I can't put them all in one box but they're all equally annoying. Obviously it starts with people who still define Superman based on Christopher Reeve/Donner and are upset that MOS is different, just like Star Wars Prequel haters who cared more about Nostalgia then moving forward. And a sub group of that are those rare people who actually like Superman Returns, fine I have no problem with people liking it, but let those of us who grew up enjoy our modern Superman movie.
The complaints about Man of Steel being too dark are kinda silly, Batman V Superman looks like it'll have a dark story due to having Batman, but Man of Steel was not really a dark story. No really important good guy character died besides one soldier character and Clark's parental figures who always die in a Hero origin story. It was really a very uplifting film, it makes me smile every time I watch it.
But superficially it was visually dark in cinematography, so they call it a dark bleak depressing film. But you know what, so were the Fleischer shorts, their visual look was very dark, but no one denies they got the character of Superman right.
Batman V Superman is looking to have a much brighter cinematography even though the story will actually be darker. That makes sense to me because Superman's existence is making this world brighter, but it's always Darkest just before the Dawn.
I am not involved in any Marvel vs DC rivalry. I love all of Marvell's films so far, but I'm worried about their future with Civil War being a horrible story-line right from the source material.
People who think Marvel's Films follow the comics closer then DC are clearly with DC being selective in what comics they consider valid. The DCCU is looking to draw on many comics I don't like, but I'm not gonna pretend there is no Comic precedent. The Marvel films meanwhile take a lot of liberties to make them less dark and more fitting to the stereotypical style people have affiliated with the MCU. Which is why I fear doing Civil War is likely to be a lose lose situation for Marvel. Either the story is changed completely to fit the MCU's presumed style, or the people going to Marvel films for the presumption of fun family friendly Superhero action are going to be greatly disturbed.
Almost all of that small but growing loud minority of people who didn't like Nolan's Batman are MOS haters. MOS was not a Nolan film, and Batman V Superman is going to remove what little Nolan influence there was. And as a Nolan fan I'm fine with that, Nolan's vision was great but it's time for a new one.
The people at Bros Watch PLL Too however are not Nolan haters, they clearly like at least The Dark Knight. I'm big fan of theirs, I agree with most of what they say about PLL (only difference is I don't share the Self Righteous Ezra/Ezria outrage most older PLL fans have). And I love how they're not Prequel haters in their SW podcast. But they clearly are haters of things trendy to hate in other areas. In the their latest SW podcast they went off again on MOS and BvS.
They said the people who like MOS aren't giving reasons they're just yelling. That pissed me off, nothing offends me more then when someone is told they need to justify liking something. I like movies because they entertain me, I need no other justification. But if you want to hear people address intelligently all the MOS hate try this Youtube channel, or this website which on many other issues pisses me off a lot. Or Angry Joe's MOS reviews, he loved MOS but seems to be worried about BvS.
They complained about the Destruction, which is so juvenile, Comic Books have destruction that goes beyond that constantly. And no, there were no civilian casualties to the actual one on one Superman vs Zod battle, Metropolis was evacuated by then and Superman was using his X-Ray vision. People complain they didn't address the destruction, if they had wasted to much time after the big battle "Addressing" things we'd have gotten the RotK complaints all over again "to many endings". And that was one of SR's problems. MOS ended leaving things open for the Sequel.
And the complaints about killing Zod are ridiculous. Superman's no Kill rule shouldn't be like Batman's. Batman is a human dealing with other humans, and with special training to know how to resolve non lethally things that for a normal person would be Kill or be Killed. Superman and Wonder Woman fight threats that cannot be contained by Earthly prisons, when Superman is dealing with other Krytponians condemning him for killing Zod to save an innocent life is just as absurd as condemning a human cop for killing a human murder who was about to kill an innocent person.
In the Comics Superman has killed various versions of Zod, Doomsday, and the Cyborg Superman. And others.
And they complained about the Jesus Allegory stuff, which brings us back to that they liked TDK. The Messianic Archetype is part of most great Superhero stories including TDK. Not only that but as an actual Evangelical Christian I can assure you Nolan's Batman is ever so slightly more like specifically Jesus in TDK then Superman is in any film. Because Batman took Harvey's sins upon himself.
Superman is not really an allegory for Jesus specifically in any of these movies. Writers and directors say "Jesus" when talking about Superman's messianic qualities because in the western world where Christianity has been the default religion for over a millennium "Jesus" and Messiah have become effectively synonyms.
I don't know why the Messianic stuff bothers people with Superman only, it's done less subtly with Superman but it would be, if Superman existed people would deify him, the real world has already deified a man (Christopher Reeve) merely for playing him. Comics have dealt with those issues constantly, from Kingdom Come to Injustice.
I see people complain about Superman's messianic qualities in various movies and TV shows and acting like the Comics have never gone there. Siegel and Shuster were Jews so they didn't think of Jesus, but they did model him after Moses and Samson who are in the basic literary sense Messianic Archetypes just as much as Jesus and David. That is why Christians view them as types of Christ.
And Superman's most successful Comic story-line, the one that brought many new fans into Comics in the 90s and was the first to ever get a prose Novelization. Entirely revolved around Superman dying and rising from the dead. That Iconic image of Lois holding Superman body on her knees is clearly modeled after classical depictions of Mary holding Jesus body at the foot of the Cross.
And MOS haters like all loud minorities love to talk like they're the majority, like their rightness is obvious. Well I actually interact with people less nerdy then myself, and I can tell you every person I know in person who's seen MOS liked it.
Man of Steel was not the ideal Superman I'd wanted, but it's the closest yet. The Donner films were great films for their time, but at the end of the day Reeve was virtually the opposite of the Superman I love. I do wish Cavil's costume had looked brighter, in Batman V Superman that looks to be fixed. And in-spite of all it's justifications I still don't like Johnathon Kent saying "Maybe", it bugged me in trailers and I was hoping in film he'd immediately take it back, but he didn't.
And I hate Krypton again being a dystopic lifeless society, just like in the Donner film and Post-Crisis comics. I've seen people justify it many times, saying when addressing the 80s Man of Steel comics that it felt like Krypton deserved to die, and I guess they feel that makes your Superhero's origin story beginning with an entire civilization being destroyed more palatable. But I want it to feel like something was lost when Krypton blew up, I want some reason to feel like I'd have been fun to live there. If you want to give a sense that Krypton brought about it's own destruction somehow then just make it Decadent, like how Ancient Rome gets caricatured, or the Republic in the Star Wars Prequels. Or Caprica which was a great show.
And I have my concerns about Batman V Superman, mostly with the DKR influence. Once I see trailers telling more of the story I'll get a good sense on if my concerns are justified. Many people wind up hating films they were excited for, but not me, my discernment is good, every film I've ever had high expectations for has exceeded them.
No comments:
Post a Comment