Nerd Rage! Man of Steel. Part 1.

This is about many of the things that are wrong with Man of Steel. It sucked. The movie net something like $300 million dollars and I hate the film. I had reservations about Amy Adams playing tough talkin', big city livin', woman-in-a-man's-world Lois Lane, Russell Crowe playing fatherly scientist Jor-El, and Diane Lane playing motherly, heart of America, salt of the Earth, Martha "Ma" Kent. There were so many things that I didn't like about the movie it's gonna be a long post.

Amy Adams as Lois Lane. Let's get to it.

First of all I really, really like Amy Adams. Enchanted was awesome, she was great in The Fighter, I really liked Julie & Julia, and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby is one of my favorite movies. In each of the characters Amy Adams plays in those movies feel like either small town, or very naive, or both. Her acting as Lois Lane feels like a small town girl trying to make it in the big city. To describe each: Lois is dark, sensual, alluring, cunning, hardened, and untrusting. Amy Adams looks sweet, beautiful, open, trusting, light and honest. The two feel as opposite as can be, but Adams does her best to cover the distance, but she falls short. Adams doesn't feel like Lois Lane. Lois has to be quicker and more cunning than any man in the field of journalism. Lois has had to use every tool in her arsenal to scoop the men, and prove her self with every story she writes. To the world and to herself. With Adams even her voice doesn't fit the character. Her voice reminds me of beautiful music, or soft wind chimes, even at her most intense moments in the movie. To me Amy Adams is just too pure to play someone who's used her sexuality to get a scoop, or has blurred the lines of right and wrong to get ahead. None of these things is Amy Adams fault of course, the role is just not right for her, and that's the fault of the directors.

The things that should have been changed are the amount of times Amy Adams uses passive tense. It is quite noticeable in the first scene in the Daily Planet building. Multiple times Perry attacks Lois's article and she backs herself up with "What about the civilian contractors who corroborated my story?" which should have been a active statement than a passive question such as "I have (x amount of) civilian contractors who corroborated this story!" She then tries to plead with Perry with "Perry, come on, it's me we're talking about. I'm a Pulitzer prize winning reporter." Lois Lane does NOT plead. She makes bold statements and spits in the face of authority. The line should have read more like "Perry it's ME you're talking to. A Pulitzer prize winning reporter, not some gossip columnist!" She gets shut down again and retorts meekly with "Print it or I walk." It seemed more like a desperate ploy than an actual threat, much like a child threatening to hold their breath or run away. The delivery of the line should have been much more angry. Everyone has been so angry at their job they have wanted to quit at some point, and many people have believed in something so passionately they'd put their reputations on the line, so the line should have been delivered: "Print it or I walk!" Perry then reminds her that she can't and that she's under contract. She then just sighs as Perry lays into her about aliens and how he'll never run the story. She passive-aggressively smiles and that's the end of the scene. My experience with strong willed, direct, and stubborn people, like Lois might be, they will NEVER let you have the last word. Casual disagreements get pretty heated, and when you don't believe them after a bit that person gets seriously pissed off. Forget about two shots fired and no retort.

There are several other things that might go unnoticed like when you first see Lois in the chopper she fumbles around trying to get down and Superman casually lifts her out and she meekly thanks him. First, the drop looks to be about 3-4 feet off the ground. It seems like a journalist who would be "...imbedded with the First Division" wouldn't be afraid of such a drop, nor be unfamiliar with jumping out of a grounded helicopter. In all honesty to fix this bit would be to have her directly tell Superman to help a lady out, and instead of the thanks she should have complemented him setting up a slight attraction to him. The shot of her finding out where she's staying and asking about tinkling? The story just set up that she was with the First Division, so the cot in a storage room with a space heater would look like a resort in comparison.

Next up is Russell Crowe as Jor-El.

Ok. The Gladiator as one of the foremost scientists on a more technologically advanced alien planet? It would have been easier to swallow Crowe as a scientist had they not clad him in armor with such ridiculous bulk.

What scientist wears this?

Shoulder pads? A freakin' cape? Robes? I don't get it, is this supposed to be some fusion of the 16th century and some weird future? For some reason I can't imagine spaulders coming into style, nor can I see them being used for ANY kind of science. Science is about logic and facts, spill a bit of acid on your exposed forearm unitard? I guess you're losing an arm because it'll be too late for you to take off all those clothes. Oh it's an alien material you say? Then what's the deal with the cape? Oh that's for the meeting with the council of scientists? So Jor-El is planning on shoulder checking someone? Also the house of El's crest is the "S"? It stands for "hope"? That's cool, the diamond crest with a character that means "hope" just happens to look like an "S" and that he happens to send his son to a planet that uses that same symbol as a letter. Come on. That's terrible writing. While we're at it the portrayal of Jor-El is much too aggressive for my taste. He takes out three armed guards, then one shot one kills two back-up guards, runs outside and jumps onto his flying mount. I mean come on! Why make Jor-El out to be a knight?

I'd rather have A Beautiful Mind Crowe. The genius mind but less paranoid-schizophrenia type of acting. In my mind Jor-El was the greatest scientist of all Krypton. His mind went up against Braniac's and tried to expose the machine's true intentions, but was shut down by the bureaucracy of the council, so he developed a vessel for keeping his new born son alive, as well as plotting trajectory of said vessel to not only a viable planet, but one to which his son would blend in with his surroundings and potentially find those that would care for him. If that doesn't scream super genius then I don't know what does.

To wrap up the side characters, Diane Lane as Martha "Ma" Kent.

This is from the last paragraph of her IMDb page:

Her immense talent at playing human and real characters, her "drop dead gorgeous" beauty and down-to-earth grittiness...

She is great at gritty characters, characters that have real depth, and those that get down and dirty to do the right thing. Ma Kent is not one of those characters. Lane would have been great at Lois, but as Martha it was like Diane Lane was struggling to grasp the character. Lane looks tough, she feels like a big city woman, and most of all she's much too beautiful. Ma Kent is small town, motherly, and completely non sexual. I remember thinking while watching the scenes with Diane Lane that there are only so many emotions that she's feeling and that she didn't quite feel right as Martha. It never felt like she made the connection with Clark. Martha is always the one to hold onto her son, to keep him close, and to worry for him. I never got that feeling in the movie. It felt like Ms. Lane was trying to find some dynamic tortured soul but was also being told to hold back. Martha says motherhood to me, but not the motherhood she dreamed of. In my mind Martha was a popular girl in Smallville, and she married Jonathan soon after high school. She dreamed of the children she'd have since she was a little girl, and those dreams were dashed when she found out she couldn't have children. She had her husband and she thought that it would be enough. When Clark's ship crashed and they found him as a baby Martha knew she'd gotten her wish at a child and this was her chance to have her perfect family. She'd be over-protective, but lovingly supportive. Unnecessary risks are out, and she'd worry over her son's aimless wandering, but when there is something that needs to be done she'll be the first to tell him to do it; knowing that her son has the strength to pull through. Martha Kent is much deeper than what we got to see in this portrayal by Ms. Lane in Man of Steel.