Man of Steel: Thoughts on rewatch

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got worse. 

I like Zod more every time I watch it though. 

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watched it for the first time yesterday and thought it wasn't as bad as people made it out to be 

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It's pretty hard to frick up a Superman movie but this one 

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technically he saved earth but so much shite was destroyed in the process

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destroy the entirety of metropolis

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MOS is the story of Clark Kent learning he is Kal El, son of Jor El at the same time Militant Kryptonian War Criminals find Earth. It just so happens that Jor El, not Kal El, not Jonathan Kent, not Martha Kent or Clark Kent, wanted Kal to become something analogous to what we know as Superman. From the moment Jor El was in on the secret that was Earth and the power granting effects of its yellow sun, he foresaw his son being the start of something new. All around him he saw that his peoples time was coming to end. Genetically, philosophically and biologically. Kal El was going to have mixed within him the diversity of an entire species worth of DNA.

Kal El is Moses and Noah if you prefer biblical embellishments.

So, Kal is sent, along with a holo copy of his Father’s personae. Jonathan and Martha have no way of getting to that info nor does Clark for most of his life. He just grows up knowing his different and on Earth different is maligned and feared. Our entire history has been centered around “Those people are different than us, therefore less than us, kill them, subjugate them, take what they have” Jonathan reinforces that lesson again and again on an impressionable Clark Kent. Jonathan’s belief in this fact is so complete that he sacrifices his life with peaceful contentment knowing his death preserves the family secret for at least one more day.

So Clark travels the world using his gifts to help people only they aren’t really gifts to him, they are natural as running and breathing our to us. If you woke up on a planet of beings who could only walk, and to fit in were told you could never run or let people see you run…well you could get by …but the first time you saw that running could have saved someone you’d be racked with guilt or indecision ..you were told they might turn on you if they saw you move that way…

Anyways….

Clark saves people in secret (Well, not so secret)because tales of a mysterious stranger/angel who disappears as suddenly as he appeared start to pile up until they can’t be ignored. Why this urban folklore stands out to Lois Lane is never fully explained in the movie but …it’d be nice if they revisited this later.

At this point Clark is just doing what comes natural as he searches for answers. Its not fulfilling because through it all he is afraid. So he doesn’t lay down any roots. He is a faceless drifter.

When he finds the buried scout ship it is Jor El who lays it all out for him.

It was no accident that you were sent here. I did this because you represent a new kind of hope for a dying race. You will have power beyond comprehension and it is my hope that these words give you a sense of purpose. Lead these people, protect them, defend them, and inspire them. Give them hope.

It reads like something you’d imagine a benevolent dying king saying to his son.

When he is given the family crest and exits the ship he now has a mission. A purpose, something to point to for direction.

But he is still not Superman.

When all hell breaks loose in Smallville he is merely Clark Kent, with some answers.

The punching, throwing, and flying that’s happening there –that’s Clark Kent shedding 30 years of Inhibitions and fear.

Its messy, destructive and reactive. He is not planning out the battle. He isn’t directing the fight away from anything or anyone but his mother.

It ends in a stalemate.

When he flies to the Pacific to destroy the terraformer, knowing that being near it could result in his death, that is the fire in which the man we know as Superman starts to be forged.

When he destroys the scout ship, activates the phantom zone wormhole, saves Lois –He is almost the person we know as Superman…he has chosen to defend, protect and save us.

When he faces off against Zod, its an emotional battle for both men. Zod is threatening to destroy the Earth and kill its entire population. Clark still doesn’t fight with a plan, he just knows he has to stop Zod. Is he thinking death is the only way? No. He isn’t thinking more than one step at a time.

Zod controls the entire flow of the battle. This is when it becomes apparent that Zod isn’t planning on making good with his threats. He simply wants a warriors death. He is going to make Clark, as his parting punishment to this betrayer of Krypton (Like his father), kill him, the last of his people.

Clark Kent, son of Jonathan Kent, son of Jor El, kills Zod. He crumbles to his knees. The weight of his action has shaken him to his core. He was manipulated and the shame of that action will be a weight he carries with him the rest of his life.

He is still not Superman.

Superman won’t show up until the next movie. He will be older, wiser, more restrained, and know during every waking moment of his existence what the full extent of his power can do. If any of you have ever given into your destructive rage, be it out of fear, loss, anger or some other darkness …once you’ve experienced it you know it’s a place you never want to go again.

That’s the lesson Clark Kent has learned and as Superman he will now have to think 20 steps ahead, consider the consequences, choose the less reflexive option.

We saw Clark Kent, we saw the Cape and familiar insignia …..all the pieces were there but he hasn't adopted the personae of the Superhero known as Superman.

So when you read, hear people complain that MOS wasn't a Superman movie or the Superman they thought they knew

In a way they were right,

We haven’t yet seen the new Superman in action.

EDIT: I thought I would also add in the unfavorable comparisons to Christoper Reeve's Superman.

That Superman was the inheritor of knowledge and wisdom of his planets version of Einstein, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Issac Newton all rolled into one. He spent ten years with him learning about us, himself and the entire collected knowledge of the known universe. When that Superman took his first flight out of the Fortress he knew the full extent of his power, the rules on what he could and could not do with them. Its like comparing two good men who want to change the world with one entering the workforce after graduating high school and the other entering the workforce 12 years later as a Neurosurgeon. Their still both good men, and there is a chance the high school graduate could become a self made man with philanthropic intent but the Neurosurgeon is going to have more focus, less trial and error and an easier life on his path.

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Our entire history has been centered around “Those people are different than us, therefore less than us, kill them, subjugate them, take what they have” Jonathan reinforces that lesson again and again on an impressionable Clark Kent

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