Byron Brubaker
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Byron reviewed...
Great archetypal college characters. An amazing young cast brings the… More
Great archetypal college characters. An amazing young cast brings the characters to life.
Why has National Lampoon fallen so far in recent years. Well I guess they started out incredibly high with this gem, and now a days they have so many competitors. This was the first one though. It broke conventions and represents a loss of innocence.
22 hours ago via Flixster
Byron reviewed...
Man of Steel (2013)
I saw this as part of a double feature at our local drive-in. I… More
I saw this as part of a double feature at our local drive-in. I recently watched the director's cut of the 1978 film with Christopher Reeve, but still need to watch Superman II in which General Zod makes his first screen appearance. I was surprised by how much the beginning of this movie on Krypton and in Smallville resembled Richard Donner's film. It is as if Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer directly adapted Superman's origins from that '78 screenplay. The cast of that movie was thought to be fairly prestigious. With Crowe, Shannon, and others this flick has high caliber acting talent also. Crowe and Zurer as Jor-El and Lara are a bit more on equal footing. The liquid metal graphite that seems to be a major building block in Kryptonian technology looked cool. It reminded me of some Terminator 2 effects. The design of Krypton includes other creatures living along side the humanoids. Shannon as General Zod, Traue as Faora-Ul, and the other military insurgents stage a more violent coup than we saw in the earlier film. The Phantom Zone for the criminals is represented by a more traditional ship this time. And in a similar fashion baby Kal-El is sent rocketing to Earth in his pod. Next we see Clark Kent in his youth (Timberline and Sprayberry) confronting a wider variety of developing superpowers with guidance from Lane and Costner as Martha and Jonathan Kent. What this script does differently during this introduction is use a nonlinear timeline to jumpcut between a bearded incognito Clark (Cavill) picking up odd jobs on his way to the arctic, while still coping with not knowing where his powers come from, and his younger days. We meet Adams as Lois Lane, who is a much tougher and more resourceful investigative reporter. She tracks down the strange stories surrounding this alien wanderer. Fishburne as Perry White with Kelly and Buller as a couple other Daily Planet reporters again don't make much of an impact when the plot has bigger fish to fry. Eventually Zod and his followers find Kal-El and initiate their plan to seek revenge against the house of El and take over Earth. The U.S. military with Lennix as a General, Schiff as a scientist, and Meloni as a Colonel realize they can trust Lois and Superman to help defeat the invading Kryptonians. Many other reviewers have already said it, but the last act with Superman and Zod pounding each other and their surroundings to a pulp gets old. Zack Snyder loves explosions and destruction a bit too much. Thank you Superman for saving humanity, but could you really not be more careful to avoid damaging satellites in space, most of downtown Smallville, and hundreds of skyscrapers throughout Metropolis, not to mention those countless lives, while you have your little fist fight with the villain from your home world?! The torment he feels from the actions he's been forced to take are palpable though. Henry Cavill looks like Christopher Reeve at times. Clark doesn't join the staff of the Daily Planet until the very end. Lois knowingly welcomes him with a nice zinger. And I look forward to sequels of this Superman reboot.
1 day ago via Flixster
