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infectedworldmind · 7 years ago

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On a fine day last week month in New Haven, I was talking comics on twitter with some friends while waiting for my train to move. The topic was DC Comics’ decision to reintroduce the Huntress (a female vigilante) as a woman with brown skin. If you’ve been following DC’s rebooted New 52 universe, you’ll know that the Huntress was originally re introduced as the daughter of Batman and Catwoman from a parallel universe. This new version of the character is an updated take on Helena Bertinelli, the daughter of a mob boss familiar to both fans of the DC universe that preceded the new 52 and fans of the Arrow television show.

Meghan Hetrick-Murante’s Huntress

Helena Wayne Huntress (George Perez)

Classic Huntress (Thomas Castillo)

Arrow Huntress (Jessica de Gouw)

This decision closely followed DC’s decision to reintroduce Wally West (a character who was Caucasian in earlier incarnations) as an African American. During the conversation, a good friend of mine expressed some concern about DC’s decision to fundamentally change existing characters and mournfully noted that reboots mean that no one ever exists anyway. The comment reminded me that I’ve felt disconnected from DC titles since it’s recent reboot, which led her to suggest that we still feel an emotional connection to the characters even though we all say ‘follow creators not characters’.

On a recent episode of Wait, What?, Graeme and Jeff discussed Jeff’s superhero/adventure comic ennui. (Editor’s Note: This is the best comics podcast since that other one. Become a patron via Patreon.) During the conversation, Graeme suggested that one of the reasons that Jeff found it hard to maintain interest in superhero and adventure comics not published by Marvel and DC was that he didn’t have an emotional/nostalgic connection to the characters in the book. Although Jeff’s lack of interest seemed to be driven by evolving genre preferences and his concern that the superhero/adventure books were part of a broader brand marketing strategy designed to separate readers from their cash, something about Graeme’s suggestion resonated with my own experience. I enjoy a number of the superhero and adventure books published by Image, Dark Horse, Valiant and Dynamite, but I tend to drop (or lose interest in) these titles far more frequently than lesser titles published by Marvel and DC. I love Fred van Lente and Jeff Parker, but frequently have to remind myself to pick up their non-big two superhero books.

Since I became a regular superhero comics reader again in the mid aughts, I’ve been more interested in creators and creative teams than individual characters. I’ve also banged the ‘creators over characters’ drum to everyone I knew who read superhero books. At the same time, I have to admit that I would be more entertained by a great story featuring a Superman analogue if it actually featured Superman. I’m more likely to buy a pretty good X-Men book than a fantastic issue of Harbinger, Valiant’s answer to the X-Men. Does this complicate (or undermine) the idea that creators should be more important than characters?

I don’t think it does. First, I don’t think that my interest in Superman stories necessarily implies any loyalty towards ‘Superman’ as a character or brand. I respect people who love the characters as characters, but sometimes that love looks an awful lot like simple brand loyalty. If someone is into Spider Man because the character’s story and values resonate with something in their lives, that’s great for them. It’s not the equivalent of self-identifying as a Cap’n Crunch super fan. But it’s hard to ignore the fact that the media conglomerate that owns Spider Man views people who identify as Spider-Man qua Spider Man fans as the “fiends they’re accustomed to serving“.

When I say I love Superman, I’m expressing fondness for stories featuring the character that explore the themes we associate with the Superman narrative. I’m interested in how stories by Greg Pak and Aaron Kuder or Geoff Johns and John Romita, Jr. resonate with earlier stories by creative teams as varied as Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, Mark Waid and Leinil Yu, John Byrne or Elliott Maggin and Curt Swan. I don’t care if “Superman” is married or single. I don’t care if “Wolverine” dies, but I am interested in how a story by Paul Cornell and Ryan Stegman build on a prior story by Jason Aaron and Ron Garney and an even earlier set of stories by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller in a fictional universe with tighter continuity. When I’m faced with a choice between X-Men and Harbinger, I don’t think that I’m simply expressing loyalty to my favorite brand if I choose X-Men.

I value those stories, but also recognize that the people behind them are more valuable.

An Aside: I guess that’s why I was surprised by my general lack of interest in DC’s most recent reboot. I’ve always been able to roll with the punches in the past, but there’s something about this one that leaves me cold, and it’s not just because most of the books aren’t any good. I know that all reboots are driven by a mix of commercial (expand the audience by making the books accessible to new readers) and creative (give storytellers opportunities to tell stories unburdened by decades of continuity) reasons, but the New 52 (which was preceded by two other recent reboots) just felt like more of a pure marketing campaign, the end-result of an ambitious junior executive’s corporate synergy strategy.

When I tell people to value creators more than characters, I’m trying to express a simple idea: people are more important than property, even if the property is entertaining. It’s not supposed to serve as a blanket condemnation of readers who enjoy books featuring their favorite Marvel or DC character or who have some emotional connection to the characters. It’s more of a friendly (and easily misunderstood) reminder that storytellers are more important. A nudge to get readers to think more about creators and question the degree to which we’ve aligned our perspective on the art form with that of media corporations and become shareholders with no equity. But I’m not sure that’s a good enough explanation. What do I really mean when I argue that creators are more important than characters?

A. You Should Buy This, Not That: The ‘creator over character’ credo is intended to guide consumer behavior in a ‘positive’ direction by encouraging readers to sample unfamiliar work and in a ‘negative’ direction by suggesting that they refrain from buying and reading books that they don’t like. The latter is the tougher sell. Telling people to buy something new is just a recommendation, but advising that they stop buying a book sounds more like bullying or nagging. It’s also asking readers of superhero comics to abandon the time-honored practice of reading books they hate featuring characters they love. I say ‘they’, but I can just as easily say ‘we’, because it’s taken me a long time to break the habit of reading books after the great creative team that brought me to the book either leaves or breaks up. I’ve stuck around on books after the artist half of the creative team that first attracted me to the title departed and after great writers were replaced by a series of journeymen. When I was a kid, I persevered because I wanted to keep up with the things that were going on in the imaginary lives of my favorite fictional characters. I loved the good stories but tolerated the bad ones as a plot development delivery system. I never had a problem with picking up unfamiliar projects by my favorite creators, but I found it difficult to drop books about characters I loved after I lost interest in the writing and/or the art. I was the one who kept reading Fanastic Four after John Byrne left and Daredevil after Ann Nocenti departed. It was a joyless exercise that made me a “well informed” reader with ambivalent (borderline cynical) feelings about the genre.

