My Review of Man of Steel · 8:34pm Jul 13th, 2020
Rating Scale:
12/10—a complete masterpiece; flawless and outstanding
11/10—Excellent, near-perfect film
10/10—the standard rating; awesome film with a couple of flaws
9/10—a wonderful film with several flaws
8/10–a great film with numerous flaws but not enough to ruin it
7/10—a fun and entertaining movie; not great but still enjoyable
6/10—a slightly above average film; might not watch it again but still happy I watched it for the first time
5/10—mediocre movie; not awful but not great either
4/10—a below average film; it could have been much better
3/10—a bad film; poorly written and poorly executed
2/10—a very bad movie; the few good things in the movie overshadowed by the bad things
1/10—a terrible movie; a total waste of time
0/10—a worthless piece of abomination; should have never been made
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Hey, everyone. Here is my review of Man of Steel. I honestly cannot see how people can actually like this movie. The film that started Zack Snyder’s trilogy... that was eventually followed by its two poorly written sequels that definitely warrants hatred and harsh criticism from the hardcore fans. Listen, I’ll be giving this brief review as someone who is not a fan of Superman. In my opinion, he is not that special to me. I just don’t see anything unique or significant about his character in general like I definitely find in Batman, my favorite DC hero of all time. I will say what I have to say from a story perspective and my own perspective. If you love Superman, that’s great. Anyway, let’s get this over with, shall we?
The characters: Almost every single character even Clark Kent himself is as bland as a bowl of corn flakes cereal. The main protagonist is nothing too interesting, has a boring personality, and only becomes Superman for only about fifteen minutes in total throughout the whole movie. Lois Lane has no significant part to play here at all! For example, when General Zod comes for Superman, he also takes her in his ship for some reason. Why? Never explained! Oh, and I will talk about Zod later in this review. Anyway, none of them develop as characters, Superman’s backstory is full of holes, and Superman’s flashbacks are underdeveloped. Speaking of his backstory, let’s take a look at the prologue. We see his real parents take their baby into a small ship so he could survive the destruction of Krypton, right? But hold on! We see ANOTHER ship that was used to exile Zod and his troops for treason. My question is: Why didn’t those parents take that same ship to escape destruction along with their son?! Why couldn’t they go with him?! They have multiple escape pods which that same exact ship had!! Also, the way Clark’s biological father was killed by Zod was... meh. The moment he stabbed him, the latter had the look of, “Oh what? I’m stabbed? Ahh, I’m gonna die... bye-bye.” Very unrealistic reaction of someone getting stabbed. Now, let’s talk about the villain...
The villain: Just have a good look at this dude...
Do you know who he reminds me of? This guy...
When I watched Zod and listened to his motivations of wiping out planet earth and form it into a new Krypton, I said to myself, “Hey! That’s Sentinel Prime 2.0!” Just like with Sentinel, Zod has an undying loyalty to his home planet. That’s very admirable. Great job. You successfully gave a villain a clear and reasonable motivation unlike some villains I know. However, there’s still one thing missing. He has a bland characterization. What does he know about humans that made him hate them so much? I can ask the same thing about Sentinel since he was only on earth for about one day, and suddenly he hates them. General Zod actually made me ashamed of ever liking Sentinel as a villain. That’s how badly written Zod is in this movie. Also, how does he know so much about Superman and what he went through on earth? Has he been watching him from outer space for thirty-something years this whole time? If so, why didn’t he just capture Superman while he was a child then and there?! Why wait till he was a grown man fully capable of defending himself?!? Lastly, the way Zod was killed was absolutely ridiculous. Superman saw him use his eye lasers in an attempt to kill that family. But instead of at least blocking his eyes with his hands, turning his head to the ceiling, or at least punching him on the head to knock him unconscious, he just snaps his neck and kills him. Because making things so controversial is our fetish! We cannot afford writing things that actually make sense, am I right?!
The plot: It is just boring, nonsensical, and completely dull. It is full of plot holes and inconsistencies. Let me name of a few: How is it that after Superman was dying because he wasn’t adapted to the Krypton atmosphere within Zod’s ship but then is completely okay minutes later as he was about to rescue Lois when she was entering earth? How did Superman survive the magnetic-whatever-the-hell-they-are powers from that... thingie when it was destroying the city and turning it to rubble? Shouldn’t that like... kill him? And one again I ask this question... WHY DID HE NOT TAKE HIS FIGHTS WITH HIS ENEMIES AWAY FROM THE CITY?! He had no regard for civilian casualties, smashed through many skyscrapers when he directly fought Zod, and had that sadistic grin when he said to him, “It stings, doesn’t it?” YOU ARE NOT THE VILLAIN, SUPERMAN!! What are you? Some sort of psychopath or something? You just caused tons of mass destruction in the city and possibly killed innocent people in the process even if that wasn’t your intention! Stop taking notes from Optimus!! The soundtracks of this film were really good however. I also liked the CGI in this, but that is just about it. If they had given these characters actually depth of character, I would’ve liked them a lot more.
That’s all I have to say about this movie. See, this is the thing I hate about Superman in general; in almost every continuity even in the animated Justice League Unlimited show, the Man of Steel just casually causes destruction in cities when he fights super-villains. It always has to be in the city, huh? Like with the first sequel, this film gets a 3/10 from me. Ughhh... Zack Snyder isn’t that good of a director it seems. Justice League, you’re up next for more chastising.
Peace.
Makes you wonder why waste the money.
YOU´RE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT! Three hours in the cinema to have the villain killed that way.
About the whole "why the hero has the fight in a crowded city"
Makes me wonder what if there are times like in MLP where they try to take the fight to some place less filled with innocent bystanders only for said villain to keep dragging the battle back to crowded places. Even mocking them like with "Sorry super hero, I prefer our grand performance to have a audience with REAL close front-row seats!"