What are your complaints? What would you do differently? *SPOILERS* - Part 1

[STARMAN]

I would've trimmed a couple of minutes from Krypton. Added the time for Superman and Lois.

 

[The Sage]

I would've trimmed the Jor-El/Zod fight down and maybe a bit from Jor-El's escape from the council chamber.

 

[PacificBoy]

^ This. I'd have remove Zod from the opening proceedings and give him a dramatic entrance by introducing him via the You Are Not Alone Message. Have Kal-El interact with Zod more. Have Kal-El understand Zod's motivations, even sympathize with them. Give Kal-EL a stronger attachment to Krypton so the ultimate decision to save his adopted planet at the expense of his own people is more powerful. And the killing of Zod more tragic.

 

[NewYorkSpider]

I would have made a Superman that didn't enjoy his powers so much. The trucker scene and his first time flying(while he was laughing and giggling) are two that come to mind. I feel those were scenes that weren't needed.

 

[jmc]

In that summary, you lose the fleshing out of General Zod which would be pretty significant and makes him come across as a stereotypical villain with no depth to his character. Moreover, you lose out on why the Council let the planet rot (implying that no one gave a damn about saving Krypton, which we know by Lara and Jor-El's actions, are not true). The summary loses out on a lot of things, that I'm not sure that it's worth cutting. Even if you use an alternate method and change the Krypton sequence to a flashback sequence during Jor-El's conversation with Kal-El, it's an awkward one due to transitioning between the rocket's launch to the rocket's landing on Kansas. Implying that Jor-El knew where the rocket was going to land, when that actually isn't the case (he only knows of the planet rather than the country that the rocket lands).

Who's story is this meant to be? If it's Clark's then we're fleshing out the wrong characters and focusing on the wrong planet. Why did the council let Krypton rot ? My answer to that is who cares? That doesn't add anything to Clark's story, the whole thing should have been a journey for both him and us, as it stands you already know everything before he does. As for Zod, there's nothing in that prologue that couldn't have been explored later on in the film. The Krypton sequence works in its own right, it just doesn't work as part of a whole.

 

[jmc]

^ This. I'd have remove Zod from the opening proceedings and give him a dramatic entrance by introducing him via the You Are Not Alone Message. Have Kal-El interact with Zod more. Have Kal-El understand Zod's motivations, even sympathize with them. Give Kal-EL a stronger attachment to Krypton so the ultimate decision to save his adopted planet at the expense of his own people is more powerful. And the killing of Zod more tragic.

100% agree with this. That introduction would have been far more effective had he just appeared and would have served as another Kryptonian history lesson.

 

[Wolvieboy17]

Imagine if Kal-El and the audience's first link with his true heritage was with Zod. Perhaps Zod can take on a sort of mentor role. They'd be less hostile from the beginning... Then when Kal finds Jor-El, he (and the audience too) learns the full truth of it. Sometime like that would be really cool.

I don't care about the content of the Krypton stuff, it's the way it was presented that I thought was lacking. It was just kind of... there. Like all the flashbacks, they were long and over explanatory. In film you can say a lot with minimal, visual language and this film just went overboard with it all and that's why it dragged a lot to me.

 

[PacificBoy]

Yup. It jumped from meeting the chap to "You're a monster, Zod!" way too quickly. I mean Clark spent all that time searching for his heritage, trying to discover who he really is. Even if he was preventing the human race's extinction, he barely hesitated before vaporizing the ship which stored the embryos with his heat vision. Dat's cold.

 

[jmc]

Imagine if Kal-El and the audience's first link with his true heritage was with Zod. Perhaps Zod can take on a sort of mentor role. They'd be less hostile from the beginning... Then when Kal finds Jor-El, he (and the audience too) learns the full truth of it. Sometime like that would be really cool.

I don't care about the content of the Krypton stuff, it's the way it was presented that I thought was lacking. It was just kind of... there. Like all the flashbacks, they were long and over explanatory. In film you can say a lot with minimal, visual language and this film just went overboard with it all and that's why it dragged a lot to me.

You make a very good point. The content itself is not bad, it's just presented to us in the wrong way. Imagine if the prologue sequence was changed into some holographic memory of AI Jor-El, essentially Clark would be given a first hand account of his parents and who Zod is and Krypton itself via this hologram, thus being a discovery for both him and us. It would be condensed of course but it's would eliminate the first 20 mins of the movie and open it up to much more character development for Clark.