My dilemma was typical for readers of my generation of readers, who were known for borderline obsessive-compulsive collecting habits. Some bought everything for reasons similar to mine, and others did so because they wanted a complete set of a particular title (or group of titles) or because they viewed the books as an investment. In traditional narratives about the comics industry, these habits eventually destabilized the market place and led to the infamous speculative bubble in the direct comics market during the late 1980’s and ’90’s. This story rests on the assumption that the marketplace was ever particularly stable, but that’s a discussion for another day. Anyway, I got older and my interests broadened. I couldn’t afford to keep buying books that I didn’t really enjoy. As I went through the process of pruning my pull list, I came to the pretty obvious realization that my views on the state of the genre and the medium improved when I limited my purchases to books that I like by creative teams who were doing interesting work. It’s like any medium – when you cut out the mediocre pap (however you choose to define that), everything feels like a new Golden Age. I’ve always suspected that the market for superhero comic books was distorted by the buying habits of consumers who picked up books that they didn’t like, and it would be very interesting to see how the market responds when/if consumers reveal their true preferences.

The only thing that complicates the idea of telling people to stop buying books they don’t really like is that some readers are simply more interested in Marvel and/or DC’s vast narratives than comic books. I used to get annoyed by this, but its just what happens when the two biggest comics publishers are primarily interested in transmedia brand management. Marvel is (understandably) focused on building an audience for the different versions of the Marvel Universe, whether in comic book, video game or film/television form. DC is… I don’t really know what DC is doing. In any event, there’s some nontrivial portion of the readership for both publishers that aren’t actually comic book fans. I still think that subgroup would have a better experience if they followed the creators that they liked in their fictional universe of choice, but I imagine that they have become comfortable with viewing the storytellers as interchangeable cogs. If you don’t mind Branagh departing the Thor franchise, you’ll probably be okay with Warren Elllis and Declan Shalvey exiting Moon Knight.

B. You Should Think Differently About Superhero Comics: We spend too much time talking about the plot of superhero comics and too little about the creative choices made by the storytellers. We still compare runs on an individual title when we should focus more of our attention on the dialogue between a creative team’s run on a title and other work by members of the team. I think that the relationship between Brian Bendis’ run on the X-books and Bendis’ previous work with John Romita jr. on the Avengers or between Bachalo’s work on X-Men and his collaboration with Zeb Wells on Amazing Spider Man is far more interesting than the one between Bendis and Bachalo’s book and the preceding run by Kieron Gillen, Carlos Pacheco, Greg Land and Nick Bradshaw.

If the average consumer identified storytellers as the source of meaning and value in superhero comics, we might be more inclined to think and talk about structure, rhythm and theme instead of plot developments. We might spend more time searching for the artistry in a book and less speculating about plot twists. Sometimes we criticize critics for not helping audiences understand the unique visual vocabulary of comics, but if audiences viewed superhero titles as more than delivery systems for the adventures of their favorite characters, the demand for that kind of discussion might increase. It would be a response to the limits of the now-standard critical approach of viewing Marvel/DC titles as components of a vast narrative, which tends to set the product line (or even a family of titles) as the boundary of the story instead of the individual series or issue. It’s fun to explore how large scale collaborative authorship is practiced in Marvel and DC, but that focus can sometimes lead us to deemphasize the individual comic (or run by a specific creative team) as a discrete creative product.

C. You Should Recognize That People Are More Important Than Property: This is the simplest and most important reason why we should value storytellers more than characters. It’s the refrain that came to mind every time I read comment threads (I know, that’s my own fault) on articles about publisher/creator disputes or about retired creators who had significant financial and/or health care issues. Although some would express support for the creators involved, there was always a contingent of commenters who used the thread as a forum to cosplay as free market quasi-libertarian economists. They would argue that creators should be satisfied with the compensation that they received at the time the character was created, regardless of whether the contract was adhesive or unconscionable or whether the creator (believed that they had) retained reversion rights. They would argue that a creator’s heirs were being selfish for pursuing claims on behalf of the estate. I wasn’t bothered by their ignorance of economic theory and contract and intellectual property law. If we silenced everyone who talked about things they didn’t understand on the internet, there would be very few conversations. It was the lack of empathy, the ease with which people dismissed the sins of the past and the struggles of retired storytellers. These readers were primarily concerned with getting their superhero comics fix and afraid that a successful lawsuit would interrupt their supply or that hard-luck stories about creators would sour their reading experience.

My disgust at these comments is offset by the sense that publishers have contributed to this mindset. Every time someone wished that the heirs of the Siegel or Kirby estate would just go away, I was reminded that most fans’ views on creators rights and intellectual property are perfectly aligned with the financial interests of the industry’s largest publishers. It’s the natural result of the companies’ strategy of convincing fans that the people creating the projects they love are superstars and interchangeable. Publishers will give storytellers ‘fun’ nicknames, refer to them as architects and spin elaborate tales of happy bullpens, but creators are replaceable (especially if they’re the penciller, inker, colorist or letterer. Why yes, comics are a visual medium, why do you ask?). They want us to think that the team working on our favorite books are the greatest until they depart and are replaced by another team that is the greatest. A reader who cares more about the publisher’s characters than the people who tell the stories is a more loyal customer. If that same reader valued the storytellers more than the publisher’s brands, it’s less likely that their perspective on the industry will be perfectly aligned with the large publishers.

