Skip to main content

Man Of Steel

Man Of Steel

" I teach you the superman.  Man is something to be surpassed." 
1883

Friedrich Nietsche 1844-1900



We know the story of Superman right?  The infant from Krypton is sent to Earth, whereby he is looked after by two unassuming individuals who guide him along his quest to find himself as he approaches adulthood whilst acknowledging his extraordinary powers, all to save the world.  I can relate, it is the hero's quest and journey, and I have written about this before and totally understand the path that the hero takes to bring the 'Elixir' home!  The estimated budget was $225,000,000; a huge sum, but not unusual for this type of film.

Henry Cavill encapsulates the sensitivity and power mixed in one that Superman embodies; at times unsure of himself, his place on Earth, the power he has and the force that he can impose when he uses his strength for the good of mankind.  The action in the film is fast, lot's of it and I have to say that the cinematography and colour is quite astonishing.  There are some scenes that win me over, that capture an innocence in Kal El before the responsibility of what he stands for begin to play on his mind.  These scenes set the story, but as far as I'm concerned end the film perfectly well too, when we have a young Kal El, with a deep red cape, playing with his dog, near the clothes line as a young Superman.  

Man of Steel is all action, other than the flashbacks which are sedate and artistic.  It is all Hollywood, and for most of the film it does have the WOW factor, where all the fight scenes end in total destruction of the city scape.  Thanks to Terminator we see this constantly in films, no different here.  
Problem is, the WOW factor disappears during the last fight scene, the pivotal end, when Superman and General Zod fight, not only do these two destroy an entire city during their fight, but when it comes to killing General Zod, all Superman does is break his neck.

I was left disappointed, how can one destroy an entire city with the impact and power of their body, get into uncompromising positions, smash bridges, throw cars around, be thrown around, yet be killed by a snap of the neck, I would have thought the neck could have snapped with an awkward landing...Very weak, and if there is a WOW factor throughout an entire film,  the WOW should definitely be at the end too!  Hollywood owes the audience that at least-for in Superman, man must feel like they are surpassed, a neck snap is too cliche and easy!

Stella Dimadis 2013



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Memories are the key not to the past, but to the future.

"Memories are the key not to the past, but to the future. "   Corrie Ten Boom Corrie Ten Boom was a Dutch watchmaker, who had helped many Jews escape during the Holocaust, was a prisoner and then a writer.  She held many memories, no doubt, fears; images that would stay forever and haunt her, but they were able to unlock a future for her that she would never have imagined.  Her writing and her boldness initiated her knighthood by the Queen of the Netherlands, The King's College in New York City named a new women's house in her honour, her book "The Hiding Place", was  made into a feature film, twice. Locked away in our computer hard drives are examples of our work and lives that we lock away when our computer sleeps, forgetting about their importance because we are always told to focus on the now, forgetting about our past.  Well, perhaps it is time that we also learn to love our past, regardless of what it was like, so that we can understand what our
Post a Comment
Read more

Writer's block

Writer's block The Writer's responsibility is to his art.  He will be completely ruthless if he is a good one.  He has a dream.  It anguishes him so much he must get rid of it.  He has no peace until then... William Faulkner  Having written films, articles, essays, reports, it has always, at one stage or another, plagued me when I have had writer's block.  That moment when I sit staring at the computer screen as if it is an alien standing it's ground in a duel for battle with me.  Eyeing me, daring me to drop my weapons of my imagination.  The frustration builds up and chocolate beckons, serenading the virtues of itself.  It is all too familiar, this battle, and I may have thrown my writing in all together had it not been for my editor in the late 90's when I completed some articles for Who Weekly. I remember grizzling into the phone line with him that my writing was not perfect...there was something missing...I couldn't pinpoint it...it didn't make
2 comments
Read more
 Nature repeats itself "It never occurs to me that (skulls) have anything to do with death. They are very lively. I have enjoyed them very much in relation to the sky." Georgia O'Keefe In the previous blog, I wrote about the the human form and the importance of it in creativity and art.  Mastering the human form will allow the creator to master other forms in nature. I have some palm trees in the back yard which have surprised me by how high they have become.  They were sold as small trees and now over power my small back area, towering over the trees in suburban Melbourne.  Despite their height, I have enjoyed the changes that they display with each season.  I don't know much about palm trees, but come autumn, they shed some of the old branches and their bark.  Mornings I will wake to find these scattered in my very small yard, did I already say I have a small yard?  You can imagine the space these take.  In any case, recently I found a piece of the bark on the groun
Post a Comment
Read more