Superman

Superman

       With the excitement good and bad of the new Superman: Man of Steel movie released on the June, 14th, 2013 I feel compelled to write a bit about Superman: comics and movies. As a kid I watched the Christopher Reeves Superman movies and I my first comic had Superman in it (see My first comic), I even had a giant sized Superman comic that had a fold out poster of Krypton that was tacked to my wall for most of my youth. As a young kid he was cool, but in a way I think kids have a tendency to notice. Superman is colorful: Kids notice bright colors, He was mostly blue: usually a young boys favorite color, He is super strong and super fast, He can fly! plus he has bonus powers like heat/lazer/fire vision and freeze things with a single breath. He always defeats the bad guy and has basically one weakness. This is an ideal super hero, un-defeat-able.


However he wasn't my favorite, but he was the one I was familiar with first and I liked him! Until I discovered Batman and then Batman became my favorite, let me explain why that is. Batman has cool gadgets like James Bond, He drives the Bat-mobile and a Bat-Jet and a Bat-Copter and a Bat-Boat. He uses his mind to investigate crimes and fights criminal master minds. Batman wins out smarting his villains. Tim Burtons Batman with Michael Keaton was released after the Richard Donner Superman and was action packed film at the theatre and Superman I always watched at home on TV, so even the presentation was different. As I developed and grew older I appreciated the complexities of a character like Batman, meanwhile Superman continued to punch bad guys. 

 Superman has an authoritative persona where as Batman is a dark-vigilante Sherlock Holmes, each have a function in the DC universe and there are villains that are tailored to them that continue to keep people reading and watching.  Superman doesn't have Batman's troubled past and isn't as dark, Superman is a much more simple character and easily accessible to an audience that isn't interested in deeper themes, Superman fights the bad guy and rescues people, he's a good guy and we know who's side he fights for.

With the newest film by Zach Snyder Man of Steel he takes the audience into new territory with Superman emphasizing that he's an alien and that he is different and not normal, challenging our homogenized ideas of the character; He's not Human. Man of Steel deals with themes of isolation as an individual and how Clark Kent ,like ourselves, have to make decisions that define us everyday wether or not we understand our purpose. The movie is layered with so many themes that develop Superman/Kal-El into a human by examining the conditions of what it is to be living.  


Man of Steel features the war criminal General Zod which we know very little about, even if you watched the Superman II featuring Terence Stamp as the iconic villain. The movie defines him to be product of his society and environment. His thoughts and motivations predetermined by a society that limited his abilities. Yet another theme that justifies who Kal-El is and what he stands for.

Over all the movie is solid and fun. The production design, effects, acting and all are put together to make an Awesome Summer movie!

Tanks,
CoolCatM 


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