Why I Might Be Completely Misguided (Avoiding Epistemic Closure): I’d love to believe that a fanbase that adjusted the comparative value of creators and characters would be more willing to engage with the realities behind the production of their favorite comics. The problem is that this idea relies on the assumption that we (the community of readers) share a common set of prior beliefs. The community of readers is politically diverse and includes economic conservatives and libertarians who are naturally inclined to embrace a media corporation’s perspective. These readers are less likely to sympathize with the plight of an older creator with health concerns or be troubled by the sordid history of superhero comic publishers. Adjusting the comparative value of characters and storytellers may make some difference, but it isn’t a panacea.

I also can’t ignore the possibility that my expectations are unreasonably high. Most consumers of culture don’t spend much time thinking about the artists who create the culture or the conditions under which it is produced, particularly if it is created through a collaborative process and is owned by a media corporation. We talk about the cult of the show runner in American television, but no one talks or cares about (and I’d bet that few even know the identities of) the show runners behind the most popular shows like the Big Bang theory or one of the interchangeable CSI shows. I’d bet that few people even know who they are. Some people want their entertainment to be the amusing/stimulating stuff that fills the gaps of their lives. Would it be fair to expect them to do more? Maybe not. Maybe the best that we can do is to occasionally remind them how the sausage is made and offer an alternative way of looking at the industry/culture.

If you don’t read superhero comic books, I could understand why you’d feel like the superhero books published by Marvel and DC have never felt less relevant to the future of comics culture or the conversation about comics. That might be true, but the superhero books published by Marvel and DC account for a significant share of the direct and digital market and many of the high-profile creators that help make the ‘independent’ scene economically viable got their start (or are still working for) one of the ‘Big Two’. Both publishers and their respective readers still matter, and adjusting the perspective (and buying habits) of the readers is a necessary component of industry reform, whether we’re looking for more diversity or better deals for creators.

The bottom line? Whether you’re a fan of superheroes as media properties or cultural symbols or vast narratives or simply as a genre of comic books, you should recognize that the books are a product of the creative vision of those who make the book, not the company that publishes it and that we should value them more. And readers like me need to do a better job of stepping outside of our comfort zone by buying Harbinger instead of X-Men.

Storytellers Up, Characters Down (If Superheroes Can’t Swim, They’re Bound to Drizown…) On a fine day last week month in New Haven, I was talking comics on twitter with some friends while waiting for my train to move.

#DC Comics

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amateurfan227 · 7 years ago

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Shitlist Reviews - Man of Steel (2013)

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen, I’m Amateur Fan 2.27 and welcome back to the Shitlist, where bad movies burn, this movie has been going on my mind for a good couple of years since it’s official release back in 2013 and especially since the arrival of multiple sequels as well as a spin off relating to events from the first sequel.

The movie I’m talking about is the reboot of an American hero that appeased the eyes of many including yours truly, Man of Steel; as a movie itself, there are a lot of negative reviews towards it which is surprising as several Marvel movies from the MCU are complete garbage which have none-sensed villains as well as plots that have either been used before or not been thought clearly.

Before I start the main review including the production history I’m going to bring a full statement which would cover the review entirely on why I think this movie is the perfect example of Superman’s Origin as well as the fact that everybody seems to miss out on important moments of the Superman mythology, including the story from Clark Kent becoming Superman which is based on the comics (both old and new).

I’ve seen countless reviews on this especially on the Nostalgia Critic’s review where I strongly disagree with him on major parts, which takes my side over towards Angry Joe who defends in on multiple barriers, especially as the movie is based towards emotion on the character as well as the moral standards of the superhero entirely... something which has surfaced on the internet a couple of weeks ago.

I’ve also watched the first 2 movies to cover this though the second movie from the 80’s will be reviewed later after this review but definitely before BVS (which will be done next year at most) and I’ve got some major problems with the Donner versions which might trigger a couple of original fans... I also reviewed the first movie as well and to be honest, it’s a great movie but suffers from heavy flaws.

I will cover all this in the review as well as the story towards Superman is a pretty dark one as well, for those who don’t know the origin of the Man of Steel, Kal-El was the last survivor of the planet called Krypton before it blew-up from within due to an unknown reason which caused his parents, (scientists) to send him to Earth as it has a similar and breathable atmosphere to theirs though with a potential problem as Our planet has a more younger sun which would grant him the powers he possesses.

And with this said, the movie focuses straight on it, as well as a creative way on how General Zod wants to eradicate Jor-El as well as his own heir, as well as the technology the Kryptonians use for the Phantom Zone; the addition of Lois Lane as well as the Daily Planet, the addition to the Military as well as the main aspect of the character development on Clark Kent.

What I love about this movie is the character development that people seem to look over, especially when it comes towards Clark Kent as it’s more of a story driven towards his actions with other characters and his discovery on his new born powers and abilities, and the idea towards his morals on judgement against the others. The idea towards it makes him more human which I admire the most, almost like he is more human than the other superheroes from the DC universe.

One more thing that I find interesting about this movie is Zack Snyder’s direction towards the main character as making him more emotional towards his fight between humanity as well as his other Kryptonians including Zod which makes an intriguing direction towards his faith in humans. Including the most notable scene of the feature which is Zod’s demise which everyone hates towards how it was performed, I will get into that later on in the review which I praised for Kal’s humane action towards it.

Aside from the appraisal of the movie I found problems that might have the opposite effect, such as some of the science in the feature most notably the fact that the Kryptonians were focused on terraforming the Earth, granted that was an interesting idea but effecting the earth’s gravity would cause more damage than what was seen especially for the amount of time that was given in the film.

The idea of having the atmospheres of Krypton and Earth were interesting ideas but raised a question on what would happen to Lois’s biology when she entered the ship as well as Kal’s.

Another question I would give is the main explanation behind the cloning process of birth towards the Kryptonians as they had to take samples from ‘the core’ skull, would that suggest that they’ve never had the ability to fully populate in the most mature form of pure birth instead of cloning their own DNA?

Another question behind that is what was the coming of the war that Zod was bringing up before the destruction of Krypton as he had other motives to suggest that they were being attacked rather than just being blown up; along with that is the crime Zod was really responsible for when he forced his way into the Academy of Science.

