I really wanted Man of Steel to be a
success. After all, I am a big fan of the Superman character.
Initially, I saw critics in RottenTomatoes.com a very bad score. And
I said to myself, “It doesn't matter. Because sometimes critics
would give a movie a low score but when I get to see the movie, it
turns out pretty good and enjoyable. I find that critics don't
always get it right.”
But after seeing the movie I went out
of the cinema feeling like I wanted to punch someone and I would
prefer to punch the writer who wrote this movie. Can anybody please straggle
him for me?
I wonder if he was drunk when he wrote
this movie. Or he maybe he got his pay and he does not really care about
the character, so went like – “I'm just going to write
this damn script and be over with it!”
So what do I think is
wrong with this movie?
If you haven't seen the movie yet, I
advice you not to read further because this review contains a lot of
SPOILERS.
If you are a fan of Superman, I think
the fight scenes are atleast worth seeing on the big screen.
Anyway, so what is wrong?
A lot. But for this article let us
just focus on the logic flaws.
1. There was the scene were Superman
was fighting in town with Fiora and her big Kryptonian companion.
The townfolks were naturally frightened
from seeing powerful aliens fighting on their street. And then one
of the townfolks, a middle aged man shouted to his wife and son (if I
remember it correctly) to stay inside and not to go near the window.
And Superman agreed by saying “Stay
inside the house. It is not safe.”
But when the fighting resumed Superman
and his opponents punch it out. Sometimes they go flying through the
neighborhood knocking through walls and falling through roofs. And
then here comes the military with their helicopters and heavy machine
guns. A moment later groups of jet fighter comes intent of bombing
the aliens with their heavy missiles.
Turns out staying inside the home
within the area is the dumbest advice you could give. Because you may
die from falling sections of your own home or you can get hit by
machine guns or missiles.
The better advice would be to tell
people to evacuate and go far away.
Why did the writer not see that and
make the proper correction in his script? Maybe perhaps he was too
lazy to rewrite it. He was hoping that no one would notice.
2. After the terra-forming was stopped
Superman had to fight only one villain. But he could have fought
elsewhere so that the city can be saved from further destruction or
avoid accidentally killing bystanders while they slug it out.
But instead superman went at it with
the guy. He knocked him through the city. Sometimes they would crash
through walls and collapsing buildings, museums, and populated homes.
Superman would not do that.
He would grab his opponent and take him to a desert or
outer space and continue their fight there.
Okay so the producers decided to do it.
Because they need to have a big fight with lots of explosions and
destruction. That is what sells blockbusters now a days. Right?
There is nothing wrong with big
explosions just make it believable and integral to the story. Don't
put it in a movie just for the sake of - “We need to have big
explosions.”
3. Lastly, the death of Jonathan Kent.
There was this big tornado approaching. The family had to get out
of the car and go to a nearby shelter. But then they remembered
that they forgot their dog in the car. So Jonathan had to go back
and get the dog even though the tornado has gotten impossibly close. In the end the dog got away but Jonathan was swept by a tornado.
Clark wanted to save him but
he waves his son, no.
What was wrong with that scenario?
First, you don't trade a person's life
for a pet life. Pets are good to have but basic logic says that a
person's life is more important. If Jonathan was half intelligent,
he would not have gone back.
Second, everybody knows that Superman
has super speed. He could have run to his father and whisk him away
safely and gone back to were he was standing as if he were always
there.
Okay let us assume he has not learned
super speed yet.
But Clark could have gone to
Jonathan anyway. Since he is super strong they could have rode the
tornado together. Then pretend that they both died. Turn up alive a
few days later and cook up a story that they survived by some form of
luck or miracle.
These are just the most glaring logic
flaws I've noticed. There are still a lot of other things I can
complain about (like how Superman came on a small rocket ship but it
turned out there was another big kryptonian ship that fell in the
Artic. What? Who sent it there? Jor-El?).
Superman is an interesting character.
There are a lot of interesting situations you can put him in. But
David S. Goyer gave us a half assed script.
It makes me wonder – does he even like Superman even just remotely or did he just went about writing this script
because it was another job he had to do?