 

[InJustice]

Who's story is this meant to be? If it's Clark's then we're fleshing out the wrong characters and focusing on the wrong planet. Why did the council let Krypton rot ? My answer to that is who cares? That doesn't add anything to Clark's story, the whole thing should have been a journey for both him and us, as it stands you already know everything before he does. As for Zod, there's nothing in that prologue that couldn't have been explored later on in the film. The Krypton sequence works in its own right, it just doesn't work as part of a whole.

It adds in that we get to see how Clark is born and the circumstances leading up to his escape to a dying planet. It basically starts his story prior to being a Kent. Could it shifted? Sure, insofar as it makes sense. But I personally don't see a problem with the sequence itself.

I don't think the audience not knowing his origins is going to make any difference considering how iconic Superman's origin story is anyway (bordering on predictable - even my non-comic book fan friends know he's from another planet and couldn't care less if they were part of Clark's journey).

 

[Wolvieboy17]

Also, for an origin story, the priority is Clark's origin... Who he is, what he wants, what he's running from, what his weakness is, what he needs to learn.... It doesn't matter how important Jor-El, Krypton etc is to the mythos, it's secondary to the main characters journey.... Well, it SHOULD be.

 

[dnno1]

Man of Steel HISHE up on their website.

 

[Smallville13]

More good dialogue between the characters. I feel the very economic visual storytelling Snyder used was very 'comics' in a way, but I thought to the film's detriment in some areas. I just could have used some more explanation behind characters motivations and intentions.

Here's 2 examples:

1. A criticism I've heard leveled at the film is that Zod's entire plan is dumb, as he's giving up having superpowers, and being a god on Earth. Now there was an exchange between him and Jor-El saying 'our kids shouldn't have to suffer like Kal did their entire life to adjust' or whatever. But I feel there's a better explanation, that I'm not sure if Goyer thought of or not. But it would make sense that Zod's entire purpose now his civilization is gone, is to restore Krypton to what it was, obviously before he believed it became corrupted, and obviously taking that further with how he deemed it should be with the severed bloodlines or whatever. He would have no idea how to establish order in a race of superpowered beings, and he as the General of the entire populace can't have everyone just as powerful as himself. This is surely the explanation I would think. But it is never once spoken in the film.

2. Jor-El's Phantom Drive plan as explained by Lois and Superman. Why did no-one pipe up and say 'uhh you want to open a black hole inside Earth's atmosphere, are you ****ing insane?!'. That entire plan defies all scientific theory and logic. It would have been nice to have some explanation for this, even if it's complete pseudo science. I have a feeling there might have been one implied. Notice how when Superman is straining to fly back Lois there's like all that electrics on his face, whereas Lois was unaffected.. It's like the singularity is tied to Kryptonian cell genealogy or something. They could have made that explicit.

And not just explanatory exposition type stuff. But deep, long dialogue exchanges are completely absent in the second half of the film. There's just nothing that goes over 1 minute between characters. I would have easily traded 15 minutes of CGI fighting for a really deep ethical discussion between Superman and Zod, with Superman trying to be diplomatic and reasonable trying to find a solution for Zod that doesn't involve killing mankind. Or just anything that deals with how the entire world is responding to this 'first contact'.

 

[Jaxon]

haracters motivations and intentions.

Here's 2 examples:

1. A criticism I've heard leveled at the film is that Zod's entire plan is dumb, as he's giving up having superpowers, and being a god on Earth.

2. Jor-El's Phantom Drive plan as explained by Lois and Superman. Why did no-one pipe up and say 'uhh you want to open a black hole inside Earth's atmosphere, are you ****ing insane?!'.'.

Here goes.

Zod's character doesn't give a crap about superpowers, he cares only for his people and their survival. This was one of the pivotal platforms of his character. He is not a power hungry type. He is a General who serves primarily to keep his race going.

Wow that second point is like super picky and you could level that sort of thing at frankly any movie you've ever watched. It was clear that in order to sustain the phantom zone opening it needed to be powered, cut the power and you cut the portal. Once the engines were sucked into the hole the power was cut. Pretty sure you don't need the script writers to have everything spelled out to everybody do we.

 

[Smallville13]

Here goes.

Zod's character doesn't give a crap about superpowers, he cares only for his people and their survival. This was one of the pivotal platforms of his character. He is not a power hungry type. He is a General who serves primarily to keep his race going.

Ok. Bare in mind I'm not arguing these characters or plot points. Just that we could have done with more fleshing out and developing of these characters and ideas.

Wow that second point is like super picky and you could level that sort of thing at frankly any movie you've ever watched. It was clear that in order to sustain the phantom zone opening it needed to be powered, cut the power and you cut the portal. Once the engines were sucked into the hole the power was cut. Pretty sure you don't need the script writers to have everything spelled out to everybody do we.

Well when you're dealing with concepts that are made up, I think you kinda do.

