Man of Steel Review - Spoiler Free

[palitoy]

i didn't understand the swears in Green Lantern either, i didn't take my kid because of that and some scenes i deemed too frightening.

[madmarva]

I agree a little more restraint could have been used with the profanity and violence and destruction both in MOS and GL and not really diminished the effect either director was attempting. In trying to capture the teen and 20-something audience, I think they creators are sometimes a bit shortsighted. Child tickets may be discounted, but they still count.

[rche]

As for the kids, there is a lot of super-powered fighting/violence that is pretty intense but not gory. People are in danger because there is destruction in the movie on a cataclysmic scale. And once the action starts rolling, there are no funny or cool little bits like in the Avengers to break the intensity. You could consider the movie a war film both on Krypton and Earth and everything that comes with that.

There are more than a few emotionally sad scenes that might be tougher to deal with than the violence. There is profanity, but not by Superman.

I'd say if you consider your child sensitive, you might want to watch it first. The movie is also 2 hrs and 20 or more minutes and from my experience that's always a consideration when taking a younger child to a movie.

It's rated PG-13 for a reason, but your child probably would find most of it cool.

Thanks. Exactly the kind of info I was looking for. Much appreciated. I think we will hold off on cinema Supes for a bit.

[Hector]

Awesome, more seats for me, lol.

[kingdom warrior]

Went to see it again Today with my 6 year old daughter. we sat back away from the screen, and she Loved it.....the Adult jokes went over her head, just like the adult jokes went over my head in the Batman TV show when i was a kid. All she saw was, Superman fighting and I also have taught my daughter, that movies are make believe not real and she already understands it.

[spacecaps]

Having just scene this movie, I can honestly say this movie ranks right up there with Ang Lee's Hulk, Spawn, and any of the Fantastic Four. If you like 40 minute video game like fight scenes (there are at least three of these), disjointed flashbacks (which are somehow the best part of the movie despite stopping the current story dead in it's tracks), a crap ton of CGI, and unrelatable/unlikeable characters then this movie is for you. The "S" doesn't stand for hope, it stands for "Sucks" because that is exactly what this movie does which is a shame since Russell Crowe was awesome, Kevin Costner was awesome (although the way they decided to kill Jonathan Kent in this one was laughably stupid), and Henry Cavill was awesome. Yet when all combined they made a two and a half hour headache of a movie. Michael Shannon, whom I like a lot, was awful. Amy Adams was Lois Lane, I guess. Lex Luthor and Jimmy Olson were absent. Perry White was played by Lawrence Fishburn who wore his Othello earring in some scenes!? If I didn't know Zach Snyder directed this thing, my guess would have been Michael Bay because this had every bit of Transformersesque explosions and destruction all over it. The unsaid death toll was most likely in the hundreds of thousands. The cost to repair the damage done during from the fights would be in the billions and yet Superman somehow saves the day. Eh? If Snyder is allowed to direct anything again after this, Superman or anything else, I'm not going to watch it because he is all things terrible. This is after all the guy that tried and failed terribly at making Watchman.

As for having kids go see this, my son has seen a lot of movies. Some of which he shouldn't have. He's caught parts of the Walking Dead, Dexter, and The Terminator and not even flinched while watching it but there were scenes in this movie (Clark discovering Xray vision and the VERY FIRST SCENCE OF THE MOVIE come to mind) that made him bury his head in my chest because to a 7 year old, the images shown during these scenes were pants-sheetingly terrifying. The Dark Knight was more geared toward children than this movie and that film included the Joker stab-murdering a guy with a pencil, burning a guy alive on-top a pile of money, turning Harvey Dent into the living embodiment of Skeletor, and blowing up not Katie Holmes. Also, they could have called this movie the Passion of The Christ because the Superman is Jesus/Zod is the Devil motif is about as subtle as being clubbed over the head with a baseball bat. Now I realize this sounds kind of harsh but honestly, it's the nicest thing I can say about this train wreck.

[emeraldknight47]

Don't hold back, spacecaps, tell us how you REALLY felt, buddy!

[B-Lister]

The numbers speak for themselves. And the criticism for Fishburne as Perry White is a non issue. This isn't a Superman comic, it is a Superman movie. A secondary character's race is not important.

