You know the cliché 'every girl loves a bad boy'? Yeah, well I’m not a fan of
that theory.
For as long as I have been into Superheroes my favourites have been Captain America and Superman (Marvel and DC respectively). These guys often get a lot of flak from fanboys/girls and one of the main arguments held against them is that they’re saps that have no personality. I’m calling that argument out as bullshit.
For as long as I have been into Superheroes my favourites have been Captain America and Superman (Marvel and DC respectively). These guys often get a lot of flak from fanboys/girls and one of the main arguments held against them is that they’re saps that have no personality. I’m calling that argument out as bullshit.
The reason I love Captain America and Superman so
much is because they are inherently good people. You can say what you like
about certain episodes of certain comics where they ‘went bad’ or whatever, but
at the heart of it, those characters are motivated by a need to do good.
As Michael Green, former Smallville writer and Superman/Batman
comic book scripter said “…As
opposed to Batman, who runs around, you know, thinking the world is as bad as
the Gotham that killed his parents, well Superman runs around thinking the
world could be as nice as Smallville.” This is why I love Superman, because
despite the ease with which I lean towards negativity, I too (underneath all
the bravado and crap I so often spout) am an optimist.
With this in mind I have been really nervous about
the outcome of Supe’s most recent cinematic outing ‘Man of Steel’. It’s helmed
by Zack Snyder of whose previous
films I am not a fan. I can’t bear ‘300’, ‘Watchmen’ shows promise but it’s
baggy and over-long and I rank ‘Sucker Punch’ amongst the worst films I have
ever seen. However, my love of Kal-El won out and I went to see ‘Man of Steel’
last night.
‘Man of Steel’ is
a re-telling of the Superman origin story. We open on Krypton where we discover
that the Kryptonians have mined the planet to death and it’s in the process of
collapsing in on itself. To save his newborn son from Krypton’s impending
destruction, Jor-El (Russell Crowe) sends his baby in a spaceship to Earth
where he is discovered by the child-less Martha (Diane Lane) and Jonathan
(Kevin Costner) Kent. The pair take in the child, name him Clark and raise him
as their own. After struggling throughout his childhood adult Clark (Henry
Cavill) tries not to draw attention to himself and holds a series of low-key
jobs, however, when he tries to discover his origins rogue Kryptonian General
Zod (Michael Shannon) appears forcing Clark to become Superman and fight for
the good of mankind.
Those that follow me on Twitter may have already
worked this out from my oh-so-subtle tweets but I’m gonna say this straight
off… ‘Man of Steel’ is my favourite film of the year so far. If you want to go
and you haven’t already seen it, I will forgive you if you forego the rest of
this post, go to the cinema and watch it.
I was utterly immersed in the film from the very
beginning. The opening scenes of the destruction of Krypton are immense. We
spend more time than you might expect on Superman’s home world which is nice.
It reminded me a lot of ‘Avatar’ and I don’t mean that in a bad way (I know
I’ve expressed my distain for ‘Ava-tart’ in the past but bear with me). It is a
huge spectacle in the same way that Pandora is for ‘Avatar’ and I really liked
it. That vastness isn’t at odds with the more human (or in this case
Kryptonian) moments. It was 15 minutes in and the scene where Lana and Jor-El
say goodbye to their son had me silently sobbing.
Speaking of me sobbing (nothing new there) ‘Man of
Steel’ is surprisingly tender. I say “surprisingly” because in none of Snyder’s
previous films have I seen this kind of emotion; one death scene especially
reduced me to a blubbering mess.
There are a series of flashbacks dotted throughout
the film one of which is a young Clark at school failing to keep control of his
powers and Martha has to come and coax him out of hiding in a broom cupboard.
It features in the trailer but you don’t get the true impact of it there. Diane
Lane pulls a blinder as Martha, not just in that scene but throughout the film.
One of my favourite things was not just that both
of Superman’s Dads are Robin Hood but also that they’re two sides of the same
Paternal coin. Russell Crowe as Jor-El tries (through a clever hologram trick
from beyond the grave) to encourage his son to be the best that he can be.
Kevin Costner makes Jonathan Kent more concerned with concealing his son’s true
identity for fear that if the world learnt the truth he would be an outcast. I
like them both equally but if I had to choose I’d say Costner wins battle of
the Super-Dads purely because of the heart wrenching way his story ties up.
Lois Lane has always been a tricky character to
nail down. As much as Margot Kidder is iconic in the role, her journalistic
skills left a lot to be desired and as much as Terri Hatcher is the Lois of my
childhood it takes AGES for her to work out that the man she sits opposite at
work is, in fact, Superman.
The obvious answer to this conundrum is getting Amy
Adams to be your Lois. This woman is my absolute hero; she’s a Disney Princess,
appears in a Muppets film and now she’s LOIS FREAKING LANE! Her Lois is a
smart, headstrong and one step ahead of everyone else all the way through the
film. I love the way they get around the awkward moment that happens in so many
Superman adaptations when Lois realises the man she’s worked with for however
long is a God-like Super-being. I want to be Amy Adams when I grow up, I love
her.