 

[dnno1]

Man of Steel HISHE up on their website.

"Man of Steel" HISHE now available on YouTube for those who can't see it from their website:

 

[Smallville13]

Out've curiosity would that HISHE ending theoretically have worked within the logic of the film? I thought since both Fusion Drives had to be activated and working at the same time that perhaps the Black Zero needed to be terraforming before they bombed it with Clark's ship?

 

[super-t]

I actually would have saved the "kiss" between Clark and Lois for later movies. Have them fall in love slowly over the course of the series. But fair enough WB wasnt sure there was going to be a "series" lol.

 

[jonathancrane]

My major complaint with the film rests on one of the scenes that reeked of Goyer's recurring case of bad dialogue and resultant tonal disruption: the
"he's hot" scene. It added nothing to the story, disrupted the tone - from reflective to dirge comedy-and rang horrible with the line. I wish they had cut it out; if they had, I would have given the film a 10/10; however, since it is included, my final rating is a 9/10.
It derails a thoughtful and beautifully rendered ending; it's as bad as one of the terrible cutaway gags from Family Guy.

 

[PacificBoy]

My major complaint with the film rests on one of the scenes that reeked of Goyer's recurring case of bad dialogue and resultant tonal disruption: the
"he's hot" scene. It added nothing to the story, disrupted the tone - from reflective to dirge comedy-and rang horrible with the line. I wish they had cut it out; if they had, I would have given the film a 10/10; however, since it is included, my final rating is a 9/10.
It derails a thoughtful and beautifully rendered ending; it's as bad as one of the terrible cutaway gags from Family Guy.

THIS. It's a 1-point rating difference for me too. Understand Goyer wants to inject some levity after that hugely emotional scene, but why show up a character for cheap laughs. The captain is made out to be a complete joke and something of a bimbo, having been previously used as an (cheap as well) outlet for plot exposition about the world engine. If he really wanted that line kept, save it for say Jenny in the last scene, commenting on a Superman picture in the headlines.

I think removing the entire scene altogether would have made a big difference. The scene presumably takes place some time after the climatic fight, but it seems to happen almost immediately, with the general and his aide still in the same set of fatigues. I know it's set up meant to establish the growing trust between Superman and humanity -- between him and General Swanwick particularly -- and show this Superman to be an assertive one "it has to be on my own terms", but crashing an expensive piece of hardware unceremoniously not long after all the unacknowledged collateral damage he was involved in, is well... a bit cold. In a "I saved the world, what more do you want" kind of way.

Removing the scene would take us straight to the Clark and Martha interlude, the cemetery as backdrop, a fitting, quiet acknowledgement of the loss of life and devastation that had occurred.

 

[Jim-El]

I would have made a Superman that didn't enjoy his powers so much. The trucker scene and his first time flying(while he was laughing and giggling) are two that come to mind. I feel those were scenes that weren't needed.

Nothing you say there makes any sense to me. It was great to see Superman showing joy as he flew for the first time. One of the best emotional scenes in the movie.

 

[Senator Pleasury]

If anything I wish he would have enjoyed his powers more.

 

[tomoe]

If anything I wish he would have enjoyed his powers more.

I agree. I actually think it makes him less relatable in a way that he had seen his powers as a curse. Many people would kill to have his powers and instead he was moping about why god "did this to me". I know what they were going for, but eh.

 

[JaD]

This is rather specific and a small nitpick that bugged me during the end fight but at one point Zod shoves a large gas tanker towards Superman and Supes just floats above it and doesn't even attempt to stop it and stares ahead as it completely blows up a majority of the skyscraper behind him. It just made me think WTF? There's people running around clearly during the fight and he can't even try to stop some of the destruction? Something small like that turned into something really for me.

 

[Marvin]

This is rather specific and a small nitpick that bugged me during the end fight but at one point Zod shoves a large gas tanker towards Superman and Supes just floats above it and doesn't even attempt to stop it and stares ahead as it completely blows up a majority of the skyscraper behind him. It just made me think WTF? There's people running around clearly during the fight and he can't even try to stop some of the destruction? Something small like that turned into something really for me.

I assume you saw the scene before when zod body checked superman in 0.3 seconds flat right? Why save an empty tanker and deal with raw flame when we all know Zod simply can't win or everyone dies. When we all know exactly why zod is messing with the tanker in the first place...I also assume you saw the scene when faora was outclassing superman and he needed every advantage to win..

I just don't get it?
I mean if the tanker was full of people and a little girl was standing behind superman and just said screw it I got stuff to do....but this constant need for him to be something..
I guess. To each his own. If it ruined the film for you that's too bad.