[spacecaps]

Don't hold back, spacecaps, tell us how you REALLY felt, buddy!

The funny thing is, I didn't read anything anyone else wrote on this thread other than page 5 when I wrote that. I'm sure there are others that feel similar about this movie too. I'm just calling it like I see it. Of course I'm typing this on a mostly pro-super hero movie forum so I'm sure those who like it will outweigh those who didn't here. Make no mistake about it though, I didn't just dislike this movie, I detested it. If I didn't go with my father and my son, I would have left before it was over. I wanted to like it, I really did but for all the reasons I mentioned, it just didn't work.

As for "numbers" if your referring to how much this film made, well that's cause it's a huge summer blockbuster so of course people will go see it and will make all of the money for a time but the amount of money a film makes doesn't validate the quality of a film, just go ask the Phantom Menace how that worked out. My biggest gripe was that this movie wasn't fun. It took itself too seriously. There's "dark" and there's "gritty" but this movie is more "heavy" and "preachy" than anything else. It reminded me of the first Hulk movie through and through.

[B-Lister]

People are loving it and the negative reviews, while there, are far outweighed by the positive. I am sorry you didn't like it, but it is a good movie and I cannot wait to see it again.

[Ivaniski]

As a big Superman fan, I have to say that i tried to really like this film.....However, I left the theater very disappointed. To me this movie was like Superman meets Star Wars with elements of a Michael Bay production. Spoiler: How do you go from an infant Clark Kent to a bearded Clark Kent as the screen transitions to another scene (The flash backs were all over the place; should've been in better chronological order). Here's another one....After Jonathan Kent gets the "Wizard of OZ" treatment we see him again in a later Flashback....Why? I had some major gripes with this film. However, i'll reserve them at this time. I would like to mention something about the flying scenes. Why are you flying at about Mach 1 when you're just learning how to fly, and why are you flying in the style of "Thor"....Takes off and all you see is like a flash trail....I couldn't appreciate Superman's flying because.....just like the fight scenes it was just too fast and Erratic . To me seeing Superman fly in different stages of a film is a thing of beauty....in this film it looks like a 20 year old using Photoshop w/ after effects handled those scenes which were mostly CGI. Sorry, But Superman was not Super in this film. Oh, and the cuffs on the sleeves have to go!!! I'll stick with George Reeves and Chris Reeve's version of big Blue. Just my opinion..............Ivaniski

[B-Lister]

I don't care who hates it. It's a good movie. I can't stand the Donner movies, so to each his own.

Find what you like and watch it instead. This is the best Superman movie I have seen.

[suspense39]

Just came back from seeing it, I was entertained. I though Lois was miscast and the fight scenes went so long they actually started to become boring. I went with very low expectations and left satisfied.

[mego maniac mark]

Saw it yesterday and thought it was top notch. It's the superman movie we all wanted for a long time. For those who do not care for it or nitpick it , that's all well and good. But this is a spectacle like we have never seen with one of the greats. His powers are on full display and the movie was put together quite well IMO.

[MIB41]

After all of the examination, I felt Man of Steel got more right than wrong. I enjoyed the backstory on Krypton. And I liked the fact Snyder depicted Krypton as something more than a sterile surface on the Death Star. I liked the fact we didn't have to sit through two hours in the swaying wheat fields of Smallville while Clark grew up. And I liked that the movie focused on Suprman more than Clark's domesticated life at the Daily Planet with Lois not seeing the obvious. All of those aspects were welcome improvements which I enjoyed. While Johnathan's death and the various law of physics violations took me out the story briefly, I did enjoy the rumble in the jungle between Superman and Zod. Hollywood has always had an odd restraint on letting Superman cut loose. And just like the Avengers finally got the Hulk right by letting him simply "smash". To some degree, I can apply that same idea to Superman here. We finally got to see him tear loose. So while I didn't agree with all of the treatment, I can say, without question, Superman did finally clear that initiation hurdle with his origin. So we can NOW get down to the business of seeing new and more in depth stories about Superman and his gallery of foes. Welcome back Superman. You've been away too long.