Another thing that had got me confused was the messages that Jonathan Kent was bringing Clark towards his moral standing when he was growing up, I managed to watch those scenes a couple of times and in its defence, I believe it’s his way of expressing his emotions towards his adoptive son when Clark discovers his true heritage, and when he comes towards his teenage adolescence which makes him question his own morals aside from Jonathans...

Aside from the minor references as well as the product placements, it was a pretty harmless movie which told the story of the Man of Steel that many were looking for, though it was heavily debated to be the worst of DC which is questioning as they brought us atrocities such as Steel, Catwoman, Batman and Robin and most strangest of all, Superman IV: A Quest for Peace.

I thought the movie itself is similar to the morals from other character standing points such as idolising the hero as Jesus which does get on a lot of people’s nerves for all the wrong reasons and in some cases it does get on mine as well but in different movies with different perspectives such as Neo in the Matrix series.

For the reason why I prefer this movie towards the others is simple but very difficult to explain, this is more of a coming of age story of the Superman mythology rather than an a simple origin movie towards his status especially following inspiration from reboots in comics such as the World One Superman as well as the new 52 series which is heavily influenced on the movie due to its science-fiction feel as a superhero movie.

The movie was more toned towards true believers with new comers as well towards the Superman franchise as well which I applaud and bring Zack Snyder in the idea of rebooting the series is a pretty interesting idea by far due to his recreation of the impossible, look at the Watchmen for example, granted some parts of it weren’t able to come through such as the message of the Watchmen (which is explained more in the comic) as well as ending...

I applaud the idea of having him in the director’s chair of both Man of Steel and Batman Vs Superman for his outlook on the heroes and sending different messages towards their own sense of morality as well as giving fans the impossible, movies that we (the fans) were refused, but seeing him away from the movie Justice League is understandable which I pray for his family as well as his friends... (Sorry Zack).

Aside from this Man of Steel is possibly the best recreation of Superman that we needed, the movie that we deserved as it’s the movie that brought us hope aside from rage and self-satisfaction. Aside from all the input I’ve placed in the paragraphs above, though some of the facts that I’ve repressed will be explored later on in the review at hand; now for the usual routine, time for the production history which is an interesting one at that.

Man of Steel was produced by Legendary Pictures, DC Entertainment, Syncopy Inc (Christopher Nolan’s private company) and Cruel and Unusual Films (Zack Snyder’s Company) and was developed through Warner Bros. Pictures; featured as the first movie toward the DC Extended Universe (with Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad to follow) the movie was written by David S. Goyer, who brought us the Dark Knight Trilogy.

Previous development started in 2008 after Warner Bros. Took pitches from multiple writers and directors in attempt to revamp the franchise to a modern day audience; though in 2009 a court ruling sided with Jerry Siegel’s family (one of the two creators of Superman) to retain the rights to Superman’s origins and Siegel’s copyright.

The decision stated that Warner Bros. didn’t owe the families additional support from the previous incarnations but if they didn’t begin production before the end of 2011, the Shuster (Joe Shuster, the second creator) and Siegel estates would be able to sue for due to no revenue on an unproduced movie. Though Christopher Nolan pitched the idea from Goyer after story discussion on the Dark Knight Rises which lead to Snyder being the film’s director in October 2010 leading filming to start in August 2011 in West Chicago, Illinois before moving to Vancouver and Plano, Illinois.

In June of 2008, Warner Bros. took pitches from comic-book writers and directors on how to restart the Superman film series, which lead to Grant Morrison to state “I told them, it’s not that bad. Just treat Superman Returns as the Ang Lee Hulk” which is interesting to mention as both of them are different concepts, one is an Alien who’s praised as a hero as the other is a metaphor of the destruction of gamma radiation...

In August of the same year, Warner Bros. Suggest a complete reboot of the franchise as Studio executive Jeff Rebinov explained “Superman Returns didn’t quite work as a film in the way that we wanted to. It didn’t position the character the way he needed to be positioned.” Paul Levitz stated in an interview that Batman held the key to the reboot stating “Everyone is waiting for Nolan to sign on for another Batman, once that happens, the release date for Superman and all other projects will follow.

August of 2009 arrives leading a court ruling in Jerry Siegel’s family to capture 50% of the rights to the origins and the share of the copyright to Action Comics #1, the reset is above for further information.

The plot of Man of Steel employs a nonlinear narrative to the character as well as exploring more of the story in flashbacks; during story discussions for The Dark Knight Rise in 2008, Goyer told Nolan his idea towards Superman being presented in a modern day world on how we would react if there was an alien on our world; This impression Nolan leading him to pitch the idea to the studio causing him to produce the film with Goyer to write it following the major success on The Dark Knight.

Robinov, Present of Warner Bros. Pictures Group spoke to Entertainment Weekly and allowed a peek over the wall surrounding DC Comics plans, which included references to other heroes alluding possibilities of expanding it towards a larger universe; casting for the film were debated towards Robert Zemeckis (back to the future) Matt Reeves and Tony Scott until casting came down to Zack Snyder who confirmed that Booster Gold and Batman references were placed in the film.

Filming began in 2011 on August 1st in an industrial park near DuPage Airport under the name Autumn Frost; Snyder expressed reluctance to shooting it in 3-d due to technical limitations of the format and chose to shoot the movie two-dimensionally and convert the film into 3-D in post production. He also chose to shoot the movie on film instead of digitally because it would make the movie, “a big movie experience”.

Filming was estimated between 2-3 months which lead to production to take place in Plano, Illinois on August 22nd to 29th, According to Michael Shannon during an interview, filming would continue the following year, Man of Steel filming in the Chicago area, California and Burnaby’s Mammoth Studios was transformed to Superman’s home planet of Krypton as well as mixed extraterrestrial aircrafts. Metro lands on Vancouver’s North Shore waterfront hosted for the oil-rig scene which introduces the character.

Ucluelet and Nanaimo of British Columbia feature in the movie leading the remainder of the movie to take place in the Chicago Loop from September 7-17.

The design of the suit gathered everybody’s attention which was redesigned by James Acheson and Michael Wilkinson; the costume preserves the colour scheme greatly with the S Logo but adopts darker tones which removes the addition of the red trunks that’s usually worn by the hero, Snyder and the producers attempts to devise a suit with the red trunks but it couldn’t match the fit of the tone in the film.

