Batmannerism
Super-unknown
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2012
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What's interesting is that a lot of the stuff you didn't like, were reasons I loved it.
Amazing, it's like two people can look at the same painting and have totally different reactions.
This is not me criticizing your opinions, hey you're totally entitled to them, and if you didn't enjoy the film, fair call man.
This is just my reaction, my way of saying agree to disagree, this is how I saw it:
1. Mutated colour palette for the film: (did you mean muted ? I'm not sure what you meant by mutated) anyway, to me the stuff on Krypton looks alien, because it's an alien world, but also a dying world, so the colours look drained. The stuff on earth looks like.....stuff on earth, the Kansas shorts, lovely. So, big ups to Snyder for seamlessly melding fantastical and
real worlds.
2. lens flares: yeah, there was that amazing transition, when Zod looks up into the flare of the lights from the attack ship, and it transitions
into the enormous sun, with the descending prison ship in front.
And the sunlight flares in the flashbacks of Kansas, nice.
3. alien invasion: This movie covers the same ground as Superman the Movie, and Superman II, in that it establishes Superman's extraterrestrial origins and brings Zod and co to Earth, where they try and take over. Here, they have an even more complete plan for colonization.
All the other stuff, totally respect your opinion on, disagree but respect.
But this one I have to question, no disrespect, but a question.
If your complaint is that there's an alien invasion in a Superman film, I have to ask, are you familiar with the story of Superman ?
The story centres on an alien being who comes to earth as a child, and later on is followed by other survivors from that planet who try and take over - it was the storyline of STM and Superman II, and a bunch of the comics.
Dude, alien invasions are part of the Superhero genre, and an absolutely essential part of Superman's mythos. If you find alien invasions in superhero movies a cliché did you have the same problem with Avengers and Superman and Superman II (or Green Lantern, Fantastic Four) ? And that's not even mentioning the straight sci-fi films that involve alien invasions ?
If you don't like these, that's cool. But it seems an odd complaint for
a Superman film in particular. Still totally entitled to it, but just seems a
bit odd to me.
4. The total absence of a traditional FOS, with the servant robots and all.
Whew. Nice change from that crystal technology. Superman the movie was amazing in that it influence the comic book, not the other way -but after Superman returns, it was time for something new.
Really, in the 21st Century Superman lives at the North Pole, neighbours with Santa. Whew ! A nice hat-tip to the old Fortress of solitude, but it was an element of Superman that had to be seriously updated.
I also liked the way that the servant robots from John Byrne's 80's run,
Kelex in particular featured, as Jor El's servant bot on Krypton.
5. Armoured design of the evil Kryptonians.
Interesting that the armour looks almost alive, on Krypton, but the stuff the Kryptonians show up with on Earth looks much more mechanical, and sort of cobbled together - semi organic, but very crustacean-like. Loved the helmet that can adjust itself to be see-through.
6. Lack of magic and charm, that you get when you watch the Donner movies.
Whew ! Again, a change. Superman Returns was a piece of **** because it tried to replicate the Donner films (which BTW was only Superman the movie, and bits of Superman II, depending on which cut you watch).
Finally, someone has the balls to say, hey let's tell Superman's origin in a way that's more in line with contemporary superhero films - it might work, it might not, and certainly some fans of the former films won't like it.
Other posters have commented that MOS doesn't stand out, because it isn't that different from current superhero films. I think that was the point though, that it was meant to reflect current superhero films in terms of tone - obviously we see the huge influence the Dark Knight had on it.
Some say this was a mistake to do at all, some say it was a good idea but didn't work, some say (like me) it was a bold move and worked brilliantly.
but that's really just opinion.
It was a much more serious film, without the light tone. It substituted charm for a representation of the character's inner and outer struggles, and character development. At the end of Superman the Movie, which is awesome btw, we're like, Yayyyyy, Superman saved the day. We love it, especially when Reeve smiles to the audience as he flies off into the sunrise.
At the end of MOS we get a different feeling, like we've been on a journey, a difficult one that's far from over, but we've taken the first big step.
-it's a journey, from his birth, through his struggles growing up and finally finding himself and deciding who he's going to be.
Well, that's how I saw it anyway.
7. hologram concept for Jor El.
Nice. Just like Superman the Movie, Superman meets his father. But this time, instead of a kind of pompous voice message left by Jor-El, it's something he can interact with.
An advanced civilization like Krypton, tens of thousands of years ahead of ours, why not be able to download your consciousness into a receptacle ?
Just like HISHE, I think Lara should have been in there too. But also it allowed Cavill to share screen-time with Crowe, which worked.
Personally, I preferred Crowe's Jor El to Brando's. Not just because he kicks ass, but because he portrays wisdom, warmth and bravery - qualities that Superman adopts.
Interesting story about Cavill and Crowe, that they met when Crowe was filming in England and visited Cavill's boarding school, they met after a rugby match that Crowe was watching and Cavill was playing in. Crowe
gave Cavill some advice which helped him with his future acting career.
Was it fate or just the random chance of casting ? Anyway, again,
a nice touch.
8. No trunks.
Finally, Superman's stopped wearing his undies over his tights. Since he was the first superhero and set the trend for all others to follow, it makes sense for him to follow the trend that movie superheroes have adopted since Batman in 1989, a "no trunks rule"
So there we are, you saw a trunkless, charmless and colour-deficient Superman. Fair enough.
I saw a serious, more-realistic, updated version of a classic story that stayed true to the elements but presented them in a fresh way.
Fortunately, the world is big enough for both our opinions to be right.
cheers.
I just can't accept drastic changes especially in Superman and Batman, because they are the archetypes of all the superheroes and they should be respected for what they are. And my favourite depictions of theirs are the Golden Age ones, being the closest to their original creator's work.
