Yay! I finally had a chance to see the movie.
I'll start off by sharing one reaction I had that I am guessing is unique among members of this MB: I thought the scenes with Clark and Zod reacting to their newly heightened senses were phenomenally well done. I was thrilled to see them, because now I have another tool in my arsenal for trying to describe to others what my son is going through when he has a meltdown due to sensory overload. Obviously my son doesn't have to deal with x-ray vision, but he still has trouble taking in all the sensory input when, say, he is in a crowded store that has music playing.
All right, while I'm typing, I guess I will give a few of my other thoughts:
- I was concerned when I saw Lara giving birth at the start of the movie that the producers didn't seem to know their Superman comic lore; I was quickly relieved of that misapprehension, though, when they indicated that Kal-El's natural conception and birth was the exception rather than the rule.
- I love what they did with Kelex. They kept the robot true to the comics while adapting it for modern movie-going audiences.
- As good as the movie was, I thought it could have been improved dramatically if they had shaved off at least 15, possibly even 30, minutes of the destruction. We would have gotten the idea of what was going on without the repetitive demolition.
- I had heard the phrase "Black Zero" bandied about a lot leading up to the movie, and had been eager to hear precisely what it referred to. If they actually uttered that phrase in the movie, though, I missed it. What, precisely, did it refer to? General Zod's ship? The terraforming ship? Something else?
- I had been excited that Lois was going to play a pivotal role in saving the world, but then was extremely disappointed to see that Emil Hamilton had to do what she apparently could not.
- I didn't like Jonathan's characterization. I had no problems with him being paranoid about his son, but I do have a problem with him saying that perhaps young Clark should have let the schoolbus-full of children die.
- 9/11 is still too fresh in my memory for me to feel comfortable being entertained by seeing buildings coming down, especially due to (admittedly extraterrestrial) terrorists.
- I'm still not sure why Jimmy Olsen underwent a sex change. Jenny played such a minor role in this movie that, unless they have gender-specific plans for her in a sequel, it seems to me to be change for change sake.
- Metropolis seemed so thoroughly destroyed, I'm wondering how the Planet managed to be back in business apparently so soon afterward.
- I really enjoyed the bit of romance between Lois and Clark in the movie.
- I'm hoping that there is enough box office response to this movie that they make a sequel, and that the sequel is as good. (Would it be too much to hope that they spend less time on punchy-punchy-run-run and special effects and devote the time thus gained to plot, characterization, and relationships?)
And on a different, although still movie-related, note -- I was in my local Walmart earlier this week, and it was wonderful seeing Superman memorabilia in several places around the store. I didn't buy anything, but it was still nice to see. (I did try on the shirts; unfortunately, they only sold men's shirts, and none of the sizes fit me well. I guess they didn't think there would be enough fan girls to warrant making Superman-themed women's shirts.)
Joy,
Lynn
edit: How could I forget such a biggie? I have seriously mixed feelings about Clark killing Zod, at least in the manner they showed. I think a lot of my opinion of that will depend on whether a sequel, if such there be, deals with him trying to come to terms with his actions and with how his killing Zod will affect humanity's view of him. On the one hand, it was certainly justifiable as an act of war and in defense of humanity; on the other hand, it is one of the first deeds of Superman which the world will have seen. Not necessarily the best first impression to make on humanity. If the sequel does deal with the psychological aftermath (both Clark's and the general human population's) and if it handles it well, then I might be OK with it. If not, then I am not.
I know that Superman has killed before, even relatively recently (late 1980s), in comic-book canon. The circumstances were actually fairly similar -- three Kryptonian criminals escaped the Phantom Zone and killed everyone on a pocket-universe's counterpart to earth. They threatened to do the same to Clark's earth. He exposed them to gold kryptonite to remove their powers permanently, and then executed them by exposing them to green K. But the comics spent *many* months dealing with the psychological aftermath of Clark breaking his vow never to kill. Clark was seriously haunted by his deeds -- he even exiled himself from earth -- but he had seen no other way to ensure the safety of earth. If the movies deal with the consequences of the killing as well as the comics did, I'll be OK with it. If they just gloss it over, however, then I would say that this isn't the way I would like to see Superman handled.
