Welp, finally watched Man of Steel all the way through. I had some misconceptions about the film, and I was surprised- I kinda liked it. However, I thought the tone was WAY too dark for Superman, and the redesign of the Kryptonians in a lot of ways really bothered me. It took some of the elements that John Byrne introduced back in the eighties and merged it with a sort-of militaristic, mechanistic look that I found to be extremely off-putting. Not to mention the whole 'birth of Kal-El' sequence was utterly unnecessary.

For a 'first of franchise' film, it is very gritty, dark and depressing. Far more fitting for the Batman than for Superman. I think the director, Zack Snyder, likes flashy explosions and pointlessly ornate and violent conflict scenes more than he likes solid storytelling. There were plot-holes too; big ones that I'll not go into here in case people haven't seen it.

Overall, it's a good superhero flick. It is just wrong for Superman and his story structure. Superman is one of those characters who is supposed to be about hope and trust- but here, he isn't trusted. Not really, and obviously that distrust leads into Batman vs. Superman.

I think that WB and DC need to reevaluate how they do superhero properties- they seem to have it in their heads that superheroes have to be dark, gritty and poorly lit, with grim backstories and equally grim threats that can never survive the immediate film. Maybe they ought to get some of their television and comic writers involved more in the filmwork- it seems to have worked damned well for Marvel.

I decided to watch 'Van Helsing', just to see what it was like, seeing as I have the movie...

Oboy.

How could a movie this bad actually make it to production? The only two good actors were Jackman and his sidekick, the female lead... Wow. I totally didn't care about her or her final disposition, the villian gave cartoons a bad name...

I could go on for some time. I will say I liked the design for their version of the Frankenstein's Monster, and of the werewolves... And the CGI and sets were at least okay. Beyond that, ugh.