MAN OF STEEL

"It's not an S.  On my world it means hope." -Superman

How exactly does one make a good Superman movie? It's a question that has perplexed Warner Brothers ever since they gave Richard Donner the pink slip (in the form of a memo) in the late 70's.  Superman in general has a great mythology, but it doesn't have the most interesting superhero (remember that scene from Kill Bill Vol. 2?).  For answers, they turned to David S. Goyer, a guy whose adapted more than a few comics to screen, slapped Christopher Nolan's name on the production and gave flamboyant visual stylist Zack Snyder the camera.  Surely this one would deliver the goods, right?  Thing is, Superman, the most popular comic book ever, has been running on empty for a long time now.  How did it get to this?  Are these problems fixable?  Does the world really need Superman?

Director Richard Donner was setting up a comic book franchise long before it became the norm. Him and his screenwriters had talked about doing a long series of Superman movies. To kick everything off, they started filming two movies simultaneously from one massive script by Mario Puzo (The Godfather), re-written by James Bond writer Tom Mankiewicz to take out the camp (irony?). 80% of this project was complete when they ran out of money and time, so they quickly finished the first film, moved the original climax planned for Superman II over to the first one and, in 1978, waited for box office receipts. It was a hit, but since the producers hated Donner, they fired him and replaced him with Richard Lester, a man who didn't know a thing about the comics. Lester re-shot many scenes contributing to the uneven tone of the film. He also began the slow process (sped up in Superman III) of putting lots of camp back into the script.  We'll never know what would have happened if Donner had continued on with these movies...

"My son, never trust The RZA."

In 1978, director Donner made you believe a man could fly.  So what did he do right that others did wrong? One thing he valued most of all was verisimilitude.  This was apparent in the hustle and bustle of Metropolis and the Daily Planet, the time spent on Superman's origins and childhood, etc.  He was able to bring this story to life and make it feel real.  Let's not forget too the way Christopher Reeve KILLED it in the dual role of Clark Kent and Superman. And though Mr. Reeve gave it his all in Superman III and IV, the series had become a parody of itself and the momentum was clearly lost.  But as Superman said to Lex Luthor "See you in twenty, Lex." at the end of IV, sure enough he returned about twenty years later...

"I can see Warners losing money from here."

There is a vast difference between Bryan Singer's approach to Superman than Goyer/Nolan/Snyder.  Singer chose to remain very close to Donner's original story.  Too close in fact.  He made sure it had the same rousing score from John Williams (good move IMO), the same basic villainous plot by Lex Luthor (not as good), and lots of callback dialogue and scenes.  Singer played it safe, trying to please everyone.  The reason the Star Trek reboot can get away with callback dialogue, especially in INTO DARKNESS, is that we are exploring alternate characters, but here we are treated with a movie that isn't quite a reboot and only partially a sequel.  Audiences wanted more.  It's too bad to, because the few things that were new, were actually very interesting.  What would the repercussions be of a "superkid" on Earth?  What would they have done with New Krypton?  Though it made some decent money, Reboot Part 1 (Super Donner) was considered an epic fail.  So now, with a smaller, but still massive budget, all the chips are once again on the table.  Reboot Part 2 (The Dark Steel Begins) is a true reboot of Superman, going back to the beginning and exploring (and massively expanding) the world of Krypton.  Goyer and his team did their homework and basically took everything that worked from the previous films and put it into Man of Steel, cranked up the action scenes to eleven (-ty billion), put the title card at the end (all the best movies do that) and called it a day.  So is the world ready to accept THIS superman, or will he be cast out once again, as his mom predicted?

"I WILL FIND THE 5 PEOPLE WHO SAW PREMIUM RUSH!"

WHAT I LIKED:

As previously stated, the mythology is the most interesting thing from the Superman universe.  Goyer knew this and spent a lot of time fleshing out the history of Krypton.  The movie opens on this lavish, dying world, full of mysterious tech, advanced weaponry and flying friends...it all makes for a great, epic opening.

