Man Of Steel (2013) Movie Review

Director: Zack Snyder

Writers: David S. Goyer, Christopher Nolan

Starring: Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon

When I first saw the trailer for Man of Steel, I was excited to see another DC movie with Christopher Nolan working on it after the Dark Knight. A lot of people really enjoyed the movie many hated it. While it isn’t the worst movie I have ever seen, I heavily disliked it.

One issue the movie has is

that it’s apparent that DC only wants to reboot Superman because of the success that Marvel has had with their cinematic universe. I didn’t see the need for another Superman lineage at the moment since the character is pretty much the least interesting thing that has ever existed. By the end of the movie, that opinion wasn’t changed at all.

The first half of the movie had some enjoyable scenes. For instance, the one where he crucifies a truck was moderately funny. The problem here is that many of the scenes were unnecessary. In one bewilderingly short scene, Kal-el saves some people from a burning… oil rig. You could say that this was showing the audience what he is capable of but he doesn’t really do much. He basically grabs onto a massive pole and doesn’t catch on fire. Scenes like this are peppered about the movie. Laurence Fishburne’s boring version of J. Jonah Jameson is in about two scenes and contributes far less than Laurence Fishburne should. (On top of this he has no character at all.)

Omitting the first scene on Krypton, the film is rather subdued until the third act when the action gets cranked up to twelve. Phantom Drives get put over Metropolis, World Engines start terraforming for some reason and I’m pretty sure there was a Genesis Chamber somewhere in the mix. It’s actually incredible that they did the whole ‘Zod’s going to laser some random people’ moment because he had clearly already murdered countless extras. When the people start flying, nothing matters and nothing makes any sense and I lost interest.

The movie tries to reboot Superman in a gritty and Christopher Nolan way than it’s spandex predecessors. It definitely succeeds in that but leaves that viewer with a load and nonsensical shell of a movie. Any early enjoyment I found was negated by the disinteresting final third.

Recommendation Status: Not worth watching at all.

Please feel free to leave a comment on either the movie or the review. Say if you liked or disliked the movie. I'm interested to find out what you think!

Batman (1989) Movie Review

Director: Tim Burton

Writers: Bob Kane, Sam Hamm (great name!)

Story: The Dark Knight of Gotham City begins his war on crime with his first major enemy being the clownishly homicidal Joker.

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Michael Keaton, Kim Basinger

It is heavily debated which portrayal of the Joker is better; Jack Nicholson or Heath Ledger. I personally have no idea as to which one I actually prefer. They both have fantastic aspects to them. Nicholson just make him seem so dark. Even when he is about to get thrown from the top of Gotham cathedral, he has the audacity to crack a joke about hitting a guy with glasses. The character just feels really dark. Everything he does is utterly despicable. He completely fried a guy without a shred of remorse. More than anything you can tell that he takes full enjoyment in the pain and misery of others. I will elaborate more on the Joker war in the Dark Knight review.

While Nicholson was excellent, I felt that Michael Keaton as Batman fell really short for me. There was very little character to him. All we really find out about Bruce Wayne was that his parents were killed and that he is Batman. The movie’s central focus definitely seems to be the backstory of the Joker. While this is true, it is terrible to not explore Batman’s backstory and character in detail in a movie called Batman. Keaton just felt rather boring to me.

The darkness of the movie was fantastic. It emphasised how sinister the Joker is. The scene with the mimes was borderline terrifying. Everything to do with the Joker in the movie just makes you shudder.

This early adaptation of likely the most famous superhero in existence focuses heavily on the Joker and does it gloriously. It is dark, sinister and quite frightening. While Batman as a character is rather underwhelming in the movie, the Batman movie is definitely a fun movie to watch.

Green Lantern (2011) Movie Review

A new month dawns and I have decided that April will now be dubbed: Superhero Month. And this is how it starts; Green Lantern starting of the trilogy of green. Try and guess what the next two movies are going to be. I dare you! One  review every two days because I only have fifteen superhero DVDs. Without further ado; let Superhero Month commence! (Also I'm ditching scores as they are too vague for my liking).

An ancient race known as the guardians are deciding a new method of guarding. They decide to not only make a planet but also make an army of green ring slinging soldiers from places and races all around the universe. Hal Jordan is the first human to have ever been chosen for this soldier-ish duty. For some reason an entity of overwhelming power known as Parallax is coming to Earth. If only we had some sort of green protective soldier to defend us… oh wait we do!

Over the years of this movie’s existence, one of the many common criticisms is that the CGI is terrible. While It really isn’t on the level that movies of the time were at, it is actually quite visually appealing as long as there are enough cuts in the video so that the audience doesn’t get a long look at it. There are some moments (especially on Oa) where there is so much CGI on the screen at once that you can’t even focus on the exposition that the fish guy is spewing. The most unfortunate part of it all is that the CGI doesn’t really feel like it adds anything. I t just feels necessary in a story about intergalactic creatures that can made anything as long as it has got a greenish hue to it. For this reason, there is just so much of it throughout the movie. I feel that this immense quantity caused a lack of quality.

Another problem I really noticed is that the ending felt really anti-climactic. It’s true that Parallax was shown to be able to take out several lanterns at once but I never had any doubt that Jordan was going to be able to take him out in the end of the movie. The only time that he got beaten in the movie was when he was being trained and had no idea how to use his powers. After this however, we see him make a racetrack and race car in order to save a helicopter and met no trouble in the process. In fact, it actually looked quite easy. In the prologue of the movie it is said that Parallax has beaten before, making the audience privy to the fact that he isn’t in fact immortal. It would have been far more effective to have no instance where Jordan actually succeeds. This would create at least some doubt in the mind of the viewer.

Despite all this utter rubbish, the rest of the movie is actually pretty solid. The exposition fish guy served his purpose of spewing information despite my never-ending hatred of him. I really learnt a lot about the Green Lanterns by watching this movie. The acting isn’t bad. It isn’t great, it isn’t terrible. That’s it. Unfortunately, other than that, there are no other significant good aspects to the film.

The Green Lantern is basically the most average superhero movie to have existed. I don’t mean this in superhero terms. In that sort of comparison it is pretty shocking. I am not that big a fan of the Green Lantern lore so I can’t really provide much insight on to how the movie is to die hard fans of the franchise. I would recommend the movie to anyone who is truly desperate to see the Green Lantern Corps imagined on the big screen. If you are not one of those people, you should probably just stick to another action movie.

Have you seen ‘Green Lantern’? If you have, let me know what you thought of it by leaving a comment on this review. Perhaps even suggest a movie for me to review next.




I really do hate this guy!