BvS David S. Goyer IS the Script Writer!

How do you feel about Goyer writing the script for the first Superman Batman film

  • His work on MOS was VERY GOOD. He'll do GREAT.

  • His work on MOS was OKAY. I am Skecptical.

  • His work on MOS was POOR. I feel dread.

  • He NEEDS Affleck's help and guidance to deliver a great script

  • His work on MOS was VERY GOOD. He'll do GREAT.

  • His work on MOS was OKAY. I am Skecptical.

  • His work on MOS was POOR. I feel dread.

  • He NEEDS Affleck's help and guidance to deliver a great script

  • His work on MOS was VERY GOOD. He'll do GREAT.

  • His work on MOS was OKAY. I am Skecptical.

  • His work on MOS was POOR. I feel dread.

  • He NEEDS Affleck's help and guidance to deliver a great script

  • His work on MOS was VERY GOOD. He'll do GREAT.

  • His work on MOS was OKAY. I am Skecptical.

  • His work on MOS was POOR. I feel dread.

  • He NEEDS Affleck's help and guidance to deliver a great script


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MOS suffered from both Snyder's excess and Goyer's writing problems. And if you think I'm letting Nolan off the hook, you're wrong. The use of a lack of atmosphere to depower Superman is reminiscent of a Red Sun weakness. You can practically feel Goyer having meetings with Nolan on some of the more CB stuff, and Nolan saying "No, that doesn't make sense."

But all in all, I feel like MOS' greatness is debatable, while its missed opportunity storywise is pretty much undeniable.

The science in this film contained several errors. Among other things, the concept of the codex is ridiculous, and Jor-El said that Earth's sun was "younger and brighter", which is astrophysically incorrect. Stars become brighter as they age, not dimmer.

What sucks is that there is no reason to think these problems will whither away in the second movie. The inclusion of the Batman universe means we're at risk of getting an overly-complicated plot and thus an incoherent narrative, which would be Goyer-esque. They have not announced the hiring of a second writer, someone who could fix the dialogue so that we don't get lines like:

Lois: They say it all goes downhill after the first kiss.
Clark: I'm pretty sure that only applies to humans.
 
I don't see what's so awful about those lines.

Seriously?

Lois: They say it all goes downhill after the first kiss.
Nobody says this.

Clark: I'm pretty sure that only applies to humans.
Beastiality is not sexy (unless you're that kind of deviant), and anyway Clark's conjecture doesn't make any sense nor follow from anything.

They've also failed to establish an epic courtship that would justify Lois saying something that implies she's excited.
 
yeah if you are gonna bash dialogue use crap like

Zod:kal this only ends if you die or i die
Superman:i'm gonna stop you

your examples were fine lines
 
Neither of those lines were fine. All in all the dialogue in this film was terrible. Some of the felt elevated due to the quality of the actors involved, but that's about it. A lesser set of actors would've exposed even more severe flaws in the writing. Nevermind the plot holes and incoherent narrative. That's another story.
 
That kiss line was awful because first it was corny as heck. Who says something like that? I mean really. It was like something out of a awful 80s romance comedy. Second, how about just take the moment in. It's chaos and destruction all around you and the kiss could have been saved for a second movie honestly, but that line almost ruined it.
 
Ugh. These 'stop you' lines are like grated cheese on top of ham.

Nolan and Goyer are probably the worst dialog writers today.
 
I don't know Goyer is hot and cold. At times it's really good in the movie, then he just tries to hard and goes off the tracks. His writing in Blade and Blade 2 was top of the line. Of course we saw what happened with Trinity and for the most part, I thought Dialogue in TDK series was good. MOS however, was lacking a lot.
 
Ugh. These 'stop you' lines are like grated cheese on top of ham.

Nolan and Goyer are probably the worst dialog writers today.
not like super hero films even the very good ones as much as we love them have great dialogue
 
Seriously?

Lois: They say it all goes downhill after the first kiss.
Nobody says this.

Clark: I'm pretty sure that only applies to humans.
Beastiality is not sexy (unless you're that kind of deviant), and anyway Clark's conjecture doesn't make any sense nor follow from anything.