Acheson was tasked in designing the suits while Wilkinson would finish development when he designed the other characters costumes which leads to other problems; as for General Zod, due to the substantial weight a practical suit would yield, the Kryptonian armour for the villain was created through CGI in order to give Shannon freedom of movement.

John “DJ” Desjardin served as the visual Supervisor for the feature with Weta Digital, MPC and Double Negative providing visual effects for the movie as Snyder wanted the movie to “appear natural because there are some very fantastical things in there and he wanted people to suspend their disbelief”.

For the first act of the movie that took place on Krypton, Weta Digital placed alien-like planet environments, creatures and the principal means of display using technology called liquid geometry; Weta Digital Supervisor Dan Lemmon explains, “It’s a bunch of silver beads that are suspended through a magnetic field, and the machine is able to control that magnetic field so that the collection of beads behave almost like three-dimensional pixels, and they can create a surface that floats in the air an describes whatever the thing is you’re supposed to be seeing.

The sequences where Superman utilizes close-combat fight scenes with the other Kryptonians proved to be a major challenge for the filmmakers and visual effects crew; Desjardin explained “When we do these fights and these hyper-real things, we don’t want to do the traditional, ‘OK I’m a cameraman, I’m shooting a clean plate, I’m going to pan over here to follow the action that’s not really there yet but we’ll put the action in later’ Because that’s us animating the characters to the camera.”

“So we would do that Animation with the characters- grappling, punching or flying away-and we would take the real guys up until the point until they were supposed to do that and we’d cut. Then we’d put an environment camera there and take the environment; and then a camera for reference of the actors and get each moment. So then we had a set of high-res stills for the environment and the characters. Then, in post, we take the digi-doubles and animate them according to the speeds we want them to move in our digital environment”.

MPC handled the visual effects for the Smallville scene, before providing the effects; the shots were previsualized for the fight choreography. After the previsualizations, live action portions of the scene would be filmed in small pieces a camera rig would then obtain key frames of the choreographed actor.

On set a camera rig was used to capture the environment of the sequenced, dubbed ‘enviro-cam’, the visual effects crew would mount a Canon EOS 5D and a motorized nodal head, allowing the crew to capture the environment at the 360-degree angle with 55k resolution for every show, the process would take a minimum of 2 to 4 minutes. The set capture resulted in lighting and textures that could be reprojected onto geometry.

Full-screen digital doubles were a major component for the fighting sequences. Digital armour was also added along with the energy-based Kryptonian helmets. Cyberscan and FACS were conducted with the actors and polarized and non-polarized reference photos were taken, Superman’s cape and costume were scanned in high detail- the cape in particular became direct extensions of Superman’s Actions.

For the scenes involving the terraforming of Metropolis, Double Negative took over the visual effects for the sequence. In order to construct a Metropolis that seemed convincing and realistic, Double Negative utilized Esri’s (Environmental Systems Research Institute) CityEngine to help procedurally deliver the city. For the destruction of the buildings, the studio rewrote its own asset system to focus towards its dynamic events. The Bullet physics software was a powerful component for the utilization of the destruction; Fire, smoke and water stimulation tools were provided by Double Negative studios which transitioned between the existing propriety volumes rendering software to rendering in Mantra for elements such as fireball Sims.

The movie was released with a budget of $225 million dollars and received almost 3 times its original budget back in the box office and premiered at the Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall in New York City on June 10th 2013, which featured the attendance of the principal cast members, with a wide release on June 14th.

Marketing for the film gave a more interesting action towards the movie especially on its website which had deep space radio waves which had different messages which were translated for the You Are Not Alone speech from the film.

Critical reception was mixed from critics and the public, on Rotten Tomatoes gave it an unfair advantage by giving it 55% stating that it was a generic blockbuster movie and the same for Metacritic, the critics blamed it mostly on the reboot as it was expressing the discovery of Clark going through the characteristics on learning his abilities rather than showing the audience his abilities straight away.

Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times stated, ‘we’ve plunged into a mostly underwhelming film with underdeveloped characters and supercharged-fight scenes that drag on and offer nothing new in the way of special effects creativity’ it’s clear that he didn’t get the message as this was a retelling of the mythos rather than a traditional superhero movie.

There were some interesting reviews praising the movie in that sense such as Kofi Outlaw, Editor-in-Chief at Screenrant.com stating that “Man of Steel has more than earned its keep, and deserves to be THE iconic Superman movie for a whole new generation.”

As this was the first movie, the success of the film starts Warner Bros. plans to extend the DC Universe with other characters bringing Goyer to write a sequel for the film as well as a Justice League script, in San Diego Comic-Con on the same year, Snyder announced that the next feature would show Superman and Batman meeting for the first time in a cinematic format with Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Diane Lane and Laurence Fishburne to reprise their roles.

I did state in previous reviews that I will review this when I have the time but now it’s officially time to dive into the movie that changed DC movies for a good while and for good reason, this is Man of Steel.

The movie begins on Krypton which I have to admit is a very impressive look on Superman’s world especially when it comes to the design, granted they went with a more artificial look on the land and I have to admit, it kinda works especially with Superman’s origins... We also see Lara Lor-Van played by Ayelet Zurer along with her husband, Kryptonian Scientist Jor-El (played by Russell Crowe) as she gives birth to their first-born and Krypton’s latest natural born son... this will be explained later...

In the meantime, Jor-El is called into the council of Krypton to discuss something relating to the core of Krypton collapsing at a rapid level due to harvesting its power which the council refuses to believe only for the terrorist war criminal, General Zod (played by Michael Shannon) to interfere claiming power over the council to Jor-El’s disapproval only for Jor-El to evade captivity leading to a war between Zod’s militia and the army of Krypton which I have to admit is pretty amazing for an introduction.

