Look, I'm glad you enjoyed the movie. I find Henry Cavill consistently reliable, and charming when given the opportunity; this is the perhaps the first time I've felt that I was watching a Lois Lane who had earned the affections of Superman (earnestly played wit and integrity + general good looks); the casting of Kal-El's two families was spot-on, Kevin Costner being the standout; the casting in general was solid; I like everything about Faora, and found her both the most effective villain and the centerpiece of all the best action scenes (everything in Smallville); there were several cool effects and a couple of notable cinematographic moments; the very end of the film might be my favorite part; and there are two or three standout orchestral cues courtesy of Hans Zimmer.
But the first twenty minutes bored me, the last thirty minutes threatened to give me a migraine, and I found much of the rest generally underwhelming. Zod, for one, came across as bland. The attempts at world-building that happened on Krypton didn't do it for me, nor did the eventual writing out of every single element from that world by the end of the film (except for the native hero). The jargon felt contrived. There were touches of the last fight with Zod that I thought were cool but as a whole I found the sequence unnecessary and difficult to watch. I understand that a climactic confrontation is par for the course, but there had to have been a better way of handling it. Similarly the vast amounts of urban mayhem and destruction were inelegantly depicted and quickly grew tiring, and I was annoyed from a thematic perspective that Superman was letting it happen. I frankly enjoyed the action in Superman Returns much, much more than in Man of Steel, although I also like that movie better than most people seem to.
I've seen clips in the past few weeks that I like upon rewatching, but that's not what a movie is supposed to be. I've only seen it in its entirety once, and it's possible that I'd like it better the second time, but my visceral response to the film was as described above. As I said, I'm glad you liked it. I'm excited for the prospect of a sequel. But if you thought it was "great" we obviously had incomparable gut reactions walking out and probably different expectations walking in. Beyond that I'm not interested in arguing our differences in taste the way you and Gideon tend to.
Originally posted by CrackedFor people and comedy websites that are fueled by pop culture, the mere mention of George Lucas offers endless amounts of ammunition, most of which is targeted toward George Lucas. But regardless of what anyone thinks of the man and his place in the pantheon of awesome, in his civilian life, Lucas is perfectly capable of producing moments of greatness.
Until recently, Lucas spent a lot of time, money and effort trying to build a huge digital media production studio on his property in Marin County, California. The project was going to create around 600 high-paying jobs and bring loads of revenue to local businesses. Too bad a good chunk of his neighbors reveled in riches themselves, and as such didn't give a crap about business or, for that matter, jobs. They vehemently opposed the project, claiming that it would bring too much traffic and noise, not to mention so much light pollution that their "dark starry skies would be destroyed."
That's an actual quote, by the way.
For a whopping 25 years, Lucas tried to build the property. Although he did secure small victories here and there, he was constantly swimming against a current of "not in our backyard" arguments.
Then, in the spring of 2012, Lucas officially stated that he would give up, sell his property and take his business elsewhere. However, his opponents' cheers died in their throats when he announced the second half of his plan: He had sold his land to a nonprofit organization called Marin Community Foundation. According to their deal, the foundation would build the area full of something the county was in dire need of, but had for some reason been struggling to find space for: low-income residential housing. As in, the projects.
The foundation praised Lucas, but the rich residents were less thrilled. Their initial reactions were absurd shrieks of nonsense that showed the entire world how far removed from reality they were: Lucas' action was "class warfare." The housing project would throw the whole area into a state of "sheer terror." They even, we kid you not, compared the situation to the conflict in Syria. You know, because everyone worse off than you is just waiting to storm your home with a rocket launcher.
Alas, after the initial shit-flinging had died down, there seemed to be precisely jack shit the jackass neighbors could do about the project besides choking quietly on their bile.
And that, friends, is how a famous pop culture icon defeated a wealthy, villainous clique while helping a bunch of poor people. Wait, holy shit. That's the plot of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, isn't it?
So... what the **** is the context to this super intense fight?
Didn't you watch the show? Barriss is all disillusioned with the Jedi and Republic, so she used a temple worker to explode a bomb killing a bunch of Jedi. The she killed the assassin and made it look like Ahsoka did it. She got put on trial, Anakin learned the truth, he confronted Barriss and they fighted. Cuz apparently when you're disillusioned with your people's methods and motivations, you're justified in slaughtering them. #StarWarsLogic
One of the better arcs of the series, and it's a shame it's not going to be resolved.