Why I Write
At least this most recent Brian Singer film falls short of being overtly self-congratulatory (unlike some films); and that’s about the best thing I can say for it.
I was greatly disappointed by the picture. It made frequent un-subtle alliteration to the original motion picture, attempting to attach itself to the bygone sentiment and show its “roots.” However, said roots were completely disconnected from the meat of the new narrative and incompatible with the advancement of the story, feeling tacked-on and pointless.
Everything went downhill from there: The original Christian allegory (as voiced by Brando and reused verbatim) was taken too far in both imagery and recitation (especially given that the Man of Steel apparently fathered an illegitimate child), feeling disrespectful in light of the fact that nothing in the film made me want to care about, respect, or hold any affection for the characters and thus their association with those things I do respect sullies the esteemed principal rather than redeems the character. The new plot, attempting to portray itself as epic in scope, moved slowly and never once inspired a sense of danger or immediate peril (nor long-term peril). The displays of physical jeopardy were trotted out and predictably resolved, even re-using gags in the process and holding all of the supposedly tense moments for several beats too long. Physics, of course, were completely disregarded – which is fine in a superhero flick, but I do expect some measure of internal consistency and found none here.
Which brings me to Why I Write: too often I cross paths with this kind of mediocre creativity and find it frequently lauded as success. I’m a terribly harsh critic, though not because I lack compassion or a desire for entertainment: there are those works which satisfy and I deeply enjoy them. Most simply fail to live up to my expectations of quality and originality (read nothing penned by Kevin J. Anderson, I beg of you). My goal is to compose something which does meet with my standards for approval, if only to put my money where my mouth is and justify my armchair editorials. Once I walk that shodden mile I hope to be either humbly corrected or vindicated in my judgments.
In the mean time, to anyone with $204MM laying around: there are far better investments than handing it over to the likes of Brian Singer. Please do collective humanity a favor and put culture ahead of profits.
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