Man of Steel [Sucked]

[Minute]

Man... fuck. I was really hoping Nolon was gonna be able to package this turd & make it shiney. I guess there is just no saving Superman though. He's too powerful to make him interesting. I mean Wolverine or Batman get the shit kicked out of them, then somehow against all odds they get back up & keep rockin. That is exciting. Superman wins... when all the odds are stacked in his favor & we're supposed to get excited? Movie had a lot of ok action scenes, but really it was just about as shitty as every other reboot they have tried. Anyway, I won't throw out a lot of spoilers, but all in all, I'm sorry stood in line at the midnight showing for this. Worth watching on Redbox/Netflix if you have nothing else, but save yourself some money & avoid at the theater.

[Kulaf]

It's the problem that all DC characters share.....but is embodied in Superman, they have no flaws. They are perfect examples of what they are to be. Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman, etc. It's why Marvel captured the younger generation who wanted to identify with the hero. So we got X-men, Hulk, Spiderman, etc.

[Ddrak]

Aquaman has no flaws?

[Arathena]

Aquaman has no flaws?

Dude is strong enough to swim at mach oh-fuck-that's fast at the bottom of the marianas trench, bullet proof, and some writers give him telepathic control over everything that ever evolved from a sea-borne ancestor, which is you know, everything.

Plus,

[Massterloo]

I agree with the too powerful part. But you know that from the get go....You see that in the trailers. No excuse, can't say you were hoping for something less than tossing a freight train 5 miles.

I was worried that they were going to change the whole Krypton home world thing. Lots of rumors it was going to survive. That would have changed the whole perception of the story.

We got a tight, dark story.

We got cities leveled. And that's what all us geeks wanted.

[Taxious]

Aquaman is OP in that DC fighting game Injustice.

[Alluveal]

Yeah, I was really not impressed. The story execution was a disaster, imho. Instead of letting us get to know Clark and his parents and how they discovered him and how he learned about his powers (and how to manage them), we get fragments and flashback after flashback. If they had kept it more linear, I might have given a shit about Clark as a child. Who the fuck got the idea to do 20 minutes of omgz Krypton stuff (which was actually really cool), and then put Clark on a ship and put us through reflection after reflection of him as a kid, as a teen, as a kid again, as an adult, as a teen, as a kid. It was all over the fucking place.

There was no weight put into him finding the craft (like what? a portable fortress of solitude?). Just, "Oh, look, Clark is here and he found something because maybe he overheard these military dudes talking about it, or maybe not." And there he is in the snow, and he goes inside and he's not even really surprised about anything.

Well, we're not going to be surprised either because we have no idea WTF is really going on.

And don't even get me started on Lois Lane. Holy shit. Look, we're fighting in Metropolis and Lois is with Perry White, and oh! She just magically appears where Clark is in some museum or subway place and snapped Zod's neck - just because she has to be there to comfort him? I mean, a city that big and she's conveniently nearby. Her character was next to useless as are most females in these comic book movies (except for the badass Krypton woman who I actually enjoyed as a character).

A few things came to mind as I was watching this:

1. When aliens attack earth, why do they go for the biggest, most powerful nation on the planet? Why not infiltrate some crappy former Soviet country, take peeps out from within, build a base, and then start to fuck shit up? Instead, it's, "Well, I gotta go for the biggest, baddest dude on the block and take him/her out." No patience, I tell ya!

2. Why couldn't these blokes just terraform Mars or some shit? They build it and grow and reproduce and they'll overtake Earth in time, I'm sure, but no . . . let's go for Earth where Superman is and will defend it. I get that they wanted Kal El, but I thought about this stuff. Can you imagine one of the Mars Rovers sending back an image of dudes terraforming the planet? We'd be like, "Holy shit... we're done." That would actually make a good story, hmmmm.....

The action scenes were cool, but who the fuck is going to clean up the city? My guess is LexCorp (saw that logo on one of the gas/oil tankers). And for that, they should be fucking heroes. Lex Luthor for president! These superheroes come along and nobody ever says, "Holy shit, Superman, you saved us, but can you help clean up this bullshit now?"

I thought the best part of the movie was the beginning. I thought Russell Crowe was kind of badass and I wanted to stay on Krypton once I realized we were getting only 10 whole minutes of Clark's backstory as a kid. I dunno. I was disappointed. Hardcore.

[Minute]

We got cities leveled. And that's what all us geeks wanted.

Considering the massive plummet in reviews on pretty much every single review site, obviously not. Though I mostly base my opposition to that statement on the way the 3 dorks in front of me were practically jizzing themselves before the movie & how many times I heard them say "WTF Man? Right? I mean WTF?" to each other as they were walking out. And yes I knew what was up going in, but as mentioned I had high hopes that Nolon could polish the turd & make it shiney. He just couldn't. Not sure anyone can.

Though Lulu, not all female roles are useless. Agent Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) in The Avengers was pretty badass in the opening of Avengers, and Black Widow kicked some ass too. Though I take your point. Have yet to see a female lead in a comic book movie... at least one that pulled it off right.

[Alluveal]

Though Lulu, not all female roles are useless. Agent Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) in The Avengers was pretty badass in the opening of Avengers, and Black Widow kicked some ass too. Though I take your point. Have yet to see a female lead in a comic book movie... at least one that pulled it off right.

I should have said all but Whendon-related female characters. He did Black Widow and Agent Hill justice. I'm starting to believe he is the only man in the world who knows how to write/direct women in these flicks.

I'm actually getting more irate the more I see "AWESOME" reviews of this movie. I want to tell these people to punch themselves in the genitals for me because I seriously must not have seen the same movie. Russell Crowe hologram was far cooler and more human than anything in this turkey.

