Topic: Man of Steel

[Mike]

Wow, what a disappointment.  It started off well with a good focus on back story about krypton but then just raced through everything else without really following a story.  Then the bad guys show up and it was basically a non-stop fight scene.  The final battle reminded me of the Family Guy Peter vs Giant Chicken fights.  Hardly any character development and they totally ripped off the Cyclops laser eye thing.

[KnuckleBuckett]

Really?  Wife and I dug it.  I like how they related Kryptonian societal entropy to that of our own.

[Mike]

But it had nothing to do with Clark.  They didn't even go with the subtle "it would be bad for humans" when Zod was talking to him about the need to rebirth their people.  All character development was done via flashbacks and none was done after finding the ship.  Oh and let's not forget the magical shave he got by putting on the suit.  And why was the Air Force in charge of the "strange thing trapped under the ice" site?

The society breakdown was interesting and if they had gone into more depth then it might have made the movie better.  But the "oh we stopped and set a population cap" as a "wha?  why?  for fuck sakes you can't just drop that and then not explain it" moment.

And lastly, Terence Stamp was a better Zod

[KnuckleBuckett]

Meh.  I will agree that Zod could have been better but the rest was fine for me.  It is a super hero movie.  Like Thor and Iron Man let shit slide and enjoy.

I disagreed with how things were um...ended, that was IMO just wrong but whatever.

Krypton had started to expand to the stars and then stopped and become insular and essentially a walled society. 

[Mike]

Meh.  I will agree that Zod could have been better but the rest was fine for me.  It is a super hero movie.  Like Thor and Iron Man let shit slide and enjoy.

Meh, this one had too many sins for me.

I disagreed with how things were um...ended, that was IMO just wrong but whatever.

Yeah, that was unexpected and not really a Superman action.  Plus a neophyte taking out a breed and hardened veteran like that?

Krypton had started to expand to the stars and then stopped and become insular and essentially a walled society. 

But why it it changed?

[KnuckleBuckett]

Krypton had moved to multiple star systems in the comics I think.  Never closely followed it. 

[KnuckleBuckett]

I am guessing that the trio of Spider man movies drove you nuts.

[Mike]

Krypton had moved to multiple star systems in the comics I think.  Never closely followed it. 

Well the movie said they had but never explained why there was this drastic change.  That's the annoying part.  You've got this interesting piece of lore that just got cut short.

I am guessing that the trio of Spider man movies drove you nuts.

Honestly, I don't remember them that well.  Watched at least two of them but don't really recall them.

[Ken Fitlike]

'twas a story about Jesus come tae save the world, lads. Lots of early baptismal scenes(falling into sea off oilrig, bus thing) so it was settin' itself up for a classic god v devil; even referring constantly to s'per'mans krypton-dad as 'el' rather than jor-el fairly blasted out the heavy judeo-christian message(el meaning 'god' in hebrew/aramaic) - and sending his son to earth where he would be 'a god among them'. Loads of other referrals; even Lois Lane took on an almost Mary Magdalene, self-sacrificial role(ok, that's probably stretching it). And earth dad's rather otherwise pointless death...

I thought for all that it was excellently done although a tad long. No arguments with the super-fight at the end, I'm pretty sure they could have found a better way for their christ-figure/Michael to overthrow the dragon at the end of the world a little more creatively/imaginatively.