[Movies] How is Man of Steel only 56% T-Mete on Rotten Tomatoes?

[Deleted]

the movie was basically endless scene of violence and lacked any kind of emotional depth. It was bland. I gave it a 5.

This. Apparently the only thing super or heroic any more is punching things and snapping necks.

[Shinzai]

This. Apparently the only thing super or heroic any more is punching things and snapping necks.

Well, I think this quote from the Penny Arcade Report summed it up pretty well:

Superman didn't come to Earth to save us, and he didn't reveal himself by saving anyone. He showed himself to us because he was forced to, and the movie boils down to a battle between the military of a dead planet and a refugee. Earth is an afterthought, not a focus.

Superman, in the comics and the films, is a force for good, someone who makes the planet better because of who he is, what he does, and what he represents. In Man of Steel, our planet would have been saved if he had simply not shown up. He's the product of a broken, decadent experiment in eugenics who fights his battles among us in the most destructive way possible. Superman isn't an ideal, and he's not a hero that walks among us; he's just an alien who brings destruction to our doorstep.

[Mirishka]

I was going over critics on Rotten Tomatoes and noticed that Man of Steel was only at 56%?! I went to the opening and I freaking loved the movie, at the end when the Credits rolled people got up and cheered... I don't see how it got 56% in my opinion.

Because your opinion =/= other peoples' opinions. Duh.

I enjoyed it for the most part, but it was not something I'd run out screaming to buy on DvD.

[OrcsRLame]

the movie was basically endless scene of violence and lacked any kind of emotional depth. It was bland. I gave it a 5.

There was like, 4 fight scenes in the whole movie, half of which involved Superman.

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Oh, the problem with Superman, as I see it, he's too perfect. How can us flawed mortals possibly relate to a perfectly strong, and _perfectly moral_ being? We can't. We kind of WANT to see him with more of a weakness than a physical one (the magic rocks that are supposed to be SO RARE) ... Superman needs a bigger flaw than some stupid rocks that no one is suppsed to have (but seem to possess by the truckload).

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Then it's what he likes, and to hell with what the PC crowd thinks? The left now hates Isreal anyway, so why are these movies so wrong now? Nowadays, those could be classified as anti-Palestinian propaganda - because if Hitler had somewhere to send the Jews to, he might not have had a compulsion to kill them. Remember, kids, Hitler was the reason Isreal was created in the first place. So that Jews could have somewhere safe to run when the world turns against them, just like Muslims have tons of countries to run to if we chase them out of our countries (as we should!)

You can't really relate to any superhero. Iron Man is, by his own words, a genius billionaire playboy philanthropist. Batman is a "human" with absolutely impossible physical and mental characteristics, his parents were murdered and he inherited their ridiculous amount of wealth. The Hulk is a genius scientist that turned into a giant green monster because of too much Gamma Radiation. Captain America is a super soldier from WW2 that was frozen for over 60 years and now has to deal with a strange new world and everyone he ever knew died before he even woke up. Green Lantern is a soldier entrusted with a weapon of mass destruction that pretty much forcibly inducted him into an intergalactic police force.

How the fuck can you relate to any of these characters, except through basic human experiences like pain and loss? There's nothing intrinsic to the characters that you can relate to, so it's not like Superman is uniquely flawed in this way. And why do you need to relate to a character? If you have even a little bit of imagination, you should at least be able to empathize with a character, regardless of their powers, provided they have something even resembling human emotions. Fuck, I empathized with Data from Star Trek, and he's an android that wants to be human...

[Frontenac]

Well, I think this quote from the Penny Arcade Report summed it up pretty well:

Superman didn't come to Earth to save us, and he didn't reveal himself by saving anyone. He showed himself to us because he was forced to, and the movie boils down to a battle between the military of a dead planet and a refugee. Earth is an afterthought, not a focus.

Superman, in the comics and the films, is a force for good, someone who makes the planet better because of who he is, what he does, and what he represents. In Man of Steel, our planet would have been saved if he had simply not shown up. He's the product of a broken, decadent experiment in eugenics who fights his battles among us in the most destructive way possible. Superman isn't an ideal, and he's not a hero that walks among us; he's just an alien who brings destruction to our doorstep.

Even in the traditional story, Superman does not come here to save us. Kal-El is sent to Earth by his parents to save him from the Krypton's destruction. Yes he is forced to show up because he wants to prevent any more human sufferings. It's not like he simply chose Earth as a battlefield to fight against Zod and his cronnies. Earth is not an afterthought, all he does is to save Earth and he even surrenders himself first. He chooses to fight when he learns of Zod's plan to terraform Earth into a new Krypton.

So, yeah, Superman is a refugee (he always is in the beginning). He is a refugee who chooses to do good with his superpowers. Even before he shows himself as Superman, he is a force of good. We see that in the numerous lives he saved as Clark Kent. Let's also remember that it's the first movie that introduces the character. We will see what kind of change he will bring in Man of Steel 2. Kal-El is not the product of decadent eugenics. On the contrary. In Man of Steel, he is the only Kryptonian to have been born naturally from two Kryptonian parents in millenia. Zod and his minions are products of eugenics. He fights with destructive force against an even more destructive force. He does so on Earth, because Zod wants to conquer it and destroy all humans. Where should he fight except Earth? Besides, its not like he chose to live on Earth. He was launched here by his parents... As for bringing destruction to our doorstep, he is not really different from all other superheroes. Ever watched the Justice League? Half of Metropolis or Gotham gets destroyed during a combat between the League and Brainiac, Darkseid, the Thanagarians or any other supervilain and everything's back to normal the day after. It just goes with the genre.

[OrcsRLame]

Well, I think this quote from the Penny Arcade Report summed it up pretty well:

That quote is really dumb. The Military was poking around the Genesis Ship already. They would have activated the distress beacon by destroying the sentry if Clark didn't.

In some ways though, I actually like seeing criticism like that. It's almost as if the critics are writing Lex Luthor's propaganda for Man of Steel 2. With so many people actually thinking that way, I think they'll be able to pull off a really believable Lex.

[Frontenac]

There was like, 4 fight scenes in the whole movie, half of which involved Superman.

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You can't really relate to any superhero. Iron Man is, by his own words, a genius billionaire playboy philanthropist. Batman is a "human" with absolutely impossible physical and mental characteristics, his parents were murdered and he inherited their ridiculous amount of wealth. The Hulk is a genius scientist that turned into a giant green monster because of too much Gamma Radiation. Captain America is a super soldier from WW2 that was frozen for over 60 years and now has to deal with a strange new world and everyone he ever knew died before he even woke up. Green Lantern is a soldier entrusted with a weapon of mass destruction that pretty much forcibly inducted him into an intergalactic police force.

How the fuck can you relate to any of these characters, except through basic human experiences like pain and loss? There's nothing intrinsic to the characters that you can relate to, so it's not like Superman is uniquely flawed in this way. And why do you need to relate to a character? If you have even a little bit of imagination, you should at least be able to empathize with a character, regardless of their powers, provided they have something even resembling human emotions. Fuck, I empathized with Data from Star Trek, and he's an android that wants to be human...

I agree with you. I would add that if you can't relate much with a superhero that is the equal of a greek god, you can at least relate with the ones he is trying to protect, which makes you hope he will succede. I believe that is the role of Lois Lane, Perry White, Jimmy Olsen and Pa and Ma Kent. It humanises the character. They could have made Superman a superpowered alien that comes to Earth and is always Superman with no need for a secret identity. The fact that Superman is Clark Kent (or that Clark Kent is Superman) with "normal" relationships makes it more easy for us to relate with the character.