Man Of Steel Leaps Over Record With $125.1 Million To Mixed Reviews

The Superman reboot Man of Steel broke the record for the biggest June opening weekend ever with a whopping $125.1 million. Reviews have been mixed so far, ranging from: "DC and Warner Brothers have opted to produce a movie that foregoes a character-driven story. Instead, we're left with a trite blockbuster that holds beautiful special effects, an inspiring music score, a story that panders to the movie-goer who refrains from looking deep into the story, and neglects to define Superman as character, leaving him only as a hollow symbol and stock character, which ultimately leaves the movie about the events that transpire rather than the characters involved in them," to " What this version of the iconic DC Comics superhero does is emote convincingly. Thanks to director Zack Snyder and a serious-minded script by David S. Goyer (who shares story credit with his The Dark Knight collaborator, Christopher Nolan), Man of Steel gives the last son of Krypton an action-packed origin story with a minimum of camp and an intense emotional authenticity. Not bad for somebody who spends half the movie wearing blue tights." Personally, I found it to be the best 2-hour action sequence with 30 minutes of stock romance involving Superman that I am likely to see this summer. What did you think?

Comments

+1, Flamebait

[girlintraining]

and neglects to define Superman as character, leaving him only as a hollow symbol and stock character,

(dons asbestoes flame suit) Superman's character definition is as a hollow symbol and stock character. I mean seriously, he's supposed to be perfect. No major character flaws. Unerringly good. Massively overpowered... and only weakness is a special mineral that fell to Earth and can only be found in small amounts, glows to alert you of its presence, and can be detected by the hero when brought nearby. In other words, the only weapon that can defeat him he's given ample warning is in play.

There's not a lot of character development to do there; How exactly do you improve on a guy that's the very personification of "good"? All you can do with a character like that is create dramatic tension and a sense of moral conflict. Superman's only plot device is thus conflict. There will never be any real character change per-se.

Let the nerd rage boileth over now... for I have smote a loved hero upon the mountainside. (pulls down face mask)

Re:+1, Flamebait

[FunkeyMonk]

I agree completely. When my wife and I were leave the drive-in Saturday night, I said "The problem is that when anything is possible, nothing is impressive."

Re:+1, Flamebait

[prelelat]

It's hard but it's not impossible. There is a lot more to Superman than just being good, doing good and being super strong. He's lonely, fear full and caring. Yes he had a large amount of affection from Martha and Johnathan but he has no one who completely understands him in the whole Universe. His parents aren't just dead his whole species is dead. While he isn't hesitant to be a hero he sure is scared about people knowing who he really is. He might be indestructible but his friends and adopted family are not. There are a ton of instances where he fears for the safety of those that are close to him.

The man would die for Earth, to him they have given so much without knowing what he could have given them in return. Superman isn't just the man of steel he's smart. In some cannons of the story he's working on diseases in his fortress. A fortress of solitude. While he might be lonely he still needs a fortress, some connection to home to make him feel whole. His fortress, is pretty much the only thing he has left to remind him of home. It's his one place where he can feel whole. Superman at one point had to send Zod back to the Phantom Zone. I wonder how that must have felt to him. Sitting there fighting against someone who was his only other link to a life he will never know outside of his fortresses computers.

Then there is the time that he died. Doomsday came and decimated the justice league I believe he still had a hand tied behind his back. Superman comes in and holds his own against someone who took out the justice league in short order. Not only that he takes him out while at the same time supposivly dying. Everything turns to shit, the world needs him back. But Superman can't die, he awakens after considerable time under intense sunlight. He doesn't have all his powers, he's not the man of steel. He suits up iron-man style, doesn't bother to chop off his mullet and heads out to fight. He shows he's not just a man who fights because there's no fear for him he fights because he loves everything about humanity.

You can draw a complex feeling god from another world. He's not an emotionless lump. His convictions might be strong but he's second guessed things and made mistakes. He's learned from them and had his mistakes haunt him. He's might be a man of steel but there's so much to Superman that people just don't see because it's so easy to make him fall in love with Louis Lane and beat the crap out of everyone. Everyone knows he's going to win, superman isn't about that. It's about him doing what's right no matter the conflict that's in his head tells him. He can't kill Lex Luthor in cold blood even if he's destroyed millions of peoples lives. He's just a man, an Superman at some level kind of envies that. It might not be easy to make superman a complex character but it's been done a number of times, and when it's done right it can be amazing.