[Massterloo]

"Why not infiltrate some crappy former Soviet country, take peeps out from within, build a base, and then start to fuck shit up?"

That's the 6 hour, two piss during the movie, movie.
I wanted to see big cities destroyed, not the village of Bumfuckia, Nowwhereastan.



"Why couldn't these blokes just terraform Mars or some shit?"

That's the movie I was worried about. Clark grows up, goes to see mom and dad. They have a party with cake, end of movie.




"I wanted to stay on Krypton once I realized we were getting only 10 whole minutes of Clark's backstory as a kid. I dunno. I was disappointed."
The worse parts to any Hero movie?...the origin, and the love interest.
You wanted to see Clark piss, and shit through his dipers? Kill who he first had sex with? Get pissy with his parents, and tell them they aren't his real parents more than he did?....I'm glad they did flashbacks.....BECAUSE it cut the time we saw of him as a kid. That other stuff would make a great Seth Rogen Green Hornet type comedy. Wasn't 8 years of "Smallville" on TV Enuff?


I'm glad I got what just what I was supposed to get. There was no Home Alone kid story. There was no West Side Story love scenes, or songs.
OMG, I didn't have to "just go with it". I get to tell others to do that. Just go with what was advertised. But you know...it would be more satisfying to tell others to "just go with it" when being sold a surprise bill of goods.

[Ddrak]

Though Lulu, not all female roles are useless. Agent Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) in The Avengers was pretty badass in the opening of Avengers, and Black Widow kicked some ass too. Though I take your point. Have yet to see a female lead in a comic book movie... at least one that pulled it off right.

I should have said all but Whendon-related female characters. He did Black Widow and Agent Hill justice. I'm starting to believe he is the only man in the world who knows how to write/direct women in these flicks.

Somewhat disagree. Black Widow looks good because she's beside HawkEye (the Marvel version of Aquaman). Ultimately though, she's got less personality and complexity than Thor (which is saying something) and really exists to show off T&A in a tight suit.

Dd

[Xican]

Well, he nailed the T&A part! I think the bigger problem is that the female characters were very poorly written in comics, because let's face it... Not the target demographic. It's hard for the movie counter-parts to really improve on what the comic has already stuck in a useless position.

[Alluveal]

I thought Black Widow was badass and highly interested in her as a character. And she was on the screen less than the Lios Lane character (for example) who did less with more time.

As a woman, I dug her.

Lois Lane, however. Ugh. Gross miscasting.

[Minute]

Xican hit the nail on the head. These super hero movies are based off of comics, which are a huge majority written too the audience that buys them. Dudes. Same does for video games. Yes women are making big moves into both areas, but they are still a large majority guys. You can say change the target audience & the content will follow. Yes you can say "change the content & the audience will follow" but that's been proven wrong by pretty much every female written comic book. Wonder Woman has never touched Batmans sales. Super Woman has never touched Superman sales. That's just the way it is, at least for now. Who knows in 10 years or so.

[Massterloo]

I think they did Black Widow very well. But she is a spy, in a movie with Gods. With all the big damage being done you easily miss, or forget the interigation scenes (the Russians, Loki, and the meeting with Banner). She did do some fighting, but even with her beating up Hawkeye, and doing air combat on one of those space scooters, it just couldn't compete with Hulk Smash. They could have made her do more, but then you alter the character. And that is another good thing about the Avengers movie, they didn't screw with characters. They didn't make up a new hero, they didn't replace her with some one that didn't show up till 10 years later, and they didn't make her a blending of different heroes.

Josh Whedon was so close to doing a Wonder Woman movie. But the decided not to do it, and he went on to nail it with the Avengers. I hope some DC heads rolled. I guess they didn't want the best DC movie to date be about a female. Or maybe he put her in an outfit that wasn't a Hooker suit.

I'm getting sidetracked. Lois Lane had more face time, cause there was fewer characters to compete with, and she is the love interest. Btw, my wife didn't like her either. She admitted that it might have been just the blond hair.

[Kulaf]

The Black Widow in the movie is only marginally like the comic character. In the comics the Black Widow begins life as the Soviet spy Natalia Romanova. She was introduced in a Iron Man comic featuring the Crimson Dynamo, the REAL Anton Vanko. At the time she was just a femme fatale character with no powers other than the power of seduction (gigiddy). Later she got wrist bracers that shot darts and other spy like gagets and eventually defected to the US and joined S.H.I.E.L.D.

[Ddrak]

Did Marvel or DC have *any* female script writers for their major comic lines? When you compare it to stuff that's actually written by women (Clamp, maybe?) then there's a fairly serious difference in the way gender interaction happens.

Dd

[Kulaf]

Did Marvel or DC have *any* female script writers for their major comic lines? When you compare it to stuff that's actually written by women (Clamp, maybe?) then there's a fairly serious difference in the way gender interaction happens.

Dd

The only ones I know of are Carol Kalish who was an editor at Marvel for 10 years or so, Marjorie Liu who's works include a 5 issue mini series on the Black Widow, and Ann Nocenti who was a writer and editor on many books including Spider-Man and X-Men. I am sure there are many more I am not familiar with.

[Alluveal]

I totally get that there is strong issue with source material. It's something I hope to study during the ole Ph.D. if possible. Female characters in general are underrepresented in genre, though that is changing in novels it seems (albeit slowly).

I think Whedon would have rocked and I hope folks at whatever production company or DC are saying, "Shit, we fucked up hardcore."

[Harlowe]

This is one I'm not at all interested in, I don't think I'll even rent it. Maybe because I'm just bored with super hero movies, and Superman is one of my least favorites anyway.