Been a long time since I published anything and I am glad that life has somewhat calmed down for me to write again. 2013 saw some major changes, I recently moved and now things have settled. In between work I was at least able to see some 'nerd' movies as my sister would say but what I was more surprised by was the trailers for next years movies that have sprout up. Let's start with the movies first.
The Tale of two Supermen movies.
This year we finally got another Superman movie, granted it was Man of Steel. While I enjoyed the movie I have to say I am not sure it was a Superman movie, at least it didn't feel like it to me. The cast did a great job, so did the director but for me (and what I am about to mention has been mentioned alot but I still think it rings true. Let's start by the character of superman, in most of the comics and incarnations Superman/Clark Kent/Kal El is the opposite of Batman at least with personality and motives. In man of steel he was Batman with blue spandex as opposed to black armor, which is fine I have no problems seeing Henry Cavill in tights or shirtless or naked. BUT I digress, the way the character was written just seemed off. I get it he's alone no one can relate to him (just like every other superhero movie) but the way he was written he is dark, moody, not sure what to do. This was a new take on Superman, but it wasn't a completely new take on the superhero movie. While being dark and moody works for some heroes it doesn't necessarily work for a man that claims his symbol is the symbol of hope, he was suppose to be the man of tomorrow. This works for Batman, this is a person who saw his parents get killed in front of him. He's depressed lost and not sure what to do initially. In Man of Steel, Clark learns where he came from from both his dad's and through archives from Krypton. That was the most enjoyable part for me, it was a revamping of the scene from the Christopher Reeve movies. Again this is an old tale of the confused hero, we had it in all of the batman movies, we had it in most of the spiderman movies we even got it in Thor, Captain America and even Iron Man. Superman is suppose to be different he is suppose to be the opposite of Batman, the opposite of the hero's who are willing to even kill to punish the villain.
Which brings up the differences of other Superman movies. In Man of Steel, Zod was different than the one in Superman 2 which was great. This Zod was still in the mindset of being a protector of Krypton, even by killing the ruling council of Krypton in the beginning. This wasn't done just for power, Zod felt that the planet that he was doomed by it's present leadership. So he took the action that he saw was the only solution for the survival of his people. After his imprisonment he realizes that Jor-El was right and Krypton was destroyed. So he tries to recreate Krypton, no matter the cost to Earth or any other planet, it just happened that Kal-El was on Earth and it was convenient to get the Codex from him and use the planet he's already on. BUT this is where Superman gets written poorly in my opinion, Superman, the defender of Truth and Justice and the American way (Is he still?) battles Zod and his army. In some ways it was reminiscent of the Superman 2 battle in metropolis except for a few items. First did Superman kill Zod in the Christopher reeve series, YES. Did he let metropolis get destroyed, no. In Superman 2 when Zod realized that Superman was trying to save the people of Metropolis Zod realized Superman's achilles heal, the compassion for the people of Earth. So Superman had to lure Zod and his minions to a place where no one could get hurt. In Man of Steel even after Superman destroys the terraforming device, Metroplis gets destroyed more and more. I get it we live in an age where there has to be spectacular destruction or violence for an audience of this day and age to understand the magnitude of the conflict. I felt the terraforming machine was enough but we still had to see more and more buildings topple down. It was awkward, it wasn't superman. Even in the Avengers the team evacuated and saved as many citizens as they could. In Man of steel he was to preoccupied. Even in the flawed Superman Returns movie, we still see Superman save the citizens of Gotham, we saw him make the extra effort even when he could have fought Lex sooner rather than later. In Man of Steel we only see Superman take it personally when a family is about to be vaporized by Zod's heat vision.
This movie was difficult for me to fathom that it was actually a Superman movie, there are other reasons but the reasons I just stated are the bigger items. This is what bothers me when it comes to the sequel that will feature Batman, why do we need two Superheroes who are dark and moody? Will they change Superman to fit the more accepted characteristics or will it really be about two of the same heroes who just wear different color clothing…
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