Lois isn’t the only well rounded female character either; Antje Traue’s Faora is awesome. As I’ve said before, the Superhero genre is sorely under populated by strong women and Faora is like a breath of fresh air. She’s cool, doesn’t conform to any clichés and kicks some serious arse. She was brilliant.
Michael Shannon is as amazing as ever as General Zod. I loved the idea of the Krypton Genesis thing where everyone that has or will be born on Krypton has a role to fulfil. This is why Zod is such a multi-layered villain; he isn’t trying to enact some petty revenge on the world, this is his M.O. to protect Krypton at all costs, he genuinely doesn’t have a choice in it.
Also, from now on I will be shouting “DEPLOY THE WORLD ENGINE!” at random just because it’s awesome.
Henry Cavill is my favourite Superman to date. I loved watching Clark grow into Superman; the scene where he finally dons the suit and tries to fly for the first time is joyous and had me (yet again) crying. What I like the best is that he totally nails the super-being thing (I mean LOOK AT HIM…) but also the man. He was smart, sweet, and wholesome; everything Clark should be. He’s proof that Kal-El is not just Superman but a super-man.
I thought the action was incredible. One of the early scenes is Clark saving a bunch of people from a burning oil rig and it never really lets up from that point on. In ‘Man of Steel’ we see Superman smash shit up on a scale like which we have not seen before and I loved it.
It’s not as broadly comedic as much of Marvel’s recent cinematic output but it isn’t without humour. I particularly liked Clark’s revenge on a trucker that tips a drink over his head while he’s working as a barman and the quick visual joke on a construction site with Zod during their final face-off. There are quite a few ‘blink and you’ll miss it moments in ‘Man Of Steel’ that I really liked. My favourite was a bit with a satellite where you catch a glimpse of a Wayne Enterprises logo that’s going to send the Justice League fans into melt down…
Part of my previous hang ups about Zach Snyder were to do with his visual style which, prior to ‘Man of Steel’, I absolutely hated. I hated how he was obsessed with costumes rather than the characters that were in them, I hated how he made everything look like a music video and I hated how he used slow motion ALL THE GOD-DAMN TIME.
‘Man of Steel’ has less problematic visuals although I do still have some reservations. There is a hell of a lot of CGI which some people take issue with, I however do not. This is Superman we’re talking about people! He can fly, he has super-human strength and doing some of the things he does as an in-camera effect would not be possible. Also Krypton is almost entirely CGI but, again, I wasn’t bothered. It’s an alien planet; it’s supposed to be grandiose and crazy.
This is possibly one of the nerdiest things I’ve ever committed to text but I like the use of zooms in ‘Man of Steel’. There might be a few too many zooms but, for my money, that motion really helps the film power along. Also it’s something they used a lot on ‘Firefly’ and ‘Firefly’ is my happy place.
For the life of me I cannot understand the bad press that this film is getting. I’ve seen it called an ‘omnishambles’ (which negates any criticism lobbied at it by that person because anyone who seriously uses the word ‘omnishambles’ is a twat), ‘humourless’ and ‘underwhelming’. How these people came to his conclusion I will never know, they were clearly not watching the same film I did. I mean what the hell do you want from the movies if this is not enough?!?!?
I never thought it was going to be as emotionally engaging, funny and ante-upping as it turned out to be. I was ‘jaw on the floor’ stunned by it.
I haven’t come out of a film and been this excited for a really long time. After it had finished I was stood with my friends in the cinema Car Park bouncing on the spot for about 20 minutes just trying to calm myself down. I just felt so enthused by it, like I needed to run up and down every street in my town yelling about how everyone should see it. I wanted to find another screening and watch it immediately; I wanted to watch it on a loop all day. I went to sleep last night listening to the soundtrack with a dopey grin on my face. Even now, I’m writing all these ridiculous things and it doesn’t feel like enough, I genuinely can’t find the words to tell you how much I loved it.
The tagline of the 1978 ‘Superman’ is “You’ll believe a man can fly” well for me ‘Man of Steel’ not only did that, but I found it so exhilarating, it made me feel like I had wings.
Now, if I can calm down a minute I can do some…
Reasons to be Cheerful :-)
1. First off the über awesome looking Lego film! Yes ladies and gentlemen ‘The Lego Movie’ :-) This looks like something I’m going to love!
2. Trailer number 2 is the first-look trailer for Disney’s ‘Frozen’. You can’t tell much from it but it’s sweet and charming and has sparked my interest :-)
3. The next Muppets film has a title! It’ll be called ‘Muppets Most Wanted’! 282 days to go :-)
That’s all I’ve got for you today!
Goodbye till next time :-)
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