Thursday, May 15, 2014

Media Product Review

 Man of Steel

Superman has been my favorite superhero for a very long time. Arguably the most popular or at least well-known of the superhero family, Superman has been saving lives on our TV screens and in our books and comics for decades. But until just recently, in my opinion, there has not been a truly great Superman movie or show, as there has been with other superheros. Christopher Reeve was a good Superman, I loved watching his movies when I was younger but now they just don't entertain as much as they did and not nearly as in depth or exciting as the Superman comics and true Superman story. The other attempts have just been awful, with Smallville being okay. I could not have been more excited while watching the new Man of Steel and this blog is dedicated to explaining why it was the best Superman of all time.


The movie starts out on Planet Krypton with Jor-El  (Superman's Dad) explaining to the council that Krypton is doomed. Zod, the villain, comes in with his soldiers kills one of the council members and takes them prisoner including Jor-El. Jor-El, like a bad ass, escapes Zods thugs and although he is not able to save himself or his wife he is able to steal the Codex and send his newly born baby to Earth with the Codex inside him. Here is a link to explain exactly what the Growth Codex is: http://dccinematicuniverse.wikia.com/wiki/Growth_Codex. Zod is sent to the phantom zone with his people while everyone else on Krypton die, he is eventually released and his mission is to find the Codex, which means finding Superman. In the meantime on Earth it does a great job of showing life was like for Clark Kent, the baby, growing up and into The Man of Steel. Zod makes it to Earth and him and Superman have one the most epic showdowns of all time.

This Superman movie by far had the best background story and definitely stuck to the original storyline of Superman better than any of the other movies. Many of the shows and movies completely make up scenarios instead of just sticking with the great scenarios already given to them in the comics. Superman is such an interesting story already you can't really make it more interesting in my opinion unless you try to change it, which I hope no one wants to see. That is what happened in Superman Returns with Brandon Routh as Superman, they added so many false things that never happened and by doing that made it ridiculous and ruined the movie. Another thing that I saw this movie do that others movies have just not been able to match is the flying/fighting scene. Zod's and Superman's fighting/flying scene set completely new standards in my opinion. I have seen many movies where they attempt a fighting scene in the air or while flying and it just doesn't even compare to this movie. I recently saw the Matrix Revolutions where they probably have the next best flying/fighting scene and I would say that this movies beats it twofold.

I think that Superman has been entertaining us and inspiring people to do good for generations and I think it is important that we have a great Superman movie to represent our idol in the way that he should be represented. I also think that this movie did just that. Superman is someone you can truly look up to and this movie does a great job showing that. I think this definitely does reflect a trend in our culture. So many movies that they have been making like Transformers, Iron Man, and so many others have literally the most amazing special effects that the world has ever seen. It is honestly so amazing what we are able to do now a days with our technology that it enables us to make a great fighting/flying scene and it is really having a huge impact on the quality of our movies. The great thing about Superman is everyone loves him people old and young making the target audience of this movie everybody. The only stereotype that is in this movie is the stereotype saying that mankind wouldn't be able to except the existence of aliens without it crushing their reality in many cases. I, personally agree that in many or most cases finding proof of alien life would or may dramatically change people's lives.



Zack Snyder and David Goyer directed and developed the storyline to Man of Steel, one of the most epic movies of all time in my opinion and undoubtedly the best Superman movie. He totally hit the ball out of the park with this movie. I also heard some extremely exciting news that these two are going to pair up for the upcoming sequel Batman vs. Superman and Justice League. Cinema Blend has a great article on the subject.. The professional critics for the most part also thought that this was a good movie although some people do not share the same opinion. Many critics have been harsh on the movie such as the site Rotten Tomatoes only giving it a 56%. Comic Alliance a reputable internet site explains why they do not give good ratings here in this article. http://comicsalliance.com/man-of-steel-on-my-planet-the-s-is-for-sucks-spoilers-review/ I have been checking movie ratings for years and you have to be a pretty gosh darn good movie to get a 7/10 for the most part on IMDB and this movie got a 7.3, although personally I thought it deserved better. This is definitely a more than memorable movie in my opinion, it is a movie that you will want to see over and over again.

I have read countless Superman comics and I have now seen Man of Steel about 3 or 4 times. It does such a good job portraying Superman and the comics I just couldn't be more excited about it. A group of friends saw Man of Steel at my house and every single one of them were always very impressed by the movie. I think this movie will appeal to nearly everyone and learning that Batman vs. Superman is on it's way has me more excited than ever.