Superman - Henry Cavill definitely fits the part, but it's hard to give a full assessment on him just yet as we don't really see the dual Kent/Superman thing that much. The most interesting parts are the flashbacks to his childhood. These little bits really add something.  Sometimes you forget this guy is actually an alien from a different world, but here we really see how much Kal-El struggles with his different, vastly superior senses.  You see the bullies, the fights with his dad, and finally you see him don the cape and learn to fly for the first time.  Cool.

Lois Lane - No trouble with the curve here, Amy Adams kills it as Lois. The filmmakers took her character in a different direction than I expected, but it makes it all the better in my eyes.  I love how she gets in on the action!  The problem with Bosworth's Lois in 2006 is that she didn't come off as very smart or kind.  Is this really the woman that an alien would fall in love with and be willing to die for?  Really???  I didn't believe it.  Adams...yeah, I can see that better.

General Zod - The best bad guys are the ones that have real purpose, the ones who think they're good. You understand why Zod is doing what he's doing, just as you understand Jor-El's choices to stand against him.  Goyer really did a good job not making these guys bad just for the sake of being bad.  Kudos.

Other likes: Former Battlestar Galactica actors in supporting roles.

                  The little Easter eggs during the final fight with Zod.

"Our productivity might increase with a Happy Working Song."

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:

This is just too dang long. The final fight with Zod mostly doesn't need to happen. Or, it could have happened, but shortened down to just the conclusion of the fight (which is brilliant). Superman probably inadvertently kills another thousand people during their building-overturning battle.  Oops.  And that's the biggest thing for me: in a movie about a protector/savior figure, a lot of people die.  I could have gone without seeing so much desolation.  The deaths aren't graphically shown, but most of Smallville is flattened and many skyscrapers in Metropolis go down.  We get it Snyder, these guys are epic.  It's gonna take at least a decade to clean this mess up.  Obviously there needs to be some casualties when fighting against an evil like this, but this is overkill.  Keep the moral dilema for Kal-El, but ditch all the loud CGI.  It would have been far more effective (and cheaper).  LESS IS MORE.  You don't need to destroy half the planet to make the villains menacing.  You don't need to top The Avengers (see: impossible)...

Zach Snyder is very good at making pretty pictures (like Michael Bay), but sometimes the pictures are short on logic. I get that he's trying to convey certain feelings and symbolism, but it has to all make sense in a real world context.  Some parts just feel silly, like Superman's birth scene.  Was she giving birth to an elephant?  This is kind of explained...but it's still overdone.  Also Supes saves a lot of people from falling to their deaths...by catching them while flying at about a thousand miles per hour.  Surely, he would have snapped all their necks.  I was also starting to predict Snyder's documentary-style zooms (and occasional double zooms).  Style shouldn't distract from the substance and here, it does.

In the end, did Goyer (and team) succeed?  I'd say partially.  It's hard to make Superman as interesting as, say, Iron Man.  Kal-El generally has it together emotionally and earthlings aren't really a problem for him to defeat.  In a world with Superman, there (ideally) wouldn't be many problems.  What this movie succeeded to do was give him some pain.  Not just from his father, but from how they make Zod an understandable villain.  Would you really want to defeat the last of your kind, especially since he's just doing what he feels is best?  Goyer created a rich mythology with many avenues to explore and many more characters to develop.  This new take on Superman offers a lot of potential.  Now the question becomes: do you want to wait 7 years for another reboot, or do you want this series to continue on as is?  It may not be super, but Man of Steel gives the franchise hope.  And in that regard: it's an S (Well, it looks like one).

-Starbase 133

We all got a weak spot: FAST 6

There's really nothing quite like the Fast & Furious franchise. Since this series is not steeped in mythology and rules like the Marvel universe or Star Trek, it has freely and effectively transformed itself from a simple franchise about underground street racing into big event movies with heists, larger-than-life villains and ridiculous action set-pieces. Each movie has become bigger than the last and Fast 6 (or Furious 6, or whatever) is no exception.

