Man of Steel

[The Dark Knight]

Just speaking aloud here with a bullhorn and to no one inparticular.

Holding a majority of someone else's opinions isn't important to me in the slightest. Nor is box office gross. Just doesn't come into the equation. Batman Returns is my favourite of the Batman movies by far and that gets roasted from time to time. I disagree with the critics there too. There are millions of believers of various religions for example, and I'm an aetheist. I'm in the minority. But I'm no less 'right' or 'wrong' than those folks.

I am not much of a Supe fan (love soup though) and I'm definitely not an authority. But this film got my attention.  I'm pretty much the target audience for Man of Steel. Someone who barely remembers/appreciates/has baggage with the 1978 and 1980 film and wants a modern film. Someone who isn't interested in confusing, messing continuations ala Superman Returns. But hey, that film had Williams' score, so all is forgiven. Lol peace. 

[thecolorsblend]

I consider myself a major Superman fan. I'm definitely part of the MOS core audience. That's one reason I'm so happy right now. A very John Byrne-esque Superman is now part of the cultural zeitgeist. The movie is nearing the $600 million mark in terms of the worldwide gross. I understand your point about numbers not necessarily being representative of quality but at the same time you don't get to $600 million worldwide unless a crapload of people enjoy your product. It's one thing that the movie turned out so well. It's quite another when so many people love it too.

The critics adored Singerman, a film which I think is a stain on Superman and everything he stands for. The fact that they hated MOS told me that it was likely to be a movie I would appreciate. Without getting specific, I think a lot of comes down to ideology and worldview, things about which critics and I tend to be on completely different pages. Ergo, something that royally pisses off that many movie critics is probably going to be something I will enjoy.

[johnnygobbs]

I consider myself a major Superman fan. I'm definitely part of the MOS core audience. That's one reason I'm so happy right now. A very John Byrne-esque Superman is now part of the cultural zeitgeist. The movie is nearing the $600 million mark in terms of the worldwide gross. I understand your point about numbers not necessarily being representative of quality but at the same time you don't get to $600 million worldwide unless a crapload of people enjoy your product. It's one thing that the movie turned out so well. It's quite another when so many people love it too.

The critics adored Singerman, a film which I think is a stain on Superman and everything he stands for. The fact that they hated MOS told me that it was likely to be a movie I would appreciate. Without getting specific, I think a lot of comes down to ideology and worldview, things about which critics and I tend to be on completely different pages. Ergo, something that royally pisses off that many movie critics is probably going to be something I will enjoy.

A lot of people love the Transformers and Adam Sandler movies too...   Thankfully those damn liberal critics you seem to hate rightly call them out for the pieces of crap they are.

[thecolorsblend]

What's wrong with Transformers?

[Paul (ral)]

What's wrong with Transformers?

If you're talking about Michael Bay's films - there is a lot wrong with them!

[Edd Grayson]

I second that about Bayformers. The original show and Beast Wars are so much better.

[thecolorsblend]

What's wrong with Transformers?

If you're talking about Michael Bay's films - there is a lot wrong with them!

Let's hear it.

[Paul (ral)]

They depress me so much that I'm not going to dwell on them, however I will say.

The Transformers are secondary characters (and I use the word "characters" with a little hesitance - because they are at best non-dimensional and at worst indistinguishable from each other)

Too much focus is spent on humans to the point that it's their movie. It's all part of this strange idea in Hollywood that the audience needs a human to relate to - even if it's human characters who are useless, irritating and non-essential to the plot

The humour in the films is wholly inappropriate for the target audience - I cringed during most of Revenge of the Fallen

Basically they are films that I would not let my child sit through...and there is something quite wrong when that is the case

[thecolorsblend]

They depress me so much that I'm not going to dwell on them, however I will say.

The Transformers are secondary characters (and I use the word "characters" with a little hesitance - because they are at best non-dimensional and at worst indistinguishable from each other)

Too much focus is spent on humans to the point that it's their movie. It's all part of this strange idea in Hollywood that the audience needs a human to relate to - even if it's human characters who are useless, irritating and non-essential to the plot

The humour in the films is wholly inappropriate for the target audience - I cringed during most of Revenge of the Fallen

Basically they are films that I would not let my child sit through...and there is something quite wrong when that is the case

I can agree with a good bit of that. I get that big studios want these movies to appeal to a bunch of different audiences but few movies can be all things to all people. What a teenager/college kid thinks is cool in an action movie might well be something parents do want their children to have anything to do with.

And yeah, being indistinguishable from each other doesn't help much either. I'll agree with that. Part of me thinks it'd be a big help if the Autobots wore white cowboy hats and the Decepticons wore black hats. SOMETHING to at least identify which side is which. I'm not even asking to be able to identify a given character on sight. Just tell me which side they're on.

Apart from that though, I've heard some pretty odd criticisms of the movies. They're based on a cartoon which was itself based on a toy line. The cartoon was intended to market the toy line. The movies aren't much else than that. Why some people apparently went and expected some kind of Wes Anderson quirkfest is beyond me. I do see a lot of your complaints though.

[johnnygobbs]

Not all movies should be Wes Anderson quirkfests I agree, although I wouldn't personally object to a few more being so. 

However, franchise movies do not have to be as witless, incoherent and obnoxious as the live-action Transformers films.  The current spate of Marvel comic-book movies, not to mention the various non-Schumacher incarnations of Batman, and yes, even Man of Steel, are testament to that.

I echo all of Ral's criticisms and concur with colors regarding the confusion separating the Autobots and Decepticons.  If it's sometimes impossible to distinguish the 'goodies' from the 'baddies' how are you going to be able to distinguish between the members of the various factions?

The focus on the human-beings wouldn't be so bad if they weren't such an unlikeable, two-dimensional, clichéd bunch  lumbered with a stream of smug one-liners and short-lived pop-culture references masquerading as dialogue.  I won't even go into Bay's infamous and embarrassing use of racial stereotypes which he somehow manages to incorporate into extra-terrestrial robots.