Why Man of Steel Was Bad

I'm not always a fan of Superman. It's a known fact that I rarely enjoy anything he ever does. Man of Steel is not the exception to that. I hated the film, but it wasn't because of Superman. The portrayal of Superman was the best it could be given everything else around it. Man of Steel could have been the best Superman movie ever, and to some extent it is. But, that's not saying much because Superman has had a ton of bad movies. Man of Steel wasn't as much a Superman movie, as it was a "I'm not a Green Lantern," movie. Because of that, the pressures around it and several other small factors, it wasn't as good a movie as it could be. Man of Steel ended up being Man of Meh.

The biggest issue with Man of Steel is it isn't a Superman movie. There are times when Superman is dark and broody. Kingdom Come and Death of Superman are probably the first that come to mind for most people. However, the situation calls for a dark Superman. For the large part, Superman is the opposite of Batman. He isn't dark and brooding. He's bright and worry free. But, that's not the Superman that we got.

Instead, we got Batman with superpowers. Superman doesn't just debate his place in the world, he broods over it. All that was missing was him crouching over a gargoyle and plotting on ways to stop 2 Face. Man of Steel started out promising. I thought it would be the ultimate Superman movie, everyone did. Then, Green Lantern happened. Green Lantern was DC's attempt at making an upbeat story. It was a contrast to the dark and gritty Dark Knight Trilogy from Christopher Nolan. However, Green Lantern was a flop.

This caused them to drastically change the direction of Man of Steel. The story became darker and most noticeably the color. The film was shot in full color, as were the first promotional images. The S proudly lit up in the classic, symbolic red and yellow. Then, the trailers came out, and all of that color was gone. The film suddenly shared the same washed out and dark color pallet that Dark Knight films did and a small part of Superman died.

Superman is supposed to fill people with hope. It's why Superman comics are always so colorful. Even his main enemy Lex Luthor sports an emerald green and purple power suit with glowing components. The color brings emotion to a peak, only for Superman to prevail and fill readers with hope. That hope was gone. Sure, the S still meant hope, but the hope was gone. There was no light. Superman had gone from deliverer of hope to man who destroys buildings.

The story in Man of Steel could have been better if we didn't have to see the DC version of Deadliest Catch, only so Superman can be more broody. The film probably wouldn't have been so depressing if they had kept the color. Superman isn't Captain America. He doesn't have to spout of sayings like "When the mob and the press and the whole world tells you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree by the river of truth and say 'No, you move'." But he also doesn't do extended monologues, that's Batman.

Man of Steel suffered because it wasn't Superman. It tried too hard to capitalize on what made the Batman films great. In doing that, it threw everything that makes Superman great to the side. Man of Steel could have been so much more than what it was. In the quest for a blockbuster film they discarded the classic traits of a character. Man of Steel was bad because Superman wasn't Superman.

You can hear Darrell on the CP Time and Powerbomb Jutsu podcasts. He also plays classic arcade games on The Cabinet
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