Man of Steel
26/06/13 Filed in: Cinema
I keep referring to Orange Wednesday, but of course it's now EE Wednesday, but that doesn't quite have the same ring to it.
Today it was Man of Steel. I remember being bowled over by the original Superman film with Christopher Reeves. In 1978 the 'special' effects were ground-breaking, and impressive. As they said at the time, "you'll really believe that a man can fly." We've long since absorbed this type of effect and these days it's difficult to be surprised by people 'flying', and by whole cities being reduced to wastelands. So while these things were present in today's film, it needed more to differentiate itself. I was however impressed by the inclusion of sonic booms and shock waves as he broke the sound barrier - nice touch.
For the women the differentiation was no doubt provided by Henry Cavill, who even from a male perspective was, I must admit, certainly up to the job. But us males weren't short-changed, since Amy Adams is playing Lois Lane.
Fan worship aside, I liked how this version was structured. Clark Kent's job at the Daily Planet only came at the end, and we instead saw him in a number of jobbing roles as he came to terms with his identity, and his uniqueness, and the childhood years were presented in flashbacks triggered by events in this adult life. Russell Crowe was great as his father and the demise of Krypton, and the reasons for this, were I thought described in more detail and more convincingly in this version.
Today it was Man of Steel. I remember being bowled over by the original Superman film with Christopher Reeves. In 1978 the 'special' effects were ground-breaking, and impressive. As they said at the time, "you'll really believe that a man can fly." We've long since absorbed this type of effect and these days it's difficult to be surprised by people 'flying', and by whole cities being reduced to wastelands. So while these things were present in today's film, it needed more to differentiate itself. I was however impressed by the inclusion of sonic booms and shock waves as he broke the sound barrier - nice touch.
For the women the differentiation was no doubt provided by Henry Cavill, who even from a male perspective was, I must admit, certainly up to the job. But us males weren't short-changed, since Amy Adams is playing Lois Lane.
Fan worship aside, I liked how this version was structured. Clark Kent's job at the Daily Planet only came at the end, and we instead saw him in a number of jobbing roles as he came to terms with his identity, and his uniqueness, and the childhood years were presented in flashbacks triggered by events in this adult life. Russell Crowe was great as his father and the demise of Krypton, and the reasons for this, were I thought described in more detail and more convincingly in this version.
The fact that Superman takes Lois Lane into his confidence is a break with tradition, but the trust built up between them at the outset provided a good plot line. I think this worked better than the usual Lois 'trying to discover who he is' approach, which to my mind has always been a weakness in the Superman story given that Clark and him are so obviously the same person that it portrays Lois in particular as a bit naïve.
He doesn't wear his red pants over his trousers in this version, so we lose that euphemism that is often used in the negative to describe somebody who has an impossible task to carry out. And there's no quick changes in call boxes or anywhere else for that matter. In fact early in the film he does his Superman stuff in civilian dress. So, all in all some holy cows of the genre have been discarded, and I suppose this is one thing that marks out this version from earlier ones.
To my mind we could have survived without quite as much special effect mayhem, but this type of thing seems to be expected nowadays. I wouldn't like to put a price tag on the cost of rebuilding Metropolis and one might think that the population would have preferred that Superman went somewhere else to have his scraps. I know, I know, it's only a film !
In the final analysis I enjoyed it and would certainly recommend it.
He doesn't wear his red pants over his trousers in this version, so we lose that euphemism that is often used in the negative to describe somebody who has an impossible task to carry out. And there's no quick changes in call boxes or anywhere else for that matter. In fact early in the film he does his Superman stuff in civilian dress. So, all in all some holy cows of the genre have been discarded, and I suppose this is one thing that marks out this version from earlier ones.
To my mind we could have survived without quite as much special effect mayhem, but this type of thing seems to be expected nowadays. I wouldn't like to put a price tag on the cost of rebuilding Metropolis and one might think that the population would have preferred that Superman went somewhere else to have his scraps. I know, I know, it's only a film !
In the final analysis I enjoyed it and would certainly recommend it.