How to Fix Man of Steel (Part 2)

A better story arc for Lois Lane
Man of Steel's Lois Lane may be one of the most boring Lois Lane in Superman's history. She played very little role in the film and in some scenes, I believe, she is forcibly put into them to give her more screen time. There was no reason for her to be taken captive into Zod's ship and no reason for her to be on board the military plane during the mission to crash Superman's baby ship into Zod's ship, especially when she had already told the general and Supes; how to already carry out the plan. She just met Clark within 24 hours and their kissing scene and relationship felt way too rushed. I am particularly disappointed with the way Superman first met Lois Lane. In the past, it has always been an iconic moment of how Superman first meets Lois Lane. Much of the time, this happens when Superman is doing a big heroic save. In the original movie, his heroic save at the Daily Planet is not only his first public appearance to the world but also his first meeting with Lois Lane as Superman. In Superman Returns, it was the airplane save that reintroduces Superman to the world and to Lois Lane. If anything, let it be iconic! I don't see how the first meeting of Clark and Lois, with her being injured and Clark had to cauterize her wound is any epic or remotely interesting.

 "Hey, I just met you... Here's my number, so- Screw it! Kiss me already!"

Lois and Clark's relationship felt more rushed than the Smallville's version.

Being an iconic and important character in Superman's comic book history, Lois Lane deserves a way better story arc than what she has in Man of Steel. She felt more like a side character in Man of Steel than actually being part of the main line up of characters. In previous incarnation, I always felt she is particularly useful in introducing Clark around the Daily Planet and in their line of news reporting, and maybe even more interesting would be to have a bit of rivalry between them. Even a love triangle between Lois Lane, Clark Kent and Superman would be an interesting story to tell. It almost worked in the Smallville TV series and in the movie, Superman 4. However, that only works if you have Lois Lane not realizing that Supes and Clark are one and the same. And this would work only if you have Clark disguised and working in the Daily Planet early on in the movie. So, what can you do with Lois Lane in Man of Steel before Clark begins to work in the Daily Planet? I guess only her reporting skills can be of good use for her and for the audience to find out more about Superman's background and powers. I guess the only part I did like with Man of Steel's Lois Lane was when she does her digging to look out for her mystery man. "How, do you find someone who has
spent a lifetime covering his tracks... For some he was a guardian angel... For others a cypher, a ghost who never quite fit in."

A reporter with no military training on a mission that's potentially suicidal. That's real smart, Lois.

Superman's First Public Appearance

Superman's First Public appearance is a key moment in Superman's Year One story. Once again, in most incarnation of Superman's origin story. Once you dealt with Clark discovering who he is and what's his purpose here on Earth, all eyes are now turned to how he's going to step out and present himself to the world. In the past, we've got him saving Lois Lane from plummeting down to her doom and stopped a helicopter from crashing to the crowd below, and all eyes, camera and media are on him as he makes the heroic save. In Superman Returns, he is reintroduced to the world when he rescued an airplane from crashing, and got a lot of spotlight when he brought it down in a stadium full of people, and the Smallville TV series finale, he finally stepped out into the world and pushed back an entire planet from bringing certain doom to the world. In Man of Steel however, he lacklusterly showed up to surrender.

In the original movie, he got to the chopper.

 In Returns, he rescued an airliner.

In Smallville, he saves the Air Force One and pushed an entire planet away.

In Man of Steel, he... surrenders...

What can you do instead? Give Superman his big heroic save! Ram up the scale and make it even more epic than the one seen in Superman Returns! If you want to continue down the theme used in Man of Steel of whether the world is ready for a super-powered alien like him. Have the public reaction to his save a mixed bag. After all, this is something that the world have never seen before. Realistically, some would react with fear of the discovery of the likes like him and some would be cheering for a hero. Have the military then try to contain him in fear that he will act "against America's interest", and make Superman realized that maybe his adopted dad is right all along, the world isn't ready for him. You can then have Lois Lane interviewing him and publishing an article to try to put the public's fear at rest ("Why the world needs Superman" article, anyone?) and have her to continue rooting for him and supporting him even when the world is very much against him. This makes more sense in building up a good relationship between them and make this conversation a whole lot more sense:

 

 

 Superman: Thank you.
Lois Lane: For what?
Superman: For believing in me.
Lois Lane: Didn't make much difference in the end.
Superman: It did to me.