I remember back in 2001 when the original movie came out. I saw it on one of the biggest screens in Minnesota. The atmosphere was electric. After the movie, the parking lot cleared out faster than I've ever seen and not because everyone hated it, but rather everyone wanted to go out and drag race! Now I personally understand the dangers of racing movies...getting my one and only speeding ticket on the way to see Gone in 60 Seconds...but this was even more so. Odd then that only a couple years later, not only had I forgotten about this movie, but I had no desire to see 2 Fast 2 Harbors...um, 2 Furious (it's a Minnesota joke). I did end up seeing it with a friend in an almost empty theater. Talk about a total change in atmosphere. It was the last Fast movie i'd see in the theater until 6.

We Rock.

                                           
THE RIMS OF CHANGE...
I caught Tokyo Drift on TV eventually. Though it wasn't great, I remember liking the way director Justin Lin filmed the racing scenes. I felt like this guy had a future. Then in 2009, the ads for Fast & Furious came out. New Model, old parts...er, original parts I guess. With Lin back at the helm I had SOME expectations for this one. Maybe he could bring the magic back. I was wrong. This film was just meh for me. My expectations were at the absolute bottom when Fast Five was announced. To my amazement, however, this film was NOT meh. It was very not meh. Lin and screenwriter Chris Morgan (whose been writing these since TD) finally got their crap together for this one. It was a great story with a huge and exciting payoff. The best movies are the ones that take you by surprise. But this can also lead to very high expectations for the next movie from the fans and the studio, which can, in turn, result in a follow-up that is a rushed, crappy studio project with no heart. Can they really make two good movies in a row? Yep.

Old parts is funnier.

WHAT I LIKED:
I love when sequels manage to improve (or at least enhance the relevance of) the movies that came before it.  Fast 6 ties in events mostly from the fourth movie, but also a bit from the others as well. It makes you want to re-watch all of them in fact. The "Furious crew" is just as good as they were in five, but this time they meet someone who is truly their match. The villain in this movie is great. He is a true "big movie" villain who has the ability to defeat our team. And he has one the coolest cars ever.


The action? Well, let me tell you. You may ask: how do you top (from Fast Five) two cars pulling a safe attached to cables through the streets of Rio, smashing everything in its path? How about...people fighting on top of cars....hooked to a cargo plane...that's taking off...while it's exploding. And that's not even the half of it. The action is nuts. But it's a good kind of nuts. To me, the true "wow" moments didn't come from the big effects however, it came from the cool fight scenes. Walker is surprisingly game for his fights, as are the others, but this movie also adds two trained martial artists in Joe Taslim (THE RAID: REDEMPTION) and Gina Carano. Though Carano doesn't get to show off as much as she did in HAYWIRE, she still puts some sweet moves on display. Diesel and The Rock also do a pretty awesome finishing move in the climatic fight.

Yeah....this be crazy.

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
This movie has essentially two action climaxes. Though they are both spectacular, sometimes less is more. For a moment, after the first big action sequence, I thought they were going to end on a huge (and awesome) cliffhanger for the next film, but then the movie kept going for another 20 minutes. It was almost too much. They should have just saved it all for the big finale.

The movie moved quickly in general, but certain things slowed it to a halt.  Lingering shots of scantily clad women (as is the standard of the Fast franchise I guess) are pointless.  And the action WAS overkill sometimes.  They could have tightened this up a little more, cut some things here and there, and it wold have been far better.  

Now THIS rocks!

This movie is out-grossing INTO DARKNESS worldwide by a good $200 million at least. The franchise has hit its stride. People weren't leaving the theater wanting to race, they were simply talking about the movie. How it tied in to the other movies and what we can expect in the future. When will the magic end? Not here, I know that much. For not long after the credits started, we do in fact have a set-up for Fast 7. And this brief moment is just as thrilling as an exploding cargo plane with 50 cars attached to it. Don't miss it. Well, don't miss the movie either. Though according to the box office, you already haven't.

-Starbase 133 (Hey, who said we have to stick to just Star Trek talk!)