To me I think he's just not a great storyteller. He obviously loves comics - and you can tell from movies like 300, Watchmen and Sucker Punch that he has an idea of how to try and make movies looks like graphic novels. But what he is is a glorified DP. None of his movies are effective story telling, they all look amazing (although it wears off after a while..) but I don't know why I am supposed to have liked Superman in Man of Steel. First of all, why the heck is Jonathan Kent like "maybe you should have let the children on the bus die". That's not at all like his character. Then there is a flashback in the film where an apparently moody teenage Clark Kent (who still looks 30), is having a ridiculous "you're not my real dad" fight. But wait, a tornado comes and Superman leaves his middle age father to rescue the dog, cause you know, he's a ****ty Superman. Then the father gets trapped and doesn't have time to flee the tornado, despite an emotional 20 second stare into his sons eyes. I mean, Superman could have just run kinda fast to save him. But meh.
Back to the present, Superman fights General Zod, by tackling him from the middle of a Kansas corn field, into the nearest towns petrol station probably killing dozens of people. On his mission to kill Zod he happily destroys most of a city killing likely millions, but then finally snaps Zod's neck at the end. Amongst this he has been able to hide his identity all his life, but a Lois Lane can find him in what appears to be less than a week. I'm not a huge Superman fan at the best of times, but jeez. It was like "what can we do if we don't hire a good writer and instead have three hours of Superman destroying stuff. So yeah, in my opinion it was crap. And it's a bad movie to launch a franchise off. Marvel got Iron Man so right. No one cared about Iron Man prior to the first movie, since then they can just launch a bunch of ***les you don't even give a ***** about, but know at some point you'll see them with Robert Downey Jr. The Superman films just don't inspire anyone to be excited.
Still, I am happy about the cast for the next film. I'm not sure I'm going to be a fan of Eisenberg as Luthor. I think he may just act the same as Social Network but a bit more..evil. They'll spin it as a modern take on Luthor, which basically means not at all like the character. He certainly can't chew the scenery like Spacey or Hackman. Irons seems to young, but I like him a lot as an actor and I didn't like Michael Cane as Alfred anyway. I think this movie they'll just try and pack too much in. I think basing it off The Dark Knight Returns which seemed to be the original idea is a great way to go - but it seems they want every character from Wonder Women to Aquaman - which no matter how good the casting is seems like they're just throwing way too much into a film that hasn't had the same ground work as The Avengers.
I feel same regards Superman. I think there was better options than Affleck though. I'd have went with a more versatile guy like Bale was. There's a few out there.
See I was never a huge fan of Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne. I loved the films but I think it was the bad guys that made them great. Heath Ledger was an amazing take on the Joker, while Tom Hardy's Bane take on Bane was better than I think anyone could have hoped. Both of them just had great line after great line - delivered in a way which somehow seemed real enough. DKR wasn't quite flawless, but the lines form Hardy are enough to just enjoy by themselves. Bale as Bruce Wayne always kind of came off as...a bit of a salky prat. When I think of Bruce Wayne I think of Kevin Conroy's kind of aloof portrayal - still a nice and well liked guys who does a lot of good, but doesn't appear to have the fortitude to be a Batman. Bale just came off as kind of arrogant. I think the problem is, I think Bale always seems like a douche bag, which by all accounts is because he is. And then there is the stupid Batman voice...jesus. It worked well when he barely said anything, but when he's delivering monologues your like "ohh man, bad choice". My favorite bit is when Batman is telling Gordon that a hero is someone who gives a boy a coat and some ****, all in his ****ty Batman voice. I mean if you're effectively telling him who you are, why do it in that Batman voice. Bale also has the worst comeback in history of Batman's.
Bane: So, you came back to die with your city.
Batman: No. I came back to stop you.
Jesus...