Simplify the plot

I actually love it that the film showed us more of Krypton and more of its background is told in Man of Steel compared to the Richard Donner's film. But there's just too much detail for this fan boy to follow and too many figure of speech for me to comprehend. I don't get what it means for the Codex as being the hope and future of Krypton. I didn't get it as to why Jor-El wanted that to survive with Clark.. not with.. IN CLARK! What's with the whole establishment of artificial population control and Kryptonian's birth being in a pod and having their role in society predetermine? How does that factors in to Clark being different, being born of a natural birth and his attributes not predetermined by the Codex. The Codex, if i understood it correctly, is something like a registry of sorts, that plays out more like a genetic store which help creates those Kryptonian babies and somehow it will also work out which role they'll play in the society. Did a bit of researching, it's also known as the Growth Codex or Registry of Citizens Codex. So, how is that Krypton's hope and future? Why does Jor-El wanted the survival of the Codex by putting it in Clark's living cells? Why even tell Clark much later about it, explaining him that he first wanted Clark to know what it means to be human first, that one day he'll be the bridge between two worlds. Blah.. Blah.. Blah.. Say what?! I don't know how all these factor into the main storyline, and even if  it does... say, you wanted the purpose of the Codex to give Zod a reason to go after Superman in order to get his hands on it. Well, Superman is already a stumbling block to Zod's plan to establish a New Krypton which will result in the destruction of planet Earth, that's a good enough reason to have Zod squash Superman. So, just KISS (Keep It Simple and Stupid). If they want to build a background for the fans to enjoy, why not use the ones established in the comics? Fans would enjoy a little tease here and there, than to try to crack their heads to understand what's going on.

Really Bring Hope
When you hear Clark tell Lois, "It's not an S. In my world, it stands for Hope," and Jor-El telling Clark that, "You will give the people an ideal to strive towards. They will race behind you, they will stumble, they will fall. But in time, they will join you in the sun. In time, you will help them accomplish wonders" as well as "You can save her. You can save them all." You have to ask yourself in what way is Clark a beacon of hope, an ideal to strive for or even a saviour to the world, when he had nothing to show for providing hope, only saved a handful of people when he had allowed thousands to die and what sort of an ideal example of a violent person who brutally punches villains before finally snapping Zod's neck. It all sounds good in words and lines but our Man of Steel failed in keeping them. If I could change things differently in Man Of Steel, let him does a big save as his first public reveal to the world but let the world react negatively to his actions, and prefers to be left alone and doesn't require any help. Superman respects their decision and leaves. When Zod and his army come to bring certain doom to the planet and the military failed at stopping him, when all hope seems lost, Supes comes to the rescue.

Have Superman do the smart thing to save the civilians before engaging Zod. Much of the fight in Man of Steel had him causing so much destruction and lives at the expense of bringing down the baddies. I would think he would be smart and take the fight to some place else or at least make some effort to save people during the destruction. Superman 2 had him trying to rescue people while at the same time trying to deal with Zod and his henchmen. In the movie itself, the villains realising that harming the civilians could be a potential weakness for Superman and exploit it. This would force Superman to bring the fight to someplace else where there would be no collateral damage or casualties. And it would save the movie from a lot of haters bickering over the destruction caused and lives cost in the film. I understand that if you take the fight to a desert or to the ocean, the fight scenes would be boring. If that's the case, have the fight in Metropolis but have the civilians flee from the place as would a potential bombing or a terrorist attack were to occur there. In Man Of Steel, I didn't understand why the civilians have not evacuated at the sight of Zod's ship hovering over the city, especially when you already got a televised warning from Zod before hand and I had no idea why people are still seen hanging around during Superman and Zod one on one fight. One can argue that the people evacuated off screen but on my second viewing, yes, we were shown that civilians in the middle of a road traffic when Supes n Zod were brawling.

 "Let's save the day and not destroy the city."- said no Superhero ever

Reduce The Action

I felt the entire action scenes were too long and too dragged out. Especially when you thought it was all over after they got rid of the world engine, we were treated with a long showdown between Zod and Supes. Beginning with the Battle of Smallville, when Superman comes flying to Zod in full speed, grabbing his collar and repeatedly punching him in his face, while dragging him on the ground, into some buildings and finally into the Gas station, I was like all "YEA! WHOA! That's for messing with Superman!", but when we finally get him facing a final showdown with Zod... it was getting too tiring. I didn't feel the threat of having Zod finally mastering his senses, and ripping off his armor (he looks way better with his armor on). When he and Supes flying around, punching each other into buildings, it begins to feel like the face off between Neo and Smith in Matrix Revolutions. You just know, no matter how many punches they throw at each other, neither one of them is going to be remotely injured. So it really got boring after awhile and back to its resounding flat note of "meh". Trimming it down or pacing them out well would help a lot for the audience to take a breather.

