Quote:
Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud
I talked to a producer friend tonight that outright hated it. Said Shannon was underused, the dialog was clunky, the final scene ludicrous and the overall tone just crap.
I haven't seen it yet but based on his description, I'll likely be disappointed as well because I thought The Avengers was complete and utter crap, yet it broke box office records.
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Shannon was underused, but as I said after my initial viewing (I saw it again yesterday, more on that in a bit...) it felt to me like a lot of things were probably cut for theatrical release. It's a very long movie (2:23) that I have a feeling was significantly cut to minimize its running time, due to being the re-introduction of the character and essentially the beginning of the DC film universe from this point on. Batman Begins, by comparison was 2:21; whereas TDK was 2:33 and TDKR was 2:45. Longer movies came later. I obviously don't know this for a fact, but I would bet there are scenes on the cutting room floor with Zod and Lois that would have strengthened the film (although I'm already a big fan...).
As far as the tone goes, I liked it, but it's very different from anything we've seen in films in this genre, or with this character. So I can understand why an unnamed producer might not like it.
I thought the dialogue was fine.
My first viewing, the final scene (which isn't actually the final scene, but I'm assuming he's referring to the end of the Zod fight) didn't make much sense to me. But it didn't bother me at all during my second. It felt right for some reason, but I'd already seen it, so no surprises there.
About the second viewing, for the most part I liked it as much or more than a first, although a thing or two stood out. The big one is that the dates on Jonathan Kent's headstone read 1951-1997. So he's supposed to be in his 40s when he dies, but Costner when onscreen looks like he's in his 60s. Minor quibble and I understand why (it puts martha in her 60s during the 2013 parts of the film). But it did pull me out of the film briefly during the second viewing.
And who the hell is the giant Kryptonian in the Smallville fight? That one bugged me the first time although I forgot by the time the movie ended. It just felt like there should've been some kind of story there.
All-in-all, I enjoyed the Krypton sequence more the 2nd time, it didn't seem quite as far out, although the call out to Star Wars is still a bit much to me. I still loved the way the movie jumped around to different points in his life. I still loved the way that Lois was introduced to the story and her role in everything. She's my favorite Lois to date, in any incarnation, and that relationship, which I liked the first time, I liked even more the second. And the whole collateral damage complaint seems ever more ludicrous to me after viewing the movie a second time. I didn't realize it the first time, but most of the damage in Smallville is actually done by the US military, either directly or unintentionally, and this is the one spot in the film where Superman actually does warn and/or rescue people on camera. And the Metropolis battle with Zod lasted not very long at all. While the city was trashed, 99% of that was done while Clark was destroying the world engine, and the whole point of that fight beginning to end was that Clark has to kill Zod to prevent Zod from killing people. So that entire sequence actually
is Superman saving all the little people. Which is where the poignance of the final scene lies, and I didn't get that the first time through.
Speaking of the real final scene of the movie, I think that marked what will be the tonal shift of the series from this point on, and we won't see another movie with the tone of Man of Steel, and I think that's intentional. Clark has found his place in the world, and the Clark/Lois dynamic, young as it is, is there.
So, needless to say, I still liked it a lot the second time, and I still think it's the equivalent of Batman Begins for this franchise. But being Superman, I think we'll see a more optimistic tonal shift moving forward, although I assume everything will remain as reality-grounded as a series about an alien with god-like powers can be.