anyone seen it yet? thoughts?
Here's a half arsed review with poor spelling and grammar.
Have to say i'm a bit disappointed, the flashback structure absolutely punished the character development (There wasn't much) we just got melodramatic highlights of Clark with Jonathan Kent, we never got to understand their relationship at all, same goes for Clark and Lois, we aren't given any idea as to why they like each other, they meet a couple of times, spout off some terrible dialogue and then get together.
I won't compare it to the 1978 Superman (much) as it's pretty evident this film wants to stand on it's own, and it almost does, but Russell Crowe is almost hilarious with every word he utters, he's terribly unconvincing, Henry Cavill makes a good Superman but isn't really given much to do other than go AAARRRGGGHHHHH a few times and make an angry face, he shines in the interview room scene with Lois and the Military though, there's something special there, if he was given a better script he could be a great superman.
The biggest problem though is we are never shown what it means to be the Man of Steel, we aren't given the sense of responsibility that he holds, we don't fully understand why he WANTS to be superman beyond being a good guy and having no home planet anymore, there aren't any SUPERMAN moments, there's no wonder, no magic, and the trailers seemed to promise that, but there is SOMETHING in there, something really interesting and i can't tell quite what it is, there's a good story hiding there but its buried in poor dialogue and heavy handed exposition and then over half way through they get bored and turn it into the avengers and have Superman battling General Zod in Metropolis (a city never established at all) causing countless amounts of property damage in the process, which lasts a very long time, we've seen all this before in the matrix revolutions, but in that film they were in a digital world so they never killed thousands of people like superman and Zod probably did, highlighting one of the main flaws with the film, we don't get the impression Superman actually gives a shit about humankind, we don't see him wrestling with the fact all this destruction is taking place in a heavily populated area and he could potentially be endangering the lives of many metropolis citizens, he just keeps punching because its COOOOL.
Kevin Costner is always welcome on screen and could have been one of the highlights of the film but his dialogue and the way he plays the character comes across as being constantly annoyed by clark, him being more a burden than a blessing, i never got the impression he truly cares about clark except for the "you are my son" scene and even that isn't a pay off as we aren't shown anything up until that point as to why their relationship matters so much, and its one of the most important relationships in the story, its mishandled like so many other things in this film.
For all the negatives i've listed there are positives, there are some very good visuals (sinking into the skulls scene is a fantastic looking shot), the score is nothing spectacular but does the job well, Michael Shannon is quite good as Zod but very one note, Henry Cavill at least got the chance to show a few different shades of his abilities, but Shannon is sadly not given too much to do and he is a brilliant actor, in iceman he was incredible. Amy Adams starts off well as Lois but quickly ends up with nothing at all to do other than mysteriously show up in random places wearing appropriate to situation clothes.
The neck snapping didn't bother me because superman doesn't kill people, it bothered me because superman could have pulled several solutions out of his arse. The easiest one being to cover Zods eyes up with his hand, hes superman, i'm sure he can take a heat ray to the hand. Or fly off with him or something, he's superman, he could have done literally anything to Zod to stop that family from being killed except kill him.
I have to say the greatest strength of the film is Commander Faora, every time she is on the screen there's a spark, there's something really worth watching, her reaction as Krypton is dying is absolutely believable, her fight with superman and the military in Smallville was probably the high point of the film for me, she's very very cool, she is the hidden gem of the film, everything about her is great on screen, it's a shame when a villain's sidekick is the best thing going for a superman film.
I really wanted to love this film but found myself struggling against being fed heavy exposition and having no character moments to really appreciate these people i was supposed to care about, i felt like i was watching a bunch of people who resemble these well known characters instead of KNOWING them, there was nothing to fill them out, not enough character moments to get a sense of what kind of person they are, it was all pretty broad strokes, and it's a great shame as most of the visuals are fantastic, if Zack Snyder was given a better written script with more emphasis on exploring what makes superman who he is and what he can do, and lets face it, two and a half hours is plenty of time to do that, then it could have been something special, as it stands though it's a missed opportunity. 5 out of 10.
It's still not as disappointing as Superman Returns though.
