Almost 7 years later this movie still continues to impress. Reading Amazon reviews and other reviews it’s easy to assume this is one of the best super hero movies ever made.
Firstly the music is the best superhero soundtrack ever made and I would say in the top 3 of all time for movies. The score is simply amazing by Hans Zimmer
If you didn’t like it in the beginning have your thoughts changed and have you come to appreciate it more?
It gave a false premise to the greatness of the DCEU in that nothing they created afterward would live up to it. It was a good film in and of itself. I really wish the execs chose to develop the sequels more organically rather than chase their own tail.
man of steel could've been the start of something good... i did like a few things about the film but hack snyder needs to stay away from comic book films because he knows no much about them.. the storyline although much better than routh supes need a bit more polishing.. kal's hero's journey started out okay but should've elevated the character way better then it did. pops kent died ignorantly and amy no talented adams who is one of the biggest whores in hollywood was the miscast of the century.. michael shannon was wasted and his villains journey was written badly. the cgi was okay but really shoulda been way better than it was
Back in the day, I thought it was a solid movie with some really good action scenes, even if at the same time it had some serious issues that would only get worse in BvS.
The problem were the critics. They hated Superman Return because it lacked action, but ***** because MOS had to much action.
They also ***** that Superman wasn’t actively being shown saving civilians, then they ***** that he cause too much environmental damage. I was like *****! What do you think would happen if god like beings fought in real life!
They ***** and moan even more after he snapped Zod’s neck. I was like, Yes!
Not complete trash but not good either. Compared to other worst movies like BvS, Suicide Squad and Justice League, MOS is the better movie.
Anyhow how can a Superman movie be good if Superman himself is unlikeable in the movie. Wasn't really rooting for him to win by the end of the movie the way the character was developed.
But if you only care about the scenes of super powered muscular men punching each other and big explosions I guess it could be your cup of tea.
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Last edited by Inhuman on Jan 15th, 2020 at 08:15 PM
Initially it disappointed me. The 3rd trailer is one of the greatest trailers ever and I don't think it lived up to it. My appreciation for it has went up over the years though. It still has some iconic shots. Snyder has always had a knack for transferring memorable frames from comics and graphic novels into equally brilliant shots in his movies (the Spartan shield shell with Leonidas standing outside them for example) and he did that several times in MoS (supes coming through the door with the cape blowing in the wind)
But yeah, brilliant soundtrack although I could do without ever hearing those slow plinky piano notes ever again.
__________________ Sweating on the streets of Woking
I don't think it was trash, I enjoyed it but it wasn't the best super hero film ever made or close to that.
__________________ Chicken Boo, what's the matter with you? You don't act like the other chickens do. You wear a disguise to look like human guys, but you're not a man you're a Chicken Boo.
My thoughts exactly on the "Superman murders people" fallacy.
Multiple comic book movies had been released every year since Blade, X-Men 1, and especially Spider-Man kicked off the superhero movie restart from 98-2002. After that, Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy dominated the mid-2000's amidst the good (V for Vendetta, Batman Begins, Sin City, 300), the bad (FF: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Ghost Rider), and the ugly (Catwoman).
Then, boom, Nolan directs TDK and it drops in July 2008, and everyone and their mom looks for the next comic film masterpiece. This is just a couple months after the inaugural MCU film Iron Man, which just gave a hint of things to come with a connected universe.
Fast forward 4 years: the connected universe thing becomes a 1.6 billion dollar reality with one of the biggest films ever in Avengers 1. 1st movie to gross over 200 million US dollars opening weekend, 1st one to gross over $100 million the second weekend, beloved by critics and fans alike, and even bests Nolan's Batman trilogy closer, TDKR. The MCU was the new standard bearer.
However, their formula hadn't reached well-oiled machine into nigh-perfect popcorn flick status yet (Cap: Winter Soldier, GotG, Civil War, Phase II ending into Phase III). Also, the MCU hadn't made every month of the year a viable blockbuster month (the highest grossing North American film of the year, Black Panther, gets released in February?! And the first comic book film to get a Best Picture nom?! INSANE), so MoS was a classic major tentpole Summer event. Iron Man 3 opened Summer 2013, but Man of Steel was the show-stopper audiences were anticipating in mid-Summer.
Despite the hype, the fantastic marketing campaign, and it being perhaps the most beautiful comic book film to date, critic and audience reviews came back mixed, and the box office returns were fine but not up to WB's anticipated results. And thus, WB execs course-corrected far too much with the likes BvS, Suicide Squad, and Justice League. They have now learned their lesson: give filmmakers creative control and do solo movies and standalones to build up your universe: Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Shazam!, and Joker.
Alas, I've written my histories on the modern superhero film.
For the topic at hand, Man of Steel was one of my favorite superhero films ever at the time of its release: it still has the best fight scenes in any superhero film to date (barring the Titan fight in IW), took an interesting turn by delving more into sci-fi invasion territory, is a technical showcase, has an incredible score, and Cavill played the role of Clark Kent/Kal-El well. However, I noticed while watching it at my local cinema's opening midnight showing that the editing was jarring and the script had some downright awful decisions, #1 of which is Jon Kent deciding to commit suicide-by-tornado. Ridiculous.
MoS is now probably in my top 11-20 comic book movies. The MCU, while formulaic, has had far too many well-made and entertaining movies released since 2013 (and at least one, Infinity War, that I consider to be among the best films ever made), and the DCEU itself has changed its stripes along the lines of the four films I mentioned above.
It isn't a bad movie, just not a great one. It gets unfarily critizied alot. If I see one more person whine about the devestation the city took when Supes was trying to stop Zod, who said he was going to kill every human on earth, I am going to scream. That was hysterical nonsense and the ones who were beating that horse were hypocritical to the max on it's application.
That said, I do wish they didn't have Supes kill Zod. I feel people would have harped on the desctruction a bit less they didn't have Supes outright kill someone.
I also agree with Jaden on the trailer 3. Trailer 3 promised a movie that we didn't get. The movie that trailer 3 promised looked like it was going to be the greatest superhero movie of all time. Whoever cut that trailer understands Supes better anyone who has worked on the Superman movies since. I believe that for many Superman fans, including myself, we felt disappointed in the final result because the trailer was superior to the movie in every way and understood what our favorite character was all about much more than the creators of the movie itself. The movie didn't live up to the hype the trailer created.
All that said, the movie is decent to good and clearly better than most of what came after it from DC.
I really enjoyed the movie, as well. I can't remember what I rated it but it was a 7-8. I rarely give out 9s and I never give out 10s.
The last movie I rated a 9 was Joker.
Back on-topic, Man of Steel was VERY enjoyable to watch. And if you have a nice sound system at home, it is INCREDIBLE. The pops, pings, bangs, crashes, wind, swooshes, etc. The sound team were clearly comic book fans. If any of you have a nice surround sound system at home, get some snacks, make a weekend evening of this moving, and crank up the volume to hear what I'm talking about.
Sorry, but this movie is awful, and the last seven years hasn't changed my mind. Zack Snyder is good in the right projects and is a talented filmmaker, but he does *not* understand Superman.