Clearing My Head of Man of Steel, A Short Post

Here’s the deal, folks. My grandfather has been ill since Sunday, and in the hospital since Tuesday. I’m getting up very early tomorrow to spend an hour with him before work, and probably should  have been in bed over an hour ago.

Not only that, but I saw Man of Steel on Tuesday.

Let me just say that there were bound to be some people who took issue with the reimagining of the character, and still others who would stand by its merits as a film, but I never foresaw this. The amount of divisiveness this movie has created is unbelievable, and the opinions I’ve read have been at such far extremes and delivered with such furor. People have debating Man of Steel like it’s the church’s stance on predestination.

The thing is, I am one of those people.

I have been reading reviews and comments sections on this for days and I cannot stop thinking about this film. My hope is that this will be a way to get my thoughts out there so that I can concentrate on really anything else.

Contrary to the past two of my posts, this is not going to be two opposing viewpoints followed up by my own thoughts.What follows are a number of links about Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel that more or less mirror my opinions exactly.

Can someone explain to me who young Clark was pretending to be?

To break up the negativity critical analysis what follows after that are two really well-written pieces on why Superman is so important, and why so many people love him.

I had my own thoughts on the film, of course, but figured that people had written all of them far earlier and far better than I had time for. There will be another post up later today, and one that uses more of my own words. The links are in no particular order. All are worth reading, and all contain spoilers:

Man of Steel Reviews

‘Man Of Steel’: On My Planet, The ‘S’ Is For Sucks

Chris Sims of ComicsAlliance describes himself as being an “international Batmanologist,” but he certainly knows plenty about comic books as a whole. He makes a particularly good comment about the nature of Kal-El’s final decision in the film.

Man of Steel, Movie of Tedium

Jim Smith is one of the many contributors at Mightygodking, and has a pros and cons list that is vastly more even than the next review I’m about to link to. The man also points out something related to race which I didn’t pick up on, and that’s always fun.

The Problem(s) With Man Of Steel

An entry in the bimonthly [as far as I can tell] CBR feature “She Has No Head!”, this time around Kelly Thompson outlines the 5 good and 11 bad points of the film. She really liked Faora [but who doesn’t?].

MAN OF STEEL, SINCE YOU ASKED.

Mark Waid loves Superman. He is a comic writer and the acclaimed author of such hits as Kingdom Come and Superman: Birthright, the latter of which had a pretty significant influence on Man of Steel. His review includes a very visceral response from one of the audience members in his theatre.

The Most Important Scenes from Man of Steel (As I Remember Them)

io9 writer Rob Bricken describes the movie, scene by scene, in a way that is both snarky and painfully funny. By doing so, however, he analyzes a lot of pretty significant plot holes, raising questions you may not have asked yourself during the film.

Choice And The Moral Universe Of ‘Man Of Steel’ 

2 Great Articles On the Last Son of Krypton

This issue: SUPERMAN DOESN’T DIE!!!

Another Mightygodking post, this one by Justin Zyduck, and one that contests the idea of Superman being boring. This article is a weapon that every Superman apologist should have in their arsenal, and should be required reading for anyone planning on writing about him.

Superman and the War Against Anachronism

Kit MacFarlane explains, in-depth, exactly how important the 75-year-old character is to pop culture, as well as why it is that so many people tend to hate him. He believes that Superman being “out of fashion” is just as important as anything else about the character.