slkosior

The terror doesn't come from gruesome shark attacks. So if that's what you're looking for, you'll be disappointed. This movie strikes a deeper chord than typical blood-and-gore, shock-fest horror movies; and it may be that desensitized viewers who are incapable of genuine human emotion and empathy will not appreciate it. This film is about real psychological, existential terror -- similar to the effect achieved by Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man.

Directors, please take note: Long mindless sequences of ridiculously over-the-top CGI violence/destruction are BORRIINNG!

I've been a Superman fan since I was young child, so I'm not happy about giving Man of Steel one star. But that's all it deserves. Unfortunately for the talented cast, the material is simply awful in every way. Inane dialog. Inane plot devices. Inane action.

I had especially high hopes for this movie, because Snyder's Watchmen is a masterpiece: visually stunning and cerebral. Unfortunately, Snyder didn't bring any of that to Man of Steel.

I think I'm done paying to see blockbuster action movies until directors remember how to TELL GOOD STORIES.

I was going to write a full-blown review about how intelligent this film is. I was going to rave about its glorious visual aesthetics, its existential themes, and its cogent questioning of human nature. But I think the following quote will suffice.

SCENE: Imagine the stark, but magnificent, surface of Mars, with its red mountains and canyons that dwarf by far any mountains and canyons on Earth. A young woman pleads pleads to her former superhuman lover to return to Earth and save humankind.

LAURIE: Jon, please, you have to stop this. Or everyone will die.

JON: And the Universe will not even notice. In my opinion, the existence of life is a highly overrated phenomenon. Just look around you. Mars gets along perfectly well without so much as a microorganism. Here it's a constantly changing topographical map, flowing and shifting around the pole in ripples 10,000 years wide. So tell me, how would all of this be greatly improved by an oil pipeline? By a shopping mall?