Jor-El leaves the ruins of the council in finding the codex, a genetic code that was once used to be of natural Kryptonian birth; for those who don’t know majority of Kryptonian members are born synthetically apart from the main superiors such as councillors scientists, generals and others with more power in their title as for Jor-El who was born naturally as for his new born son was born natural as well, this will be included when I review BVS.

Side note, the outlook on Krypton looks incredible especially when it comes down to layers of CGI, granted I hate the use of it but when it comes to making an impossible task like making a planet like Krypton exist, it makes sense for it to be heavily used to make the appearance of the planet deceiving yet believable, kudos to the special effects team.

Jor-El manages to get the codex back to Lara before sending Kal-El into orbit before being followed by Zod only for Jor-El to place the Codex within the DNA of her new child, only Lara to reveal a world for their only hope to live on. Now here’s where the science of superman that everyone seems to ignore kicks in, most of you think that Superman’s story isn’t interesting towards how his powers generally work, especially when it comes to numerous individuals asking that if his powers work, how come they don’t work on Krypton.

Krypton is in a solar system of a Red Star before converting into a Supernova as well as for Earth as for our solar system has a younger star as the sun meaning it’s yellow which gives off more energy, there are other examples of uses of stars relating to the Superman mythos such as the Blue Star which does a lot more damage as it increases Superman’s powers rather than the Yellow Star; The Red Star on Krypton would just make Superman into an average human removing his powers instantly, this too will be shown later on in the film.

They discuss on what will happen to him only for Jor-El to state that he will be a god to us once upon arrival, only for Zod to arrive too late as Lara places the child in the rocket as the codex is fused into his DNA leading Jor-El to place the key (plot point) into the cot that Kal-El is secured too. Jor-El prepares his battle armour as Zod breaks through the doors in order to confront them... and to be honest; I think Shannon’s performance as Zod is more laughable rather than forceful.

Zod is easily thrown around by Jor-El only to be killed when Lara launches the rockets through the phantom drive leading to Zod’s arrest as well as his militia when the Army of Krypton arrives to take Zod in. Days later the surviving members of Zod’s previous attack of the Council send Zod and his allies through to the Phantom Zone for reconditioning after his crimes only for Zod to announce to Lara that he will find her child; later on that day Krypton is indeed destroyed from within when the core has finally collapsed. Despite all the reviews I’ve seen including the Nostalgia Critic’s review I believe they were wrong as it is a powerful scene as it lands a hand on how Krypton was really destroyed, you can tell that they were following the Earth One story arc from DC’s Earth One series (which I recommend).

We skip to the rocket that Kal was sent on leading towards Smallville near the Kent farm only to skip again to Kal-El/Clark Kent played by Henry Cavill (who I’m referring to as Clark at this point which will lead me to change his name later as the story progresses) as a fisherman whose nearly crushed by a falling cage, fortunately saved by one of his colleagues, his boss informs his team that there is an oil rig that is need of help which they tend to ignore.

Only for Clark to leave that order and manages to save the men inside from burning leading to another scene which does get me confused on him risking his own identity for saving a bunch of guys, like I said before on morality I believe that this is both a good and bad use of his morality as it would show he’s only there for helping them, including when they are saved by helicopter, but also for him to reveal who he really is.

Like I said previously, they are saved only for the oil rig to crush him to the ocean which reveals a flash-back to Clark discovering his abilities for the first time, mainly X-ray vision as well as super hearing and laser vision as a child, his mother Martha Kent (played by Diane Lane) is there to support him as his class mates mock him when he runs from the class into the school closet.

I have to admit this is a pretty interesting move to make because not only does it show the sympathy side of the future Superman but it shows the human side of the alter ego; Again, kudos to the writer as well as the director.

Clark does manage to wake up only in water this time, exiting the flashback only for him to literally steal some dry laundry in order to return to humanity, he walks past a school bus entering another flashback to when his superhuman strength is seen as this time he lifts a school bus of his class-mates out of the water, leading for one of the children’s parents to confront the Kents over the incident.

To be honest love I’d be more thankful rather than claiming someone to be a freak (which is inclined in her conversation) actually coming to think of it why were you confronting them to begin with? This leads to a conversation towards Clark and Jonathon which is pretty convincing on what Jonathon wants his son to do which majority of the internet seems to ignore, it’s not about showing Clark the way on how to act on what he is more on how to act on what he’s to become, again another conversation over morality, not just pleading him to let the kids drown...

It’s also another conversation over how to become more welcome to humanity over that Clark’s alien nature, which is introduced to the next scene when Jonathon shows Clark the ship he arrived on as well as the key which he took for testing only to be unrecognized by science as if it’s an alien object. You can see that it’s coming from the Earth One story because the script is exactly the same.

We skip the present as we see Clark working as a barman in a saloon only for one of the patrons to flirt on one of the bar-maids leading to an aggressive argument which causes Clark to leave only for the next scene to see the patron’s truck (semi-truck from the looks of it) to be completely destroyed. Clark (after hearing a discussion with several soldiers) leaves for Canada (I think) where the army is planning an exploration mission on an unknown object beneath the ice.

We see Reporter Lois Lane (played by Amy Adams) is following the mission with Colonel Hardy (Christopher Meloni) and Dr Emil Hamilton from DARPA (Richard Schiff) whom talks about the object leading it to be over 12 thousand years old. Later that night, Lane follows Clark (who hides as one of the workmen) into the cavern, into a large ship leading it to be one of the Kryptonian scouting ships.

Though he manages to move around the ship at ease and bypasses the security, he uses the key that was given to him at an early age and activates the ship, leading him to explore the ship, Lois on the other hand manages to make way through the ship only to get injured when a security android injures her through the stomach, Clark destroys the android and heals her injuries only to leave with the ship leaving Lois on an island not far away.

Lois does come around however, releasing her report to Perry White (Lawrence Fishburne) who disapproves her report stating that it was a hallucination; he refuses her report only for Lois to send her report to another associate known as Woodburn who releases her report willingly. Clark on the other hand meets the holographic image of his biological father whose consciousness was placed into the key before passing (like in the comics) and reveals to him the history on what he really is.

