:47:20 PM

there's no way you can have an edgey/conflicted Superman when he's fighting toe to toe in an IHOP.

it's been hours since I seen the movie and I'm STILL applauded that they put that in the script seriously.

[Edited on June 18, 2013 at 1:23 AM. Reason : nn]

6/18/2013 1:18:01 AM

Quote :

"I'M STILL APPLAUDED"

[Edited on June 18, 2013 at 11:35 AM. Reason : *]

6/18/2013 11:34:50 AM

I really really enjoyed it. I agree with those that said some of the fight scenes drug on, but overall I enjoyed it so that doesn't even bother me that much.

I was an emotional basket case during one scene.

6/20/2013 7:53:05 AM

Pa Kent

Kevin Costner and Russell Crowe both nailed their parts

6/20/2013 8:16:42 AM

Yep. That was the one. Emotional basketcase.

6/20/2013 8:18:30 AM

I didn't really care for that scene. I think I prefer the story where his dad just dies of a heart attack. I know they did it that way in Smallville... Was it like that in the comics?

Also, the cgi of the tornado was kind of hokey...but maybe that is b/c I have a met degree and know what tornado/wall clouds really look like...

6/20/2013 6:41:58 PM

I really liked it overall, but the "funny" parts were pretty terrible. Could have definitely used a bit of the humor you find in the recent Marvel movies.

Lexcorp trucks blowing up were a pretty cool moment and nice foreshadowing of Luthor likely being in the next one.

6/21/2013 1:05:13 AM

Quote :

"Was it like that in the comics?"

With the way comics work it's possible that he died several times in several different ways but in the one that I read yesterday he died of a heart attack.

The Superman Squad, a group of time traveling Superman descendants, went back in time to fight Chronovore (a ridiculous pile of meat and teeth that eats time). Present day Superman joins the fight much to the protest of the Super Squad. Jonathan Kent dies of a heart attack while present day Superman is off helping the Super Squad fight Chronovore. He never gets to say goodbye and that's the reason the Super Squad wanted to keep him from fighting, they knew his dad was going to die and didn't want him to miss spending time with his dad.

Spoiler (as if it mattered): One of the members of the Super Squad has a face wrapped in bandages, the "unknown" Superman of the year 4500 or something like that. He hangs back with Jonathan Kent while the others go off to fight. Later it's revealed that the unknown Superman is present day Superman but from the future, so Superman gets to chat with his dad one last time before the end.

6/21/2013 8:06:42 AM

You were reading "All-Star Superman"

6/21/2013 8:14:07 AM

So I guess I was correct in assuming that there are multiple versions of his death.

6/21/2013 8:49:22 AM

In the John Byrne "Man of Steel," Johnathan doesn't die at all.

If you remember the "Lois & Clark" tv show, the Kents are alive, spunky and kicking.

6/21/2013 9:01:19 AM

First of all, this is not what one would call an excellent film. And normally I'm the first guy to act the snob and ignore it. Transformers comes to mind as the highest ratio of success-to-awfulness I've ever seen.

But, I am a Superman fanatic. And was always a DC kid. If you are the same, then you might agree when I say: this is the one we've been waiting for.

*** minor spoilers ahead ***

The awesome:

* Cape time. For over 50% of his time on screen, he's in the suit. And 90% of that time, he's kicking ass. It's like they acknowledged how little brawling we've actually seen on film and made up for it all at once in this movie. Many are saying it was excessive, and I certainly understand that...and even agree with it. But I did not care...it was cathartic.
* Tear-inducing moments. This will only apply to the fanatics like me. The first time you see the suit. The first time he flies.
* The man himself. He looks the part. He talks the part. He got jacked for this movie and I believe for the first time ever, the suit has no muscle pads. He just plain filled it out, and that really mattered. More visceral, somehow more believable. More boss looking. And in the very last scene (crashing the drone), his voice is finally solidified, confident...it's Superman. His presence builds and build the whole movie until this point. I cannot wait for it to be the norm in the next movie.
* The first 15 minutes. Never on screen have we spent quality time on Krypton. That was very cool. And I had no idea Jor-El would be so badass.
* Zod. You know, I love Michael Shannon and was expecting a damn paradigm change in the art of acting from this role. That wasn't a fair expectation, and it obviously didn't happen. But he really was great. Imposing, scary, and a high quality approach. He did the job well and was a great Zod. ....although, no "kneel?" Really?

