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Hot on the heels of the release of the much-anticipated “Man of Steel,” five Superman fans, podcasters and friends sat down for an impromptu discussion and review of the film.
Joining in this special podcast production is an all-star lineup of some of the best and brightest in the world of Superman podcasts, including Michael Bailey (From Crisis to Crisis: A Superman Podcast, Views From the Longbox, Superman Homepage), Jon M. Wilson (Golden Age Superman, The New 52 Adventures of Superman), Jeffrey Taylor (From Crisis to Crisis, Movies.com), J. David Weter (Superman Forever Radio, The New 52 Adventures of Superman) and Michael Bradley (The Thrilling Adventures of Superman).
In the episode, the guys talk about every aspect of the film, from story and plot to character and cast, not to mention special effects, the score and a whole lot more! There’s plenty of fanboy geekery, but also honest talk about the movie’s strengths and weaknesses. Few stones are left unturned as the guys give their off-the-cuff, gut reactions to the newest big-screen incarnation of the Last Son of Krypton.
WARNING: The show contains heavy spoilers. Seriously. If you want to remain spoiler-free, hold off on listening until you’ve seen the movie.
Or get it via iTunes
Want to hear these guys talk more about Superman? All of their shows, along with many more quality Superman-related podcasts, can be found at the Superman Podcast Network.
Dear Great Krypton,
I finished your 3 hour long podcast of Man of Steel. I enjoyed every minute of it. My favorite parts were when everybody gave their own ideas
of what they would have done differently and what would be done in the following sequels. As I was listening I found myself taking notes about
what my thoughts were and what I would change or add to this movie. As well as to what I would do for the following sequels. My first impression
about Man of Steel was that if somebody were to ask me, “On a scale from 1 to 10, what score would give this new movie?”, and I would have to
give it a hard “9”. But I enjoyed every minute of it and I saw twice on opening day. Superman will be forever my all time favorite comic book
superhero. But I have kind of given up on waiting to see the ultimate Superman movie. Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel comes extremely close.
From the very beginning of the movie, I was excited to finally see more of Krypton and this alien race. Compared to what was very little, only
seen previously in the Christopher Reeves movies and on Smallville. During these scenes I would have had Jor-El evading capture on an actual
flying vehicle instead of a flying creature. When the vehicle is struck and Jor-El crash lands on the balcony, of what I guess is his laboratory
or home, a white “dog like” creature comes to Jor-El’s side and it is called Krypto. And when we come to the scene were Lara-El is watching the
destruction of krypton, Krypto comes to her side and Lara-El kneels to comfort the creature as they are both engulfed in the cataclysmic
explosions.
I highly believe that Lex Luthor could have been in this movie. Not as a protagonist for Superman, but as the billionaire, genius, business
man well known around the world and especially in Metropolis. I was thinking that he should have a full head of red hair in the beginning, but
that part we can let go and have him already be bald. And as an added bonus, both Lex Luthor and Lois Lane have had a past together. Again,
Luthor doesn’t have to be a main character, but his existence should have been more apparent than just seeing a LexCorp tanker exploding in the
streets. With Lex having all this power and connections, we can assume that he is able to hunt down all the left over krypton tech as well as the
discarded battle suit left behind by General Zod. Being the genius that he is, Luthor reverse engineers the broken battle suit and creates his
own weaponized suit. Mixed with the new metal he created called “Metallo”. And now we have a set up for the villain Metallo for future sequels.
Whether Metallo is a cyborg criminal or a power suited solider, the first steps to this character have been laid.
Like a lot of Superman fans, I have my pros and cons for Man of Steel. From the moment the official photos of Henry Cavill as Superman
surfaced, I had problems with its design. The pros: the way the cape is attached to the suit is perfect. It makes sense. The “S” shield is great
too and it is a great homage to early silver age designs. Very similar to the earth 2 Superman, Kal-L. And lastly the chain mail look of the suit
gives it an excellent feel. The cons: The cape is way too long. The moment Superman tries to step backwards, he’s going to trip on his cape.
Plus, it’s the one thing that will always be dirty because it will be dragging along the ground all the time. It’s like they were trying to cut
cost buy just using left over Spartan capes from the movie “300”. I know I said I liked the “S” shield design, but having the chain mail texture
all over it is too much. The “S” should have resembled the “S” from all the movie poster logos. It would have stood out more. Why does everything
have to be so dark. In low light and at night, the blue just looks like black. Superman would have to be in direct sun light for anybody to see
the blue. I am sure the blue could have been a bit brighter and still have the same affect. Finally, as what was said in the pod cast, the suit
did need something more in the mid section. Maybe a more prominent belt line or a full belt. Something to separate all the blue. I will miss the
red trunks. For 75 years Superman was the only one who could make that look good. Other heroes have had that look, but ultimately changed it.
Going back to the movie itself, I wasn’t expecting Johnathan Kent to have been dead in this movie. But it worked here. Plus there were other
times that Johnathan Kent had pasted in previous Superman timelines. The other thing I wasn’t expecting was to have Lois Lane already know the
identity of Superman as Clark Kent so early in the movie. But I guess that makes things easier for their relationship at the end. And it seems
that Lois now has no problem with her spelling. In the pod cast, you mentioned that even though Perry White was now casted as an African-
American, the actor who portrays him was an excellent choice. I agree completely. But do you think we will ever get a “Great Ceasar’s Ghost!”
from Perry in the future? Also, was the Jenny character suppose to be Jimmy Olsen? I had heard rumors that this was the case.
