Finally watched Man of Steel last night. There were four things I really liked about the movie.
1) Henry Cavill. Need I say more?
2) Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Russell Crowe, and Laurence Fishburne in their roles.
3) Krypton (Superman’s home planet) being destroyed by mining its core. This is my own crackpot theory about the increase in earthquakes on this planet. It felt nice to be validated.
4) Young Clark Kent having a meltdown in his fourth grade (?) class room because of his heightened senses. This is something I working on in my current WIP, so it was good to see a visualization.
The thing I didn’t feel strongly about either way:
1) Amy Adams as Lois Lane. I’m indifferent to Amy Adams as an actress. I’ve seen her in roles I’ve loved and roles I loathed. She just didn’t do it for me as Lois Lane. I didn’t hate her in the part, but I didn’t believe in her, either. In my opinion, the best Lois Lane was Teri Hatcher (Lois & Clark: the New Adventures of Superman).
The thing I really hated about the movie:
1) The script. The plot. Whatever.
SPOILER ALERT (DO NOT READ PAST HERE IF YOU DON’T WANT SPOILERS)
A) I have never made bones about how much I despise special effects for the sake of special effects, and this movie has them coming out the wazoo. I felt DC was competing with Marvel for movie bragging rights. Epic fail. Actually that’s what I hate most about Marvel movies, too. Whatever happened to the element of story in movies? Oh. Right. Action adventure doesn’t need enough story/plot to carry a full 2 hour movie, not in this day of computer graphics.
B) I do not have problems with resetting canon. I adore the reset in the Star Trek movies (although I really didn’t think it was that much of a reset). I don’t mind the changes in Superman’s history. I wish I’d thought of the Civil Defense shelters myself when Superman came back from being dead. But Lois Lane knowing Clark Kent is Superman’s disguise from the get-go? As the old cheer from my junior high school days went: no no never never uh-uh uuuuuuh. What is the point? To make Lois & Supes a crime-fighting team? Castle and Becket? Please.
C) I wish Superman would focus more on “truth and justice” than battling extra-terrestrials. That’s why he was the hero of my childhood. Without truth and justice, we will never be able to cope when technology finally does come for us.