Here's a half arsed review with poor spelling and grammar.
Have to say i'm a bit disappointed, the flashback structure absolutely punished the character development (There wasn't much) we just got melodramatic highlights of Clark with Jonathan Kent, we never got to understand their relationship at all, same goes for Clark and Lois, we aren't given any idea as to why they like each other, they meet a couple of times, spout off some terrible dialogue and then get together.
I won't compare it to the 1978 Superman (much) as it's pretty evident this film wants to stand on it's own, and it almost does, but Russell Crowe is almost hilarious with every word he utters, he's terribly unconvincing, Henry Cavill makes a good Superman but isn't really given much to do other than go AAARRRGGGHHHHH a few times and make an angry face, he shines in the interview room scene with Lois and the Military though, there's something special there, if he was given a better script he could be a great superman.
The biggest problem though is we are never shown what it means to be the Man of Steel, we aren't given the sense of responsibility that he holds, we don't fully understand why he WANTS to be superman beyond being a good guy and having no home planet anymore, there aren't any SUPERMAN moments, there's no wonder, no magic, and the trailers seemed to promise that, but there is SOMETHING in there, something really interesting and i can't tell quite what it is, there's a good story hiding there but its buried in poor dialogue and heavy handed exposition and then over half way through they get bored and turn it into the avengers and have Superman battling General Zod in Metropolis (a city never established at all) causing countless amounts of property damage in the process, which lasts a very long time, we've seen all this before in the matrix revolutions, but in that film they were in a digital world so they never killed thousands of people like superman and Zod probably did, highlighting one of the main flaws with the film, we don't get the impression Superman actually gives a shit about humankind, we don't see him wrestling with the fact all this destruction is taking place in a heavily populated area and he could potentially be endangering the lives of many metropolis citizens, he just keeps punching because its COOOOL.
Kevin Costner is always welcome on screen and could have been one of the highlights of the film but his dialogue and the way he plays the character comes across as being constantly annoyed by clark, him being more a burden than a blessing, i never got the impression he truly cares about clark except for the "you are my son" scene and even that isn't a pay off as we aren't shown anything up until that point as to why their relationship matters so much, and its one of the most important relationships in the story, its mishandled like so many other things in this film.
For all the negatives i've listed there are positives, there are some very good visuals (sinking into the skulls scene is a fantastic looking shot), the score is nothing spectacular but does the job well, Michael Shannon is quite good as Zod but very one note, Henry Cavill at least got the chance to show a few different shades of his abilities, but Shannon is sadly not given too much to do and he is a brilliant actor, in iceman he was incredible. Amy Adams starts off well as Lois but quickly ends up with nothing at all to do other than mysteriously show up in random places wearing appropriate to situation clothes.
The neck snapping didn't bother me because superman doesn't kill people, it bothered me because superman could have pulled several solutions out of his arse. The easiest one being to cover Zods eyes up with his hand, hes superman, i'm sure he can take a heat ray to the hand. Or fly off with him or something, he's superman, he could have done literally anything to Zod to stop that family from being killed except kill him.
I have to say the greatest strength of the film is Commander Faora, every time she is on the screen there's a spark, there's something really worth watching, her reaction as Krypton is dying is absolutely believable, her fight with superman and the military in Smallville was probably the high point of the film for me, she's very very cool, she is the hidden gem of the film, everything about her is great on screen, it's a shame when a villain's sidekick is the best thing going for a superman film.
I really wanted to love this film but found myself struggling against being fed heavy exposition and having no character moments to really appreciate these people i was supposed to care about, i felt like i was watching a bunch of people who resemble these well known characters instead of KNOWING them, there was nothing to fill them out, not enough character moments to get a sense of what kind of person they are, it was all pretty broad strokes, and it's a great shame as most of the visuals are fantastic, if Zack Snyder was given a better written script with more emphasis on exploring what makes superman who he is and what he can do, and lets face it, two and a half hours is plenty of time to do that, then it could have been something special, as it stands though it's a missed opportunity. 5 out of 10.
It's still not as disappointing as Superman Returns though.