I think this is a powerful scene to the series as the original adaptations ignore this greatly on how Clark becomes Superman especially when it comes to his discovery of his homeworld. Jor-El reveals to him that they’ve used great machines to terror form planets into landscapes for their species to live in, though it came to a problem when space exploration missions were abandoned as well as overpopulation of artificial children were raising.

Which lead to the core of Krypton to become unstable leading for General Zod to intervene in attempt to safe Krypton, he also shows Clark the Genesis chamber, a chamber full of the ingrown Kryptonian babies that are still in hibernation; again another story of real morality between father and son.

This leads to the suit that Jor-El prepared for him when his conscious was built into the machine, leading for him to discuss the S on the symbol is a meaning as well as his families logo, but a meaning of Hope, which causes Kal to place the suit on as well with the radiation of the sun to give Kal the ability that no other human could posses, flight.... another scene that I love greatly.

Most people misunderstand the science in the Superman mythos, and then this film is greatly accurate towards the mythos as it tells you everything about his abilities...

Lois however is looking for Clark’s past by talking with people who knew Clark through careers or friends, leading to Martha which informs her to go to the graveyard where Jonathon’s tombstone is stored. Clark arrives behind her leading her to ambush interview him, granted this is going towards Lois’s ambitions to become a reporter but ambushing him through his family is definitely a low blow Lane...

Clark has another flashback to when Clark was leading to another conversation that the Kent’s weren’t much of a family to support Clark’s abilities; AGAIN another story with morality (seeing the difference NC?) though this is interrupted when a tornado arrives killing Jonathan when he manages to save numerous people though orders Clark to remain in order to save his son one last time from revealing his identity.

Another powerful scene, though in the present Clark reveals his story leading Lois to return to the Planet only to get suspended without pay by Perry though he has other thoughts about it when he claims on how everyone would react when someone like Clark would actually exist.

Clark returns to his home however to be greeted by his adoptive mother who is eager to meet him only to discuss what he’s been going through as well as his species; the U.S. Army however have found something else which is interesting, a large UFO hanging outside the hemisphere of Earth leading to the Lieutenant General Calvin Swanwick (Harry Lennix) to deduce that whom is controlling the ship will most likely be hostile.

However, all around the world, the power shuts off everything leading to a broadcasting signal from the UFO stating that You Are Not Alone, leading for General Zod to request that Kal-El must return to Zod, otherwise the Earth will be destroyed.

With the world scared, Lois watches the news only to discover her associate Woodburn has revealed her name as the primary source Perry to announce that he does believe her to Kal the live on Earth, though this is changed however when Lois is taken by the F.B.I. for questioning.

Clark however goes to a church to discuss with a father one whom he really is only to discuss his identity and how he needs to do the right thing only for the priest to agree with him on trusting faith and leaving trust for later, Kal places on the costume only to turn himself in to the military only to be questioned, he has an interview with Lois which is cut short only to have a discussion with Swanwick and Hamilton about his identity leading Kal to surrender to Zod.

Before Zod arrives, Clark and Lois have a brief moment together on how he would do the right thing, only for a smaller ship from Zod’s larger ship to collect Kal, it turns out to be one of Zod’s commander, Faora (Antje Traue) who accepts Kal and also Lois (which is confusing though she was more as damsel in distress caused by this action).

Kal and Lois arrive onto the ship leading to Zod’s introduction though for Kal it’s different as he falls due to the amount of pressure which is given from the ships close atmosphere towards Krypton rather than with Earth’s. Kal awakens in a vision of Smallville with Zod teaching him how he was freed from the imprisonment due to the Phantom Zone being destroyed when the link with Krypton blew up.

He also states that he creates a hyper-drive which would travel among galaxies in order to find Kal in order to help creating a new Krypton to replace the home that was once destroyed, only for Zod to reveal that the ship Kal used earlier sent of a signal to the ship that Zod was using, though through his journeys, Zod salvaged what he could of old Kryptonian colonies including a world engine which would be used for terraforming worlds.

The vision turns dark on how Jor-El hid the codex with Kal when he sent him on Earth for Krypton to be reborn again, leading for Zod to state that he will use the codex in order to create a new Krypton leaving Earth to be destroyed and the residents on it. Ending the vision, Kal remains chained in a separate section with Zod who interrogates him more stating that he will find the codex in order to create Krypton.

Lois however manages to place the key (god knows how she manages to get it in the first place) into Zod’s ship only for Jor-El to teach her how to help Kal in order to escape, though Zod has left with another ship in order to find the codex where Kal was born; Jor-El manages to help her get into an escape pod, while killing some of Zod’s followers as well as changing the atmosphere to earths, giving Kal an aid to escape.

Kal however manages to break through his chains due to the atmosphere change leading him to talk with his father for one last time, with some inspiration by his father’s words, Kal leaves the ship and manages to leave for Lois to save her from impact on landing back on Earth. He manages to save her though it comes to an issue that Zod has already arrived at the Kent’s home.

He brutally interrogates her by destroying her house as well as finding the ship that Kal was found in only for the Codex to be missing. Again this is followed with more humorous lines by Michael Shannon which leads to a full on brawl between Kal (whose now officially accepted his role as Superman) and Zod which escalates into Smallville.

Aside from the constant product placements like 7/11 and I-hop think it’s a decent fight and a pretty incredible one to express Superman’s abilities, though the same can’t be said for Zod as his armour is destroyed only for his abilities to break down on him when the atmosphere is too strong, Faora and Zod’s henchmen leads to a larger fight which includes the U.S. Military,

Though some lines given from Faora are rather misleading especially when she states that Evolution always wins? She does get her comeuppance though when Superman manages to destroy her breathing helmet though Supes has his own problem when the other Kryptonian throws a train carriage at him.

He does recover though stating the main obvious that he is on their side, Superman leaves to check on his mother though only to find the house in ruin though she is alright, though Lois comes in to state that she’s got a plan to stop them; Zod on the other hand finds a weakness to Superman as one of his scientists discovers the codex was in his DNA which leads Zod to release the World Engine and plans to kill Superman for his blood.