Re:+1, Flamebait

[rwise2112]

I mean seriously, he's supposed to be perfect. No major character flaws. Unerringly good. Massively overpowered

For this reason I've never really been a Superman fan, but the Kill Bill quote made me rethink that a little:

Now, a staple of the superhero mythology is there's the superhero and there's the alter ego. Batman is actually Bruce Wayne, Spider-Man is actually Peter Parker. When that character wakes up in the morning, he's Peter Parker. He has to put on a costume to become Spider-Man. And it is in that characteristic Superman stands alone. Superman didn't become Superman. Superman was born Superman. When Superman wakes up in the morning, he's Superman. His alter ego is Clark Kent. His outfit with the big red "S", that's the blanket he was wrapped in as a baby when the Kents found him. Those are his clothes. What Kent wears – the glasses, the business suit – that's the costume. That's the costume Superman wears to blend in with us. Clark Kent is how Superman views us. And what are the characteristics of Clark Kent? He's weak, he's unsure of himself, he's a coward. Clark Kent is Superman's critique on the whole human race.

Re:+1, Flamebait

[Anonymous Coward]

There are two major comments I have on any such discussion about Superman.

First, the fact that he is even an okay guy with godlike powers is impressive. Most stories of power (whether fantasy super-powers or just regular influence) are about people abusing it. Sometimes, we agree with the character and don't even admit to ourselves that it's an abuse. (For example, we may openly cheer for anti-heroes like the Punisher, Charles Bronson's Paul Kersey in Deathwish, "Dirty Harry" Callahan, or even more shallow characters like Kick Ass). Sometimes the whole story is about characters coming to grips with the fact that power has made them horrible people. Sometimes the story is just about the powerless guy succeeding against all odds (read: against the powerful people who are inherently evil). But fundamentally a story about power that doesn't demand the empowered be corrupt is a lot more novel than those that do. You can call such heroics childish, but after a while you're happy there are at least a few stories that don't openly embrace cynicism.

Second, you have to look at how all of Superman's abilities (generally, being the best guy around) tie together. He doesn't get injured... he doesn't hunger... he doesn't want. And he also doesn't retreat into himself, or waste his life away in lazy hedonism, or try to dominate everything around him. The message of Superman is a message that people are fundamentally good. Stripped away of their wants, their vulnerabilities, and their anxieties, people are at their most free, and still will tend towards good. The message of Superman is that there is a light at the end of the tunnel for people if they can get their shit together. That problems, once solved, actually can stay solved. It won't be nearly as easy for us, but he is the "proof" that what's being presented to us as the end state isn't an impossibility. It's the same optimism of the early twentieth century that (for example) made people believe science and engineering were delivering an unambiguously better world as we built bridges, quashed diseases, and connected the globe.

Real life is ambiguous, of course. Nothing is perfect; everything is a mixed bag. A lot of the point of more cynical stories is to drive that point through. If you get stuck at that point, though, you haven't done yourself any favors. You're still not accepting the world as it is: no good without some bad, but usually a lot more good than bad. That's the time to circle back to the "childish" stories. The stories that remind you that there's a light at the end of the tunnel. The stories that remind you -- just as they taught you as a child -- that we're actually going somewhere. That's what Superman does.

This of course is to say nothing about the most recent film. I haven't seen it, though I've managed to pick up that there's an origin story (again... really, who DOESN'T know the origin of Superman at this point?) and the usual action.

the children liked it

[turkeydance]

took 4 11-y-o boys, and they said it was the best movie they had ever seen in their whole lives!

Re:the children liked it

[Sponge Bath]

Nope, just Gigli and Ishtar.

Hulk Like Explosions!

[TWiTfan]

Hulk tired of scripts, talk. Hulk want MORE ACTION, LOUD NOISES!!!! Hulk like new Superman movie!