A Not So Thoughtful Take on "Man of Steel"

My 7-year old nephew is the fire that bends the Iron Me.

Watching movies has ceased to be one of my favorite things. It is expensive as it is impractical. At what other period in human history when a movie pass is more costly than a book? Moreover, the high cost of going to cinemas doesn't guarantee you will see a movie so beautiful it makes you cry. That's all gone now.

These days, movies are about computerized effects and a blue backdrop. As Alan Rickman expressed of his final scene with Ralph Fiennes in the effects-riddled last installment of the Harry Potter Series, "Finally, there are just two actors acting."

And since my nephew is the fire that bends the Iron Me (I feel that's a good line, it begs to be repeated.), he turned my Sunday plans to smoke and steered me toward the cinema where "Man of Steel" like the low density, high strength titanium paper weight, sits on some hapless films brave enough to clash with Superman with an "S" which according to the movie is really not an "S."

Weed out what has been written before the film showing, these are my thoughts of it:

1. One half of the movie reminds me of 2011 Thor starring Chris Hemsworth, and 2012 The Avengers. Hollywood has to stop imitating our very own ABS CBN and GMA 7 in being recycle experts.

2. The city is ripped apart, turned upside down, blown to smithereens, bombed every square foot, and what else do you see? Those splendid city lights giving Kal-El and General Zod a dazzling metropolitan backdrop as the two unbelievable superheroes give the Cullen's and the Volturi a run for their immortality bid. Oh, I forget, in the superhero world, you don't need to turn off the power grid when disasters strike. Calling off Apocalypse. Oops, that's from another movie!

3. One fourth of the movie is Twilight. Clark Kent doing an Edward Cullen surliness. Man, you have everything going for you: strength, power, good looks, sexy bod, killer abs, great dad, great mom. But you need to search for...truth. Pft!

4. Every child, including the one with me, came to see Superman in the red cape fly. What does this film do? It takes its sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet time unfolding while giving us a bearded Clark Kent for a hundred or so excruciating minutes. My nephew has been this way and that on his seat, asking for this and that, this close to throwing in the white towel and storming out of the movie house. The kid just has so much pride. It is the other nephew who cannot finish a whole movie in the theater, not him.

5. And why is there no "(Ninoy) Hindi ka nag-iisa" in the movie? The world is manned by our OFWs. We need our own translation of "You are not alone."

I am not going to shoot down the film in this blog's entirety. It has its own shining moments, too.  It happened in the last sixty seconds of this two hours and 34 minutes long movie. If only for those few seconds, I am going to watch the sequel.

Oh, and also for Laurence Fishburne.