During the Smallville battle, Colonel Nathan Hardy had the call sign “Guardian”. Could he have not been made as Project Cadmus’s Guardian? Sporting a similar military outfit from Young Justice, along with a golden helmet and Cadmus patch on his uniform. This was another opportunity to add a familiar character to the movie from the DC universe. Even though the regular movie goer would not recognize him, true Superman and DC comics fans would have appreciated the little easter egg. Fast forward to the destruction of Metropolis, it was a real shock to see that much devastation happening to a major city. The real surprise was at the end when Steve Lombard, Lois Lane’s co-worker, offered tickets to a game.
After 9/11 almost everything was put on hold and everybody concentrated on the clean up effort which took almost a year to do. And that was just
a couple of buildings. Imagine the massive clean up that is need after. And how long it would take. Instead of rebuilding everything that was
destroyed, Lex Luthor turns it into a central park. Dedicating it to the lives lost in the attack. Feeding his philanthropist side and increasing
his popularity. I remember towards the end the podcast that everybody was wondering what would be the title of the next Superman movie and
someone mentioned “Man of Tomorrow”. This not only being a nick name for Superman, but also for Lex Luthor. Luthor needs to be the main villain
in the sequel. You need to have a hero fight his ultimate nemesis. The heroic and powerful Superman versus the intelligent and cunning Lex Luthor.
When a remake like this is made, you expect there to be changes. But the one huge change I saw in Man of Steel was the fact that there is no
Fortress of Solitude. When I first saw the full length trailer, I thought that the scout ship in the ice would serve as Superman’s headquarters
or someplace he could go for more information about krypton from the Jor-El program. But now that Superman destroyed it, in order to stop Zod,
Superman has now real place to go. So what is this place he hangs his cape at, as mentioned at the end of the movie? Another thing we now no
longer have is Dr. Hamilton. We lost him when the Phantom Zone drive was activated. Was he killed or was he sent to the Phantom Zone as well?
Going back to the scout ship, someone in the podcast mentioned that there was indeed an empty open pod that once held the passengers of the ship.
Could these be the distant relatives of Kal-El? Even though it was proven that the ship was in the ice for 20,000 years, this could be Kara Zor-
El who escaped and got caught in the snow and frozen for years later. Plus, going back to what I said about Lex Luthor gathering up left over
krypton tech. He could have secured the corpse of those dead passengers and then starts experimenting using their DNA to create his own Superman.
Now we have the beginnings of Bizarro!
In closing, there were a number of opportunities to have other Superman related characters appear in this movie. They didn’t have to have a
significant role, but to have them mentioned and exist to lay the ground work for future movies. Man of Steel is an incredible movie and I will
be recommending it to everyone I know. I have only seen it twice, but I plan on seeing it again and again until it comes out on DVD. Hopefully by
then I’ll have a blue ray player so that I can get any kind of ultimate disk set they release. I hope that in the far future when a new actor is
needed to step up as Superman, that they stick with the idea of finding someone who is unknown. It worked for Christopher Reeves, Brandon Routh
(yes Brandon Routh, I liked his portrayal), Tom Welling and now Henry Cavill. Truth, Justice, ‘all that stuff. Thanks.
– Adam
Just listened the podcast and have to say, I nearly lost it when I saw a new release for Thrilling Adventures. It’s been such a long time without a new episode it was really really nice to hear from you, even if it’s a Man of Steel review.
While I didn’t initially have similar supportive thoughts on the film, all of you guys just made me want to watch it again more and more. This was just a really good and needed episode.
I also appreciate the bringing up of Perry White. While it was initially strange- I personally accepted it and actually thought it was a good cast. As it was touched upon in the show, the whiteness of a character is never really an essential- so more it’s acceptable, something it took me a while to realize. My problem is more of Jenny since we have yet to get a confirmation as whether or not she is a gender-bent Jimmy or a older sister or what. The fact that she is only credited as ‘Jenny’ is nonsensical since I really need a explanation. It all boils to respect for the original character and deviating from how the character was created is insulting to the character and the writer. Instead of rebooting characters I wish they would just make new characters, outside of Supes, Jimmy is my favorite character so it just bugs me and makes me wish for a new character… like a older sister. It adds a new dynamic rather than completely changing it.
Not to mention, had Jenny died- it would make a intriguing aspect to the Jimmy/Supes orphan-bond if he was to be introduced in a sequel. Someone should of cornered Jeffery to see if he had an answer about who she actually is.
I loved the George Reeves series. And I hate Smallville, I’m shocked the folks on the podcast loved and referred to it so much. But excellent podcast.
I just listened to this discussion (18 months later). Thanks for pointing out all the things that I didn’t notice due to not having all the background knowledge in my head as you guys did. I’m looking forward to watching my DVD again to see if I feel differently about it.
I’d love to know if you guys got back together to discuss it again 6 months or a year later to see if you still felt the same way about the film.
Hi Virginia. No, the lot of us haven’t regrouped to discuss the film again (getting us all together in one spot at one time is tougher than it might seem!). However, Michael Bailey, who was on the show, recently got together with a group of other knowledgeable fans to discuss the film on his podcast, Views From the Longbox. So, you might find that interesting:
http://fortressofbaileytude.com/viewsfromthelongbox/episode-199-man-of-steel-the-roundtable/