Man of Steel!

For my second journal, I've been dying to talk about "Man of Steel" for a while now, but I wanted to see it one more time before I did.

    First off, some background on me: I have been a fan of Superman since I was 4 or 5; he wasn't an instant favorite (like Batman), but even I couldn't expect how this character would impact my life.  My first real exposure to the character was the Fleischer cartoons, and while I liked him, I just couldn't relate to this invulnerable being that could "leap tall buildings in a single bound".

    Then when I was 13, I received a copy of "Superman: The Movie" for Christmas; any thoughts I had about Superman being un-relatable were discarded in an instant, I fell in love with that movie. I suddenly understood why people cared about this character; and since then I have tried to consume as much Superman as I can (be it comics, movies or TV shows).

    I have been waiting to see "Man of Steel" for 7 years (since "Superman Returns" came out (which I didn't think was so bad … it just wasn't the movie it could have been)), so I got my tickets for the midnight showing of "Man of Steel" as soon as they went on sale, the next day I found out that Wal-Mart sold a special ticket where you could see the show at 7:00 … I was devastated (5 hours is torture when you've waited 7 years for a movie), but I got over it. The day of the premier, I left work early, got my "Man of Steel" shirt, and just relaxed until 6:00 when I went to pick up my girlfriend ( (I have gotten her addicted to DC as well )). We get to the theater at 7:00 and I told her about the Wal-Mart tickets with a sigh of disappointment as we walked into the theater … we are the first ones to arrive to our showing (they hadn't even posted the numbers to the theater in the queues like they usually do), but the theater of our tickets already says "'Man of Steel' - 12:01"; so we both go to ask if we can go ahead and get our seats instead of having to sit in the lobby for 5 hours. We ask the usher and he says that there is a special 7:00 showing of the movie, he then dug for something under the podium … (I assumed he was just getting a drink or something) … then he pulls something out and goes "I have these 2 extra tickets to that if you want them" …   … I was somehow able to contain my excitement and said "Sure" (I wish I knew if I thoroughly thanked him, (I wasn't thinking clearly) … I was going to after we left the theater, but he was gone); so we got to see "Man of Steel" early, and when that showing was over we went into the lobby and the line to the midnight showing only had like 8 people in it, so we stuck around and watched it again later that night.

    So, personally "Man of Steel" is the closest movie representation to my ideal version of Superman (kind of like how The Dark Knight Trilogy is the closest movie representation to my ideal Batman), it shows how Superman represents the best that humanity can be without having to deal with the issues of actually being a human (which is why Batman is still my favorite).  I would recommend seeing "Man of Steel" if you haven't already and form your own opinion.

*SPOILER ALERT* it is almost impossible to discuss anything relating to "Man of Steel" without spoiling anything … so if you haven't seen the movie, you've been warned.

    Now to deal with the negativity about "Man of Steel", personally the only complaint I have is the shaky camera in dialogue scenes (Jor-El addressing the Kryptonian council, Superman talking to Lois before Faora arrives, etc.) it just takes me out of the movie momentarily, and it gives me a headache; but other than that I have nothing negative to say about "Man of Steel." The internet on the other hand doesn't know what to think about "Man of Steel"; people either love it or they hate it.

    A lot of negative comments I have been hearing about "Man of Steel" is essentially summed up by "it's not the Donner/Reeve Superman … therefore I don't like it", and that is an argument that makes no sense. If "Man of Steel" was even remotely like "Superman: The Movie", they'd complain that it is too much like the "original" (like people do with "The Amazing Spider-man"); so this creative team thinks up a different take on the origin of Superman, while still remaining true to the origins, and then they get attacked for it not being the same … there's no pleasing these people.

    Secondly, I see no end to the discussions about the Kents (mainly Jonathan); personally I loved the Kents in this movie, defiantly more relatable than the parents in "Superman: The Movie." Now for the death of Jonathan, I found it very moving; and it showed how good of a father Jonathan was (along with the other flashbacks), he would rather die than have Clark save him and see him taken away from them. I don't understand how people can say "it's just a dog" (that to me is like if it was a young child in the car and someone went "it's just a kid"), I have four dogs and I would run back and get them too … "Well, why didn't Clark go get it?" Jonathan wanted to make sure that Martha and the little girl he saved got to safety, which is why he wanted Clark to get them to the overpass while he got the dog.

