As a movie fan who wasn't a huge Superman fan, I went into Man of Steel with high hopes. The trailer that first shows Superman's takeoff and flight is one of the best trailers for a movie I had ever seen.
I came out of the theater feeling underwhelmed. This isn't Superman, this is subparman. The individual elements of this movie range from merely passable to downright broken, with nothing stellar.
The movie-making itself is an assault on the eyes and ears. I watched this film in IMAX, and the one thing I remember most was the incessant noise. Even the film's "quiet moments" don't have the periods of silence to relax the viewer's ears. The film's theme, an uplifting tune in the trailer, became a chore to listen to after it was blared the fiftieth time. The visuals also hurt; while the computer effects are stellar, the shaky camera and overuse of quick-shots are only really useful in short bursts. Sadly, the entire final hour of the movie is just one big action scene that constantly uses those techniques, and it can feel overwhelming.
The worst part is that the characters don't feel like characters, but props. With the exception of Jor'El, they lack any genuine heart and soul beyond a wink at comic fans. The actors feel adequate at best, but the real monster here is the script. It reads as if it were written by aliens from the planet Krypton who have never had meaningful human interaction. There is a scene halfway through the movie involving Clark Kent (Spoilers: He's Superman) and his adopted father that feels outright bizarre. Pa Kent does not want his son to reveal himself to the world, but the extent this goes to is downright ridiculous and from a real life standpoint emotionally crippling to his family. The characters act in ways that fit their roles as symbols, but it makes no sense when you remember that these are flesh and blood people, not automatons only there to make a point.
Overall, this movie hurt me to watch. I can't really say that about many summer blockbusters. It's bad, really bad.
Slow, noisy, disturbingly inhuman
As a movie fan who wasn't a huge Superman fan, I went into Man of Steel with high hopes. The trailer that first shows Superman's takeoff and flight is one of the best trailers for a movie I had ever seen.
I came out of the theater feeling underwhelmed. This isn't Superman, this is subparman. The individual elements of this movie range from merely passable to downright broken, with nothing stellar.
It's an origin story to a character we all know the origin story of. Why is this necessary? It would be bad enough to just redo the origin story, but the film commits other pacing sins too, like using exposition to explain an entire segment that we have already seen.
The movie-making itself is an assault on the eyes and ears. I watched this film in IMAX, and the one thing I remember most was the incessant noise. Even the film's "quiet moments" don't have the periods of silence to relax the viewer's ears. The film's theme, an uplifting tune in the trailer, became a chore to listen to after it was blared the fiftieth time. The visuals also hurt; while the computer effects are stellar, the shaky camera and overuse of quick-shots are only really useful in short bursts. Sadly, the entire final hour of the movie is just one big action scene that constantly uses those techniques, and it can feel overwhelming.
The worst part is that the characters don't feel like characters, but props. With the exception of Jor'El, they lack any genuine heart and soul beyond a wink at comic fans. The actors feel adequate at best, but the real monster here is the script. It reads as if it were written by aliens from the planet Krypton who have never had meaningful human interaction. There is a scene halfway through the movie involving Clark Kent (Spoilers: He's Superman) and his adopted father that feels outright bizarre. Pa Kent does not want his son to reveal himself to the world, but the extent this goes to is downright ridiculous and from a real life standpoint emotionally crippling to his family. The characters act in ways that fit their roles as symbols, but it makes no sense when you remember that these are flesh and blood people, not automatons only there to make a point.
Overall, this movie hurt me to watch. I can't really say that about many summer blockbusters. It's bad, really bad.