The U.S. military find out that the ships are separating one two remote locations, the ocean and Metropolis as it starts operating, terraforming the earth at the same time, manipulating the gravitational pull. Lois and Superman arrives with Superman’s craft stating that if they place the craft between the phantom drive of the world engine then the machines would self destruct in a black hole like matter... which I’m thinking would be extremely dangerous as it would not-only destroy the machines but also destroy the earth as well...

The Army will take the craft towards Metropolis while Superman takes on the world engine on the other side, Zod finds Superman’s ship he used earlier and managed to come across the genesis chamber leading him to take over the ship completely; Superman however is having some issues with the World Engine as it proves too tough for him when the gravitational pull is resembling Krypton’s...

Metropolis is getting completely destroyed by the other World Engine, with the U.S Military having severe issues taking it down, Zod takes the ship away from the Arctic towards Metropolis to align with the World Engine, as Superman manages to overcome the gravitational pull and faces the machine head on destroying it, ceasing the terraforming process.

Lois and Hamilton manage to get the craft ready with the Key...WAIT...wait a minute... WAIT A MINUTE... Where the bloody hell did she get the key from, the last time I saw it, it was on Zod’s Ship, come one Snyder, at least show us how she got the key, it’s not like there’s numerous amounts of them as we’ve clearly seen that there was ONE BLOODY KEY... as I was saying; they manage to get it in but a huge problem as it won’t fit in fully,.

The U.S military are attacked however when Zod returns to finish the job only for Superman to destroy the ship the Zod has taken, which Superman uses his heat vision to literally cause it to crash in Metropolis, destroying the genesis chamber in the process. Hamilton manages to fix the problem before Faora returns for revenge only to trigger the black hole leading Lois to fall out of the cargo ship falling only to Superman to save the day once again.

Zod’s Army are killed off through the Black Hole as Superman escorts Lois to safety where he confronts Zod for one last time, leading for a major problem, now that Superman has foiled his plans, Zod is willing to kill everyone in Metropolis and the entire world for revenge. This leads to a huge fight in metropolis with Zod out of his suit understanding the abilities of the younger sun, giving an equal advantage for the fight.

Again over use of destructive tones are incredible which you can see the tones from Superman Earth One, as well as some other references to the Superman Mythos, They both land in a train station where Zod finally challenges Superman where he prepares to kills several passengers which leads to a pretty humane death where he breaks Zod’s neck, killing him in the process.

This is a pretty emotional scene, especially for a Superman movie, a lot of people hate this film because of this scene and to be honest, I actually enjoy it because it connects towards the emotion of Kal-El as well as Clark Kent, as much as people say that Superman doesn’t kill anyone, how about in Superman 2 where he removes the powers of Zod and his allies and literally throws them into the frozen pits of the Fortress of Solitude killing them and the smirks about it.

In this scene you get pure blooded emotion for the hero which is something I enjoy, something that makes it more than an Alien movie, it relates to the characters as well, as much as I enjoy Christopher Reeves performance in the 70’s edition, Henry Cavill, performs it way better when it comes to showing the human side of Superman aside from just being there to save the day.

Lois arrives at the station (which raises on how she would get there which is literally miles away from where they were fighting) to comfort him in his time of need, Swanwick however manages to have a brief meeting with Superman when he destroys a droid... so much for a superhero... Superman informs him that he won’t attack the American nation as long as the government allows him.

Later Clark and Martha are walking past the graveyard speaking on how much they miss Jonathan which leads to a flashback on when Clark was playing a hero when he was a kid, which is symbolic to the man he’s become, Martha raises him a question on what he’s going to do when he’s not saving the world leading him to work for the Daily Planet being introduced to Lois Lane by Perry White.

And that was Man of Steel...

Possibly one of the best introductions to the Superman series ever made, granted I did ignore some questions that were raised by multiple viewers of this movie such as why the suit was there to begin with when it was clearly explained in the movie, there were multiple which I will leave for good reason.

A few reasons on why I prefer this movie than the 70’s version is because of a few simple reasons that I revealed earlier on, it’s more scientifically based to the character which debunks major questions that were raised before the movie was even released and raises more theories about the Man of Steel.

The acting was questionable on numerous actors mainly Michael Shannon which I won’t interrogate further which his performance in Midnight Special was more impressive, though half the time I thought it was more in a comical tone rather than a serious performance that Terrance Stamp had.

Amy Adams as Lois Lane.... now it’s a good idea of bringing her in but why on earth was she dragged into every scenario that Superman was in; I think it was more easier on bringing someone like Lana Lang into her past as she knew Clark more but her of all people? Come on Snyder, clearly you knew something was going on here.

And finally the best till last... Henry Cavill as Superman... possibly the best Superman I’ve seen for a good while, now saying that I’m probably going to get a lot of hate, but let me put on thing first, Christopher Reeves only plays Superman as a coy rather than placing emotion in his role, Cavill does however mainly the remark on when I placed when the death of Zod came forth. But does he surpass the original, most definitely I know the original will always be the best but the new one has passed it by far.

The action was pretty incredible to see especially with the realistic tones of the comic series by far, well in DC standards at least, at least it’s more realistic than Marvel as they seem to avoid major questions that science raises; though it is overused when it comes to product placements it’s still acceptable action.

The score brought the movie more enjoyment such as especially bringing an alien tone to the movie’s environment, though some parts are questionable such as when Jonathan passed away... the special effects really out done themselves this time, I seriously mean it, they literally made a fictional planet look quite alive, especially with the life-forms and technology that they’ve used, kudos.

So now for a final judgement from yours truly... This movie will be on my Hitlist for a good while, I know that I’ve been away for a good while but due to work, medical problems in my personal life as well other altercations I have to say one simple thing, that I am back and back for good, aside from the Halloween reviews I’ll be doing 1 review fortnightly and trailer talks weekly, I hope you guys enjoy this review as it took me a good while to finish it off, as well as timing restraints to finish the review as for that I apologise in advance.

I’m Amateur Fan 2.27 and you’ve just read the Shitlist review of Man of Steel...next time we’ll dive into something more....monstrous...

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