They've also failed to establish an epic courtship that would justify Lois saying something that implies she's excited.

You must either have me on your ignore list or just conveniently go about ignoring what I also mention regarding your posts on this matter, but I'm just curious, assuming if I'm not on your ignore list and you're reading this..

What do you exactly define as a "courtship"?

The two just survived a life and death experience with each other and considering that they were both out of breaths and were in the moment, that energy alone helped fuel the kiss. I wouldn't go about and say that they were "in love" with each other yet, but they were definitely set on a path that will eventually lead them there somewhere down the line.

And you do realize that this is the first film of an intended franchise?

Are Clark and Lois married at the end of this film? Do they have kids together? Hell, do they even settle down and live together? No, they don't.

At the end of the film, they're in the process that'll eventually lead them down towards becoming a definite couple.

Plus, the desert scene where they held hands with each other, along with when Clark saved her from crashing into the ground from the broken space pod somewhat establishes that they've both realized that there's some kind of special connection/attraction between them.

Seriously, you talk as if Goyer butchered and destroyed the relationship.

And I honestly don't get why you're so defensive about the lines that were exchanged during the kiss. I felt that it was something natural for Lois to say given her character in general (comics and mythology included) and that Clark's response to her was just him retorting back with the same witty comment that she just threw at him.
 
Some of the debate supporting elements of this film are just ridiculous. There's not even any point in examining them bit by bit because they're so so stupid.



This one was golden though. Because the guy 'fake' holding it up but then not getting crushed or burned alive doesn't raise any questions at all...

Really, I get playing devil's advocate, if that's what the deal is. But if you're genuinely defending these things, it's not a very good case you've got going.
How do they know he held it up, they saw it fall.
How do they know he didn't get crushed alive?
Maybe he did get burned, maybe with all that was going on they didn't look past the idea that he just got a first or second degree burn that would tenderize minutes later.

Come on man, any and everything Clark did on the oil rig could not have been done by a human.

The door wasn't just ripped off, it was crushed from the sides as if it was paper.
He was absolutely holding up the beam, you could see his muscles bulging with the strain. And it was falling and he held it in place long enough for the helicopter to take off.
With his legs using as grip, the metal completely bended.
While getting to the beam, he jumped or half flew 12-15 feet.
And plus he was on fire with his hair not burning.

He was very obviously not human in that scene.

The cinematic audience saw one thing, the people he saved were privy to a different set of circumstantial evidence.

His muscles bulging for example..sure we saw that, but did their vantage point allow that? Moreover, so what if his muscles bulged, pretty sure mine would too.

If you take the world trade center building collapse from the minute it was hit by a plane. Have a hobo stand beside the building as if he is hugging it..bulging muscles and all. Then have the building crumble 15minutes later in the exact same fashion it did on that day. With the hobo buried and gone.

If that happened in our world what would we believe? A crazy hobo is superman or a crazy hobo tried to help and no laws of physics were actually broken?
No accounting for how long he was actually burning in the hallway. There are dozens of ways of explaining this rationally. I mean all you would need to technically pull the visual off is a bottle of alcohol(rubbing or otherwise). Like I said, circumstantial evidence: facts offered as evidence from which other facts are to be inferred as opposed to direct evidence. But still, there is no accounting for what those folks that were saved would think. Luckily at this point clark is a drifter, no doubt thought dead after each act.
 
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Lois: They say it all goes downhill after the first kiss.
Nobody says this.

That line isn't the first time I've heard that, so that can't be true.

But, you're right. None of the ace journalists I've ever met in real life have said that after falling out of the sky and smooching flying aliens. :o
 
If it's been done weakly before... so what?

I'm not arguing that MoS is the worst superhero movie. It's certainly not. It rises above most of the garbage Hollywood has been selling us. However, I think with small changes it could have been substantially better.

You mistake my intent here. I never said spidermans reveal or the original superman's arrival to the world was at all failed.

I said those were what they were, but when compared to the arrival of the man of steel in the midst of armageddon and or oblivion, you are looking at something far more substantial than has maybe ever been done before. If anything superman's reveal on Dday as opposed to on Wednesday, is far more impactful on the hearts and minds of people around the globe in that universe. Ergo, hope.
 