Could have been better:

* Character development. There really wasn't much. Don't get me wrong, everybody - and I mean everybody - was flawlessly cast. But with the exception of Cavill, it kinda feels like they did "just enough," or...actually...I think they just weren't written strongly enough. Also this movie packs a LOT in. Even at 2.5 hours, they wanted to cover a lot. With Superman established and revealed to the world, I believe the next movie will have much more room to improve in this area.
* Fun...? Actually I completely disagree with this. I thought this movie was tons of fun. Literally breathtaking action (after the first big fight on main street I realized how tense I'd been in my chair the past 15 minutes). Many out there talk about how it should be more Marvel-like but we have seen what happens when DC tries to do that (Green Lantern). I have never really enjoyed the Marvel way of doing things, but my opinion is clearly not the majority. Anyway, bottom line is this movie is the Maker's Mark to The Avengers' Budweiser. Neither of 'em are fine wine.

Other thoughts:

* I loved Superman Returns in '06. It was way under appreciated. But it was the parochial treatment of the character. Looking back on it now, I really think it made the perfect bookend to the original Christopher Reeves franchise on all fronts. But I was ready for the bruiser.
* Abandoning the John Williams theme made me a skeptic three years ago. But I swore to give it a chance. Snyder said he wanted the new theme to be humble, like the character. And it is. But not at the expense of awe. It's a cool theme...it fits this incarnation of Superman...I do not believe it will become iconic. But I'll say I was just...pleasantly surprised by it.
* The tone and setting of this movie are absolutely a perfect setup for permitting other DC characters to enter the picture. If Justice League is going to happen and this was supposed to be the springboard, then I believe it succeeded completely.

*.....both of Kal-El's dads were Robin Hood.

[Edited on June 21, 2013 at 10:14 AM. Reason : ]

6/21/2013 9:51:05 AM

Dude, you could have saved me time by starting with

Quote :

" I loved Superman Returns in '06."

6/21/2013 11:56:39 AM

okay

6/21/2013 12:08:26 PM

Quote :

"*.....both of Kal-El's dads were Robin Hood."

lol--hadn't thought of that

6/21/2013 1:01:56 PM

i thought it was really good.

6/22/2013 4:25:06 PM

I loved it even though I thought some parts were dumb.

I am very sick of movies though where like 1000000 9/11s happen and everyone just kinda shrugs it off at the end, tho.

Transformers, Avengers, the new Star Trek, it just goes on and on.

6/22/2013 7:59:12 PM

i thought the character of lois lane was too weak.

but i thought it was funny how she magically found herself wherever superman was at the end of the movie.

6/22/2013 8:33:54 PM

yeah the whole thing felt like a draft at times

6/22/2013 8:37:54 PM

^^??


you mean at the end where she's at the Daily Planet? ...where she works?

6/22/2013 8:39:21 PM

6/22/2013 9:16:37 PM

Loved it. I used to love the first 2 Christopher Reeve films when I was a kid, but Superman Returns never really did much for me. Cavill did a great job in the role - looking forward to see how they tackle having more of him as Clark Kent trying to blend in at the Daily Planet in the next film though.

6/23/2013 10:14:06 PM

i mean he has glasses...

6/23/2013 10:33:35 PM

Reeve cameo?
http://comicbook.com/blog/2013/06/27/proof-of-christopher-reeve-cameo-in-man-of-steel/

6/28/2013 1:14:39 PM

Eh, I just couldn't get into this movie. Every "touching" moment just felt forced and the whole thing was too loud. The faded look to the whole movie got old. I did enjoy some of the action particularly when he took on the female Kryptonian.

Quote :

"I am very sick of movies though where like 1000000 9/11s happen and everyone just kinda shrugs it off at the end, tho. Transformers, Avengers, the new Star Trek, it just goes on and on."

Avengers at least showed tributes to the lost lives at the end, I remember a newsreel in the background showing flowers and candles with pictures.

6/30/2013 8:23:09 PM

yeah but most people got over it real quick

7/1/2013 12:37:59 PM

I really enjoyed the demonizing of Evolution for no fucking reason, like the selective breeding they did on Krypton had anything to do it in the first place. Who the fuck wrote this movie?

Also, it was pretty offensive to women. Women in this movie with the exception of Faora were helpless and stupid. "I just think he's hot." "What's terraforming?" And the only reason Lois was even on the plane on the end was so that a man could figure out how to arm the bomb/ship for her, and then fall off of it and be rescued.

