The one scene wonder of summer

Rating: Null/10 (15 June 2013)

Like everyone else, me and my son waited impatiently all winter for this movie, somewhat wishful victims of the DC-WB over-hype. The verdict after seeing the film? Well, you know you are in trouble when all you can find at the same level of a Marvel film is one scene in the movie (The tornado scene which in my opinion was heartbreaking and showed a Kevin Costner with juggernaut charisma).
Sorry fan-boys, this film was a shallow movie with HUGE pacing problems. You truly had a feel that the film was a 4 hours movie re-cut to make the 2 hours 20 minutes barrier. In short, Too much choppy narrative that distracted from the story.
I am certain that DC-WB had put enough money in there to almost buy McDonald's in a blink of an eye. So with this kind of budget, you can have yourself the best people there is in every field of the movie making process right?
Well then, explain to me why the Krypton universe is looking so much as if the film's art designers just borrowed old sets from George Lucas Geonosis planet? In fact, Kryptonian people seems like a pretty cerebral, sophisticated, and optimistic race (so much in fact that they did not want to realize their end was coming...) So why such bland sets? Remember the 1978 Krypton universe? Where is the wow factor? Too much of a Krull or Flash Gordon feel here. And god, why those giant dragonflies? Didn't we have enough of these kind of flying horses in Avatar? Even if you retrofit them with lights to make them look like Close encounter of the third kind UFOs, it doesn't make them more interesting. Nice try with the CGI version of the pin-screen effect though. If you think about it,last summer Prometheus minus all of his narrative problems was a real treat to look at. Maybe it would be a good decision to leave Vancouver for Pinewood for the next Superman WB?
Unlike many people, camera work was not so much annoying to me as the soundtrack was. I thought i did my effort by going through all of TDKR without earplugs but I forgot about how Christopher Nolan LOVES to assault our senses with never ending Japanese drums punching and Trombone mono note with levels of sound near skull cracking intensity. THIS for me was the main Christopher Nolan influence I could see in this picture (BTW, Comparing the complex masterpiece John Williams composed for Superman back in the 70's to this 2013 thunderous mess is like comparing Dom Pérignon champagne to a warm Budweiser beer. Thank you Mr. Zimmer).
The only aspect I thought money was on screen was with the actor lead parts. They are all good and competent actors. But aside from ineffective editing, their performances had to deal with ineffective writing as well. And why for god's sake making Russell Crowe's ghost into some kind of a VIP's usher at the Oscars in his final appearance? To me it was an awkward scene.
One of the main reason I looked forward for this film so much was Michael Shannon as Zod. I LOVE Michael Shannon and have a field day every time he is on screen in Boardwalk Empire as agent Van Alden. Again, I felt disappointed, not so much because of the actor performance but about the blandness of his character. All of the superhero nemesis cliché lines were on screen with no emotional ambiguity that could have made his character more interesting. Emotional grey zones or ambiguous motives are bad guys best friends as far as writing is concerned but all are sadly missed in Man of Steel. We only deal with a Hitler wannabe here.
Many people were annoyed by the level of destruction in Metropolis and they are right. They are also spot on when they compare the final battle with any Michael Bay extravaganza. I don't know for Zach Snyder but Christopher Nolan used to be way more focused in the action scenes of his Dark knight trilogy if we compare it to the visual mishmash of Man of steel, which prompt me to ask myself if he was in the editing room in anyway or had made any creative decision on the set of this movie.
In short, bad narrative, been there done that visuals, no complex characters to root for, too much messy Michael Bay action and please, can we expect a real musical score next time?