I don't want "just fine", I want "spectacular", this is Superman, not some B-character like Captain America or Blade.

I gotta go to work, but I figured I would respond to this quickly.

Superman, for all that he is amazing, is still Superman. A comic book figure. The dialogue in his comics is hilariously awful at times. The situations he's in? Also contrived and silly.

Compared to most of the comics I've ever read for Superman, MOS WAS spectacular.
 
Mjölnir;26810161 said:
From what the movie tells us he does it to prevent having to sit down with people and tell them that they were under press and think they saw something that's impossible. We were directly shown that when he was caught the first time it didn't even make Smallville people believe it.
Am I to assume you think this movie wants us to think that the literal consequence to clark revealing himself before the age of 33 will be jon having to sit down and tell people otherwise? Also, that all that stuff he said in the barn(his character motivation) was just jon making jokes about his fears? This implies you need things spelled out for you I think.

They quelled that first lady who had no proof other than the word of her young son. The same couldn't be said for Jon's ability to do the same for the entire town.
The lady says that it's an act of God, that it's providence. Are you trying to tell me that she thinks an act of God that saved her child is a negative thing? Come on. The reason she's not happy in the scene is because the Kents are denying it and she's arguing with them.
She didn't look to happy but you are right I suppose, she wasn't under the impression that her son's life being saved was much of a downer. That being said, her response was very much a negative response as far as Jon's perspective is concerned.
Again see his speech in the barn:
"People are afraid of what they don't understand."

From the xmen to jesus. It happens.

More than that, she also says that it's not the first time Clark has done something like this. That means that it's happened over and over and still not a thing comes out of it. That's despite that they are in a fairly religious country, which means people are more willing to take to things without facts.
I don't recall what she said about that. I mean if they are talking about stuff like clark's younger school days than it proves nothing but that he's an odd kid. If he was running around saving people as a kid, that's a whole other can of worms.

Except for the time where he did. He tells Clark that he shouldn't have done it (saved the kids on the bus) and when Clark asks if he should just have let them die his father answers "maybe". That's a messed up thing to tell your child. No wonder he has issues.
That's actually you taking away what you want from the dialogue. Which is fair, it's not a simple movie.
Jon said "maybe". He also told the boy that he is perhaps analogous to the son of god and perhaps he was put here for a greater reason, more important to the survival of everything and everyone. He told him this as he showed him the non terrestrial baby carriage/basket from the heavens clark arrived in. Safe to say he didn't simply tell clark not to save lives. I do recall him telling clark to be more careful with his secret though.

It's funny how you're referencing other movies and shows in this discussion, when I started this by saying that I'm not taking other versions into account of why I don't like it.
It's not so funny cause I was in fact referencing the superman mythology. I specifically pointed to how Jon Kent has been portrayed in his past incarnations. Whether you care about other movies or not, the mythology of the material seems significant to the discussion.

We disagree here. I think the Kents made him into a good and humble person and I think Jor-El made him into a hero. He never actively sought to help people until Jor-El told him to, and that is what Superman is.
If that was the case than why did Lois threaten Clark by telling him that he won't be able to hide as long as people are in danger? This implies that the "hero" in clark is prominent long before jor el.
I am curious what you mean by "sought to help people"? I've always seen superman saving lives as reactionary.
On the Peter Parker issue he's told that he has a responsibility to help people if he can. Very different from what Clark is told here.
You're right, Peter does need to be told that, which is very different from young clark. That being said, it says alot of about Peter's character that he would listen, especially to the self sacrificing level he seems to do so on a daily basis. Ergo why I suggest he was raised by his parents to be this person.
 
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I will find him.

I will find him.

I will find him.

I WILL FIND HIM :cmad:
 
As mentioned, Marvin, the points you're making are just borderline ridiculous so it's not worth going into detail over. You're welcome to continue writing those tl;dr's that are about as solid in construction as the buildings and oil rigs in Man of Steel.
 
I thought for the most part the script was fine, but there were some stupid and cheesy parts in the movie.
 
How as free will a theme of this movie?

Is it because ghost Jor-El told Clark it was his destiny to lead humanity into the light?

