What did you think of Man of Steel?

[TheEconomist]

The "one day" part is nothing more than Jonathan trying to give him some hope - the biggest white lie of them all.

Not necessarily. The parts of the lore I've been accustomed to show his father as being a very calculating, philosophical person with very clear and concerete opinons on Clark's place in the world. I've seen entire story archs dedicated to Johnathan Kent taking purposeful steps to mold Kent for when he became Superman, Smallville is a prime, drawn out example of this. Half of his lines in the show where, "You need to be like this or handle this gracefully for when people know about you or else they won't accept you." I doubt he'd go through so much trouble just to make a Superbeing feel better when it was doing the exact opposite in many situations, at least in the show. I'm no Superman buff, and I don't know much about Johnathan except from Smallville (since I never read comics focusing on that story arch) but going by the movie is hardly getting the whole story from what I've seen.

[TSCR]

Not necessarily. The parts of the lore I've been accustomed to show his father as being a very calculating, philosophical person with very clear and concerete opinons on Clark's place in the world. I've seen entire story archs dedicated to Johnathan Kent taking purposeful steps to mold Kent for when he became Superman, Smallville is a prime, drawn out example of this. Half of his lines in the show where, "You need to be like this or handle this gracefully for when people know about you or else they won't accept you." I doubt he'd go through so much trouble just to make a Superbeing feel better when it was doing the exact opposite in many situations, at least in the show. I'm no Superman buff, and I don't know much about Johnathan except from Smallville (since I never read comics focusing on that story arch) but going by the movie is hardly getting the whole story from what I've seen.

I think it's safe to assume that Snyder just wanted to do an Uncle Ben and threw in a random philosopgy that was contradictory and didn't make sense since he never really thought about it.

My expectations for the sequel are super low because of him. Hopefully Ben Affleck can teach him a thing or two about directing.

[TheEconomist]

I was rather disappointed with pretty much everything related to Superman and his father's relationship in the movie so I wouldn't be surprised. In the early story, that relationship is one of the most important parts of the story. Talk about getting priorities mixed up.

[TSCR]

Imagine if Batman bought up his father in the sequel and told Superman about his philosophy in case he has one. I can't imagine how much Snyder would mess it up.

[Turalyon]

I'm still wondering how people compare Man of Steel with Singer's Superman Returns. Better, worse, same?

Not necessarily. The parts of the lore I've been accustomed to show his father as being a very calculating, philosophical person with very clear and concerete opinons on Clark's place in the world. I've seen entire story archs dedicated to Johnathan Kent taking purposeful steps to mold Kent for when he became Superman, Smallville is a prime, drawn out example of this.

...but going by the movie is hardly getting the whole story from what I've seen.

Fair enough. Snyder's Jonathan didn't seem that philosophical to me and I was taking it from the angle that we shouldn't know anything about Jonathan Kent from past representations of him given the whole "reboot" thing. The character development was spare and uneven most of the time that it practically begged one to forget about thinking about it too much when watching the film.

[TSCR]

I'm still wondering how people compare Man of Steel with Singer's Superman Returns. Better, worse, same?

As a Superman fan, I can confidently say that Superman Returns was better. It had character development and for the most part the movie made sense.

However it wasn't without its flaws. I know Bryan Singer is a competent writer and director but I don't think he gave Superman Returns the justice he needed to give. I mean he wasn't trying to be original enough and was trying to mimick Donner's style. You can tell Singer is a huge Donner fan. The problem is that he's just not like Donner in terms of style. His best written movies (X2, X-men First Class) had a remarakbly different style from the one Donner used when he made Superman I & II.

That's why Superman returns lacked originality, felt forced at times and didn't feel as cohesive as Singers other films. He tried to hard to adopt a style he just wasn't used to.

If you want an in-depth look into Superman Returns than I suggest you watch this guy's video (he's also one of my favourite reviewers on YouTube although he mostly focuses on super heroes):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOr1CbyG9so

But don't get me wrong, Superman Returns is way better than any Superman film I ever expect Snyder to direct.

[TheEconomist]

I thoroughly DID NOT enjoy Superman Returns. Was so meh I can barely even remember a single thing that happened other than something about a plane and Lex Luther.

Take Man of Steel for what it is, an action movie set in the Superman universe and I think it did pretty well in that regard. No need to over analyze EVERYTHING gentleman.

[Turalyon]

I don't mind either at the end of the day. Returns was a bit mundane and Bosworth's Lois Lane was ummm... forgettable. But like TSCR said, it was largely consistent and made as much sense as one would expect with the plot it was given.

Man of Steel was bit "try hard" on the grittiness and the "realism" but it was largely fun and distracting enough from its hollow premise (origin stories have been done to death).

Oh and for those still interested to read more on the good and bad of Man of Steel they can go here.

[TSCR]

I thoroughly DID NOT enjoy Superman Returns. Was so meh I can barely even remember a single thing that happened other than something about a plane and Lex Luther.

Were you a fan of Donner and Reeves? I think one of the main reason so many critics prefer Superman Returns over Man of Steel is because it reminded them of the originals.

[TheEconomist]

Not sure I ever saw the originals.

I enjoyed Man of Steel more because it caused me to produce more dopamine and serotonin than the other movie. I don't ask why.