    Then there's the whole killing Zod debate…while I wish that they hadn't killed him off (have him get sucked back into the phantom zone and force Hamilton (who in the animated series was able to build a phantom zone projector ("Blasts from the Past Parts I & II") to find a way that he could come back and further plague Superman), I think that he was right in killing Zod. Yes, Superman tries not to kill (I'll use one of my favorite lines from "Justice League Unlimited" ("Destroyer") … "I feel like I live in a world made of cardboard, always taking constant care not to break something, to break someone. Never allowing myself to lose control, even for a moment, or someone could die." (www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ywo6F4…)), but in this case, with no other alternative Superman HAD to kill Zod because Zod would not stop until he was the last living thing on Earth; he even says something like "There's only one way this ends Kal, either you die or I do"… he would kill Superman and then proceed to exact his revenge on the whole planet. It wasn't about saving that one family, he was saving the entire world (which is why I wish that trucker (from the bar) was among those about to be killed to show that Superman is willing to save everyone … even that guy). He is very clearly torn up by this action, and it will haunt him for the rest of his life (hopefully (if they do it right) Luthor will use this against him in a later film).

The reason I am so keen on defending "Man of Steel" is because one of the channels I follow on YouTube (screenjunkies) released a video titled "How to Fix MAN OF STEEL 2" (www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgEv22…), and this is what set me over the edge, I can handle criticism, as long as it makes sense … but the arguments in this has almost no sense to it.

    First point, (shortened) hy did the Kryptonians even want to terraform Earth? - I thought this was abundantly clear, they say it two or three times … it is VERY difficult for Kryptonians to adapt to living on Earth … Zod was the only Kryptonian who showed any ability to adapt to the conditions (without his suit) and he was "designed" (since traits were chosen at birth) to adapt since he was to be a military leader (he'd need to adapt to situations to ensure victory) … the rest of his army showed no ability to adapt at all, and they'd be "designed" to adapt too. But, somehow they were supposed to raise Kryptonian babies with this atmosphere … it was just luck that Clark was able to adapt and survive here (hence Martha's line (something like) "I used to listen to you breathe, you had such a hard time") … to guarantee the survival of Krypton, they had to terraform Earth.

    "Why was Superman's suit in the ship when it was already established that that was 20,000 years later?" - I would think that there would be a way to make new suits on the scout ship, because where are the baby Kryptonians going to get their clothes after they're are born (because if they terraform the planet they're on to be like Krypton, they'll need these armored suits) … So I assume that when Clark put his keycard/thing into the control panel aboard the ship it started making his suit (suit was probably already made, just needed the symbol of the house of El).

    "Why does everyone in Smallville know that Clark Kent is Superman?" - This is what happens when Clark saves people without using some kind of secret identity which relates to why Jonathan Kent was so worried that people would know about Clark. I think it is unavoidable with a character like Superman, someone will always figure out that Clark is Superman, especially when he doesn't have the glasses (which works surprisingly well … try it sometime if you don't wear glasses, get some with fake lenses that cover half your face … relatives didn't even recognize me). I'm glad that they had Lois figure it out, however she shouldn't have been broadcasting it by addressing him as Clark every time she saw him.

    Then, there's the discussion on the film being "humorless", personally I found "Man of Steel" to have a fair amount of humor in it (the "fight" with that trucker, Lois/Perry relationship, the "interrogation" scene, … to name a few); but when you look at the story of "Man of Steel" there isn't really a place for jokes/gags this is a story where the fate of the Earth depends on Clark's actions, do you want him to be cracking jokes, I don't think so.

    "The people of Metropolis and Earth never saw Superman as this heroic guy who saved them. Superman saved one person by my count, he told a person in the Smallville fight 'Hey, go into that IHOP, it's dangerous out here' then he … threw one of the giant Kryptonian people into the IHOP, probably killing him." - Superman saved the entire planet from destruction … pretty sure that's more than one person (the person this guy mentions didn't even exist, Superman told the Smallvillians (as he was walking toward the Kryptonians) to get inside where it was safe … they fight, Superman tries to take the fight out of downtown Smallville he grabs Faora and starts to fly away and she brings the fight into the IHOP (cause she is the one standing when they land)). … This brings up another point, people claim Superman kills people in this movie, when he "throws" people into/through stuff, I only recall Zod and the Kryptonians throwing Clark through buildings (the only destruction Clark caused was flying Zod through a grain silo and a 7-11 (where only the pumps caught on fire), and when he threw Zod into that construction site).

"Did you feel uplifted after the end of 'Man of Steel'?" - Why, yes, I did I have walked out of the theater 3 times with a smile on my face, wondering when I'll get to see it again.

In short, I loved "Man of Steel" (9.5/10)

    With "Man of Steel" being successful, DC/WB has probably already started development on a Justice League movie; I really hope that they don't rush into it, they need to establish each member thoroughly so that the audience will care about them before a Justice League movie, otherwise it'll fail and they'll never get another shot at it. Ideally they should at least give each member an "origin" movie to bring these characters back into the mainstream. For example, most people don't know anything about Wonder Woman, I don't know how many times I've heard people go "Isn't Wonder Woman just the female version of Superman?" … where I proceed to lecture them in the differences between the two. No one wants to see a Justice League movie more than me, but I would rather wait for the movie they deserve than to settle for one made quickly.