Review: Man of Steel

While I let Monsters University have some time to sink in on me, I'll do Man of Steel. Thor+Wolverine+Captain America+Iron Man+TDK Trilogy+Super-defined-"the tick"-like chin= Man of Steel. That is my take, I'm not in any way suggesting that Superman didn't come first and that all american superheroes don't follow the basic pattern his creators laid out, (which is actually just derivative of Hercules, fitting since the Greek demigods were the original superheroes.) because they totally are and do. I'm just saying that Man of Steel is a slightly more successful-than-Green Lantern attempt by DC to recreate the success that the Marvel movies have had in recent years. This one is a bit more blatant... not to mention the Les Mis style closeups, random shaky-cam a la the hunger games, and fairly random racking of focus. Overall not horrible acting (with the exception of Michael Shannon who didn't sell his performance as Zod even a little and basically made me want to vomit.) The movie has almost as many, if I dare, not more plot holes than the entire Transformers trilogy combined (Making TDKR seem coherent and well edited) which is the result of another horrible editing job by David Brenner who brought you failures such as: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, 2012, Wanted, World Trade Center, The Day After Tomorrow, Identity, Kate & Leopold, The Patriot, What Dreams May Come, Night and the City, The Doors, Born on the Fourth of July, and of course, Talk Radio... Seriously how did those military guys have any idea that Zod was terraforming and trying to make earth into Krypton if he didn't even know what Krypton was? and for that matter of Superman got weaker the close he got to the terrraforming machine how is it that when he is closest he is suddenly able to fly normally and destroy a powerful peace of Kryptonian tech? That's not even bad editing, it's pure plot convenience! The movie did not impress me, and I promise it has nothing to do with the fact that I'm not a huge fan of Superman to begin with. I did love Hans Zimmer's score, though. DC needs to understand that no superhero other than Batman can feel grounded in realty and stop trying to make it that way, Marvel has been so successful because they want people to know that their movies are fiction, Marvel doesn't try to make a movie like the Dark Knight, because it would be complete shit, Marvel just lets Tony Stark be Tony Stark and blow everything up in his shiny turtle shell, because people love it. That being said I'm not sure Superman could pull it off anyway, no one has been able to successfully put Superman on film in this century, not even the director of X-Men one of the most successful modern superhero series, Brian Singer. I believe that Superman may even be too fantastical for it to be possible, and for that reason I say to Superman fans, save your money, and stick to the comics and Smallville.

I like Movies...

Hello internet... or is it Internet? Is internet a proper noun?... what was I doing?.... Oh, right, the blog, that's why you people are here. So this is my first post, I think I'll start by saying a bit about myself. My name is Daniel Wasserman, most people call me Dan, I also go by Danny, Dani, and Niel. I am a fan of Sci-Fi and Superheroes first, but I tend to be into all sorts of things, and above all I love films. All sorts. A few years ago I got really into film, it very quickly became my life and I broadened beyond mainstream films into the wonderful vast vault of goodies that is independent films. So as I started watching these lesser known films I realized that they were, as a whole, better than the mainstream Hollywood bullshit. Furthermore I believe whole-heartedly that the best big budget films are made by filmmakers that, at heart are like those indie directors, someone like George Lucas (pre-Phantom Menace). Or Chris Nolan who's films at their cores remain the same from his film-school short "Doodlebug" to "Following" "Memento" and "Inception" which I see as the evolution of one film. These sorts of directors are the people I admire, I really can't get enough of Nolan, and the constantly overlooked Louis Leterrier. Alas being a huge nerd I can't help but shelling out money to view the latest J.J. Abrams 2hr Star Wars demo-reel or Marvel's ever expanding and confusing cinematic universe. Why just last week I went to see the latest failed attempt to put Superman on film, a task that I am constantly being shown is virtually impossible. I'll watch any movie once, and then I'll most likely lecture my friends on everything wrong with it. So there you have it, stay tuned for the real show, I hope to keep you on the edge of your seat.