Were they planning on just kamikaze'ing the ship in the first place? WTF was she doing on that plane? I guess maybe they were planning on dropping the bomb/ship on top of the alien ship.

I liked the first 20 minutes a lot but the rest of it was pretty garbage. Explosions, more explosions, and women shrieking.

[Edited on July 5, 2013 at 4:28 PM. Reason : .]

7/5/2013 4:26:14 PM

Quote :

"Also, it was pretty offensive to women. Women in this movie with the exception of Faora were helpless and stupid. "I just think he's hot." "What's terraforming?" And the only reason Lois was even on the plane on the end was so that a man could figure out how to arm the bomb/ship for her, and then fall off of it and be rescued."

come on, was this really that offensive or is it just something you thought of that can be perceived as a negative? i know it's cliche to say it's just a comic book movie, but IT'S JUST A COMIC BOOK MOVIE

7/5/2013 9:56:35 PM

I'm not a woman so I can't say for sure I can just say I thought women were portrayed generally as idiots. The pointless banter at the end (from an Army captain no less) was particularly stupid.

7/6/2013 1:04:15 PM

I don't know, they actually made Lois Lane sharper than in previous movies/comics. She actually used her strong investigative skills to figure out who Superman really was right from the beginning. Her character didn't seem like the type that would've been fooled by a man wearing glasses.

7/6/2013 1:21:31 PM

Quote :

"I don't know, they actually made Lois Lane sharper than in previous movies/comics. She actually used her strong investigative skills super sweet Nikkon 12x digital zoom camera (available at Sears) to figure out who Superman really was right from the beginning. Her character didn't seem like the type that would've been fooled by a man wearing glasses. "

7/6/2013 1:52:49 PM

I liked the movie but only had a few minor nits.

By the end of the movie I don't see how Superman was even able to have a secret identity. At the end of the movie he told the army guy that was concerned about Superman's loyalty that he grew up in Kansas. Couple that with how the initial alien attack was centered in Smallville, KA and the endless list of "strange stuff that Kent boy did" as a child. I don't see how he could go around as Clark Kent and think he was fooling anyone, come up with a new name at the very least.

***spoilers***
I also don't get how all the Kryptonians got sucked back into the phantom zone at the end. After all, Zod seemed to be outside that extremely small blast radius, it stands to reason that several other Kryptonians would have been outside the blast radius as well; other ships in orbit, other ships like the one that was chasing the plane, other small transport/fighter craft like you see throughout the movie, perhaps a few Kryptonians manning the thing on the opposite side of the planet, etc. Nope, 99.9% were sucked in and only Zod was outside the event horizon... and this time there's no way for them to get out of the phantom zone.

Re: people's reaction to the city being destroyed. Yeah, that was a bit much but the movie really wasn't trying to tell the story about the plebes. Perhaps part 2 will be about the global economic collapse and how they basically had to put up a fence around the crater that was Metropolis and how they found it far easier to build a new city from the ground up just a few miles down the road.

And sorry, the Pa Kent dying because he ran back into the path of an F4 tornado to save a dog was beyond stupid. The only way I could rationalize that away was by telling myself that Pa Kent wanted to commit suicide and found a convenient way to both off himself and inspire Clark at the same time.

I'm not sure I see a big problem with the women characters, at least not on the level as some of you, but it was directed by Zack Snyder and I think that guy has some very serious unresolved issues. I'm sure the scene where Superman has Lois pinned down and is cauterizing her wounds with his heat vision was 100% Zack Snyder's idea/fantasy. Someone really should check that guy's basement.

[Edited on July 6, 2013 at 2:32 PM. Reason : -]

7/6/2013 2:12:37 PM

you know, every meteorologist I talk to says that seeking shelter under an overpass is a really bad thing to do.

7/6/2013 3:25:50 PM

^^^ cameras don't lead you to Kansas and she didn't know what Clark looked like before she figured out it was him.

[Edited on July 6, 2013 at 4:57 PM. Reason : ^]

7/6/2013 4:57:12 PM

^^it is...

And Pa Kent doesn't even budge until the condensation cloud of the tornado engulfs him.;

baloney... the wind field on a tornado that size would have extended out quite a bit and he wouldn't been blown away way before the actual "tornado" got to him.

7/6/2013 7:01:16 PM

Liked it, didnt love it. Like others, thought the fight scenes were too long/redundant. Couldnt help but wonder how many people Superman killed while fighting Zod and crew. Also thought humanity should have learned about Superman and begun to believe in him before being asked to turn him over...otherwise, why do they even care? They shouldnt have any problem turning over some random alien theyve never heard of to the bad guys.

Quote :

"And sorry, the Pa Kent dying because he ran back into the path of an F4 tornado to save a dog was beyond stupid. The only way I could rationalize that away was by telling myself that Pa Kent wanted to commit suicide and found a convenient way to both off himself and inspire Clark at the same time."

Also thought it was beyond awful. I think he died from a heart attack in Superman: The Movie as well as Smallville, and it worked so much better because Clark did not have the ability to save him (not because he could have, but was told not to ).

The effects might not have been as great, and it may have been a bit campy at times, but Superman: The Movie is still far superior to this movie (and Terrence Stamp's Zod was infinitely better than this one).

7/7/2013 10:16:05 PM

So this is the best movie of the summer???

7/7/2013 10:23:23 PM

Just saw it. 6/10 at best. Horrible acting, too many explosions, plot holes galore. Meh

7/10/2013 3:45:10 AM

It was a good movie. I saw it with the wife, we both liked it.

Missed hearing "Kneel before Zod". How can you have Zod without having him saying that line? If they could include "I'm the Juggernaut bitch" or "Hulk Smash!" they could have thrown that line in there.

Neither one of liked Amy Adams though. She just didn't play a good Lois Lane if that makes any sense. I just don't think she was ruthless enough.


I'll agree the Superman in this film was a little serious. No matter what in my eyes Superman is going to be a Boy Scout. Maybe with the lessons from both his Dads he'll grow more into the Boy Scout role.

The fight scenes were great. Seeing how fast he moves and the power he commands was refreshing. If the ever make a JL movie it's nice to know they can show off the Flash's speed. In the DC universe there isn't anyone as powerful as Superman. There might be some close to his power level, but as far as I can remember he is at the top of the heap. If you have him fight others that are close to his equal there is going to be destruction. It was nice to see that.

Maybe the amount of death that happened, his killing of Zod, and the death of his Dads might mold him into the traditional Superman everyone knows. That was always the interesting dynamic between him and Batman is they both had horrible things happen in their lives, but both take two different approaches to the way they handle things.

Here is a clip from the JL series that was on the Cartoon network that always does a good job of explaining the world through Superman's eyes. It's the fight between him and Darkseid

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zFsxSH8fUA

7/10/2013 5:56:00 AM

^that was a good episode. i think that was the end of the superman adventures cartoon right before the justice league cartoon started.

7/10/2013 8:05:20 AM

Agreed. The next movie shouldn't even bother with Lex and go straight Darkseid.

Then call it a day and wait 10 years or so.

7/10/2013 7:50:26 PM

dude dont even pull at my heart strings like that.

they are doing Lex next. give the public what they want.

The general public cant handle Darkseid. The general pubic wont be able to handle Thanos, if they handle him properly, for Avengers 2. I'm intrigued in how they will do that. ( I have no faith in this in how marvel has handle the Mandarin and Galactus)

People were amazed at Loki and his nameless alien army. people think that Loki was a good bad guy. They dont shit compare to what Thanos/darkseid does.

7/10/2013 8:12:47 PM

Quote :

"In the DC universe there isn't anyone as powerful as Superman."

Perhaps someone a bit more familiar with the comics/lore can fill me in here. Superman is the most powerful being in the DC universe... but he got 100% of his power by moving from a planet with a higher gravity and a red star to a planet with weaker gravity and a yellow star. In a universe where interstellar travel is the norm you would think that the power Superman wields would be commonplace. Something that can happen to any random Joe that flies across the galaxy. What made Superman unique from random Joe space traveler?

I guess the movie shows that this isn't a unique phenomenon but I'd imagine that it would happen on a larger scale. Every space traveler, everywhere, all the time.

Also, I never thought about it and maybe I'm putting the old movies with the new, but how does Superman shave? Must be some razor.

7/10/2013 8:31:50 PM

Superman has always been my favorite superhero, but as I get older and more cynical, my ability to suspend disbelief is waning

7/10/2013 9:12:22 PM

^^https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-u1680Anhw

7/10/2013 9:23:16 PM

^^^https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8wYUONEygk

7/10/2013 9:24:53 PM

^^^^https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKxMLFh6hcE

7/10/2013 9:28:07 PM

^^^^^https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tF62U45ZA8

7/10/2013 9:28:35 PM

Isn't spectre more powerful than superman?

7/10/2013 10:53:35 PM