Finally got around to watching 'Man of Steel'. I liked the first ten minutes a lot. Thereafter I found it rather tedious, the whole god-bless-america-beware-the-aliens turning at the end into a sort of Godzilla movie. One of the few moments that made me sit up was a rather tiny detail, I'm sure put there on purpose: at some point when the military raise an alarm, the man behind the military computer workstation is Felix Gaeta. This was hardly a minute after Helo (also of BSG) has a five second cameo. I'm sure there were other quotes or references to classic sci-fi that I missed. On the whole, entertaining but not engrossing and at times, as I said, rather tedious. The characters, how to put it, are not alive.

I have to say that I do like the general mythos of the super-hero, having grown up on Mexican translations of DC Comics (featuring Luisa Lane, Pedro White, Jaime Olsen, etc) and the 1950's George Reeves TV Superman. I am aware of the many questionable sides to these myths -perhaps more from the point of view of someone, like me, coming from a part of the world where the very noxious idea of the Strong Man Who Is Going to Get Us Out Of This Mess still looms large. Not only there, mind -just see Putin in Russia, fighting bears bare handed and bare chested or whatever it is he does. What the world needs least is a Superman, I suspect. I still like immersing in that fantasy, though -but this movie didn't quite manage to do that for me, beyond the initial ten minutes.

Tags: movies