Is it because Clark chose to side with humanity against Zod rather than help Zod exterminate humanity, including his mom and his new love interest?

Is it because Clark killed Zod when Zod told him it was either that or the deaths of millions?
Possibly, I mean those were all technically choices clark made and weren't made for him. The concept of free will doesn't disappear when you add an element of "ultimatum" or a fathers dying dream.

Then again it could have possibly had something to do with the very first frame of the film. The one involving the first natural birth into a sterile society of individuals with their choices made for them from birth.

"What if a child dreamed of becoming something other than society had....."
and so on and so forth.

I don't want "just fine", I want "spectacular", this is Superman, not some B-character like Captain America or Blade.
Oh man, why did you have to drag blade into this.:csad:
 
As mentioned, Marvin, the points you're making are just borderline ridiculous so it's not worth going into detail over. You're welcome to continue writing those tl;dr's that are about as solid in construction as the buildings and oil rigs in Man of Steel.
You are the one that said "not getting crushed would raise questions" right?
At what point was he not crushed?

Thank you for allowing me to continue however, I appreciate it.
Free will and all...or is it:huh:
 
I don't know Goyer is hot and cold. At times it's really good in the movie, then he just tries to hard and goes off the tracks. His writing in Blade and Blade 2 was top of the line. Of course we saw what happened with Trinity and for the most part, I thought Dialogue in TDK series was good. MOS however, was lacking a lot.

Are you being serious or just selective.
 
I will find him.

I will find him.

I will find him.

I WILL FIND HIM :cmad:

Ben Affleck to improve the script to the sequel? Yes, please :jedi

I actually liked that line. You see a character who's unsure of himself trying to take on different "roles" for the sake of disturbing Lara, only to find out that it's useless. I will find him. (conceptualization of the thought.) I WILL find him.(intent) I WILL FIND HIM!!!!!! (rage)

But to each his own.
 
I feel like a good 80% of people here need exposition in order for a story to make sense to them. Anything subtle or left up to interpretation by the filmmaker seems to have gone completely over the majority of people's heads.

There's a huge difference between subtle filmmaking and bad storytelling with tons of holes in it. The works of Stanley Kubrick and Paul Thomas Anderson are subtle. Zack Snyder is not. If you think Clark being told he is the bridge between two people, a god to the humans, the savior for mankind, him going to talk to the preach with a huge Jesus picture behind him are SUBTLE, then I'm not quite sure you know what subtle filmmaking really is. That's simply one example in the film. Clark's dad's death wasn't subtle at all. They bashed it in our heads 50 times 'OMG WHAT WOULD THE WORLD THINK IF IT KNEW PEOPLEZ LIKE THIZ EXISTED!?!? GASP'' No. It was easily understood why he let his father die. That still doesn't make it a storytelling device. It was horridly executed. The idea is interesting and could have been really emotional if executed right, but Jonathan Nolan wasn't there to hold Goyer's hand when writing the scene.

Christopher Nolan isn't subtle. Steven Spielberg's majority of his work isn't subtle. George Lucas and JJ Abrams aren't subtle. There are plenty of great non subtle filmmakers. It's not a knock on Snyder's lack of subtly. It's a knock on his lack of execution and overuse of his not so subtle themes.

I gotta go to work, but I figured I would respond to this quickly.

Superman, for all that he is amazing, is still Superman. A comic book figure. The dialogue in his comics is hilariously awful at times. The situations he's in? Also contrived and silly.

Compared to most of the comics I've ever read for Superman, MOS WAS spectacular.

This is what baffles me. You guys get up in arms when people claim some of your favorite films are 'just comic movies' and you talk about the depth of the source material and then when someone expects something better than average, you go 'it's JUST a comic book movie '. When two guys, Nolan(TDK) and Raimi(Spiderman 2) sctually make a truly great comic film, you have fans calling it 'boring' or 'no fun'. Make up your minds. Can your favorite characters be interpreted into GREAT works of art or are they doomed to Mediocre films at best?
In MoS's words 'What if Someone aspired to be something greater?" I think it's a poor excuse to claim Superman films can have weak dialogue in their scripts because some of the comics have bad lines.
 
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