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Man of Steel starts the road to Justice League triple. The movie establishes the Superman that exists in the DC Extended Universe and sets the tone for the movies that follow. That is good and bad. Join Cory and John as they bring together the League!

Man of Steel:

Man of Steel opens on Krypton with the first live birth in centuries. Jor-El (Russell Crowe) & Lara (Ayelet Zurer) have defied the rules and conventions of society, not allowing allowing their child to be born for a specific roll. Kal-El (Henry Cavill) is born free and his parents of Kryptonian and Earth heritage tell him, he much choose what type of man he will be. The Codex – a genetic map for the people of Krypton is encoded in his body and he is sent to an old outpost on Earth. General Zod (Michael Shannon) kills Jor-El but can’t stop the launch. He and his forces who have rebelled against the council are sentenced to the Phantom Zone.

Kal lands on Earth and is taken in by Jonathan (Kevin Costner) & Martha (Diane Lane) Kent. We get most of the story of Clark Kent through flashbacks. Clark struggles to adapt to the atmosphere, sensory overload from his powers, and the call to hold back on his powers. He is made fun of, bullied and even called an instrument of god. Clark is taught well by Jonathan and loved by Martha. They build in him character and provide him the moral compass he needs. He watches his Earthly father sacrifice himself to save Clark’s secret. He is faced with the decision of who to be, but begins a walkabout to find himself.

He lands in Alaska where he jumps ship to help save the men of a damaged and burning oil rig. He is run off after restraining a bully, who is harassing a waitress. But he only leaves after destroying the man’s truck. He makes his way to an Arctic base where the military and scientists have discovered a ship encased in ice spanning back 20,000 years. He goes to investigate and burns his way in with heat vision. Lois Lane (Amy Adams) of the Daily Planet has pushed her way on to the base and follows him. He discovers that the ship awakens around him. The command key, he has from his ship, contains an A.I of his Father. He saves Lois from an attack droid and cauterizes her wound.  He takes the ship to safety and drops her off. He learns from Jor-El of his past and the events of Krypton. Then he begins to truly explore his powers.

Lois reads her story to Perry White (Lawrence Fishburn) who will not run the story due to lack of proof, but more to the fact of what it will do to people. She leaks it anyway and begins to hunt for Clark. She traces him back to Kansas and his mother. Lois and Clark meet up at Jonathan’s graveside and he fills her in on his secret. But this comes back to bite her when Zod arrives and announces to Earth that unless they turn over Kal, he will make the world suffer. The FBI find Lois and use her to get to Clark. He agrees to surrender to Zod but Zod also talks Lois.

On the ship, Clark learns the rebels escaped the