Two superpowered men fighting...

It's Matrix Revolution all over again...

If Zack Synder kept his trademark slowmo, we could have seen Supes pull a punch like this.

Kill Zod?
I definitely am not the one who would advocate Superman killing Zod. Superman DOES not kill. Yes, he sometimes does so in previous incarnation.. rarely and it is never looked upon well on him. Some have argues that he had no choice, but I disagree. He could have easily burst into the speed of sound carrying Zod with him to space and deals with him there. He resorted to something like that in the animated movie, Superman: Doomsday, when he couldn't hold back Doomsday from killing civilians, with his last might, he brought him out to space and brought him down like a meteor impacting Earth. Now, I don't expect Supes to kill Zod that way, but I prefer him alive and somehow, one or another, lock him back into the Phantom Zone.

But.... if you must make Superman kill, at least build up to that moment. Have Zod tease Superman that he must break his "no-kill" rule before Superman realize he had no choice. Although, I still think that's not a good idea because if there's a hero that had been place in a position that should have resorted to killing, it would be Batman, because that's the whole scheme of Joker to Batman in the Dark Knight. It was Batman's no-kill rule that Joker wanted Batman to break and when the Joker thought he'd won when Batman tossed him down to his doom, he laughed with victory before realizing he got roped around his foot and pulled back up by Batman. Batman won by not killing. So, when you think Superman had a bad day and had no choice but to deal a bad hand, well.. I think Batman could laugh at him.

 Batman: I have one rule!

Joker: And that's the rule you're gonna have to break.

Superman: I did it! I broke the rule!

Brighten up the colour palette
Ever since the first publicity still photo was revealed, I was really unhappy with the dark and mute colours for Superman. More so when it comes to the stills from the film, the publicity shots for magazine and posters were actually not too bad. I understand this is Zack Synder's trademark. He does this to all of his comic book film. But Superman should stand proud with his red, blue and yellow. I didn't like the turquoise blue they used for Superman Returns. I felt that the animated series nailed his colour shades perfectly. In Man of Steel however, they've darken the blue so much that it's almost black, they muted the yellow so much it comes off looking looking like lighter shade of grey and the red is probably the only one surviving the filter. Even Superman and Lois' skin looks pale in most scenes. I actually love one particular fan edit/fan art where the fan not only brighten up the colours, but he also put back his red underwear, give him his curl and corrected the shield. That would have been the perfect Superman to me.

I still very much prefer the original look. It takes a Superman to wear his underwear on the outside.

Look how amazing Lois is before having the blood sucked out of her...

(you can compare these two photos)

Give Superman back his charm

If there's one thing I miss from Christopher Reeve's Superman is his charm. Man of Steel's Superman takes himself too seriously. He broods a lot! I think the only scene when things start to lighten up a bit is when he crashes the drone in front of the general and talk to him about convincing Washington about accepting him, and I believe the only light hearted moment would be the fan girl's line; "I think he's kinda hot." Facepalm...

I miss it when Superman could still smile and smirk, he gives friendly waves and is a perfect gentleman. He had so much confidence then. For goodness sake, give Superman back his heart and leave the brooding and emo-ing to Batman.

Dum.. dum.. dum...
Dum.. dee dee dee Dum...

I believe that's the lyrics to John William's Superman score.

Well, this is all wishful thinking. Man of Steel may not be the definitive and perfect Superman movie I've longed for but it still have its moments. The visual effects were great, some of the action were enjoyable, Krypton scenes were beautiful, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon and Russel Crowe felt perfect for their roles, Superman's flight scenes were brilliant and Hans Zimmer score was epic! I guess I'll just have to embrace with what we've got. It'll be a long time before a Superman reboot were to ever happen and I don't think the red underwear will ever come back. Let's hope Man of Steel 2 will be the definitive Superman movie we all been waiting for.

Oh wait... the follow up movie to this is going to be...

(Click on the photo below to watch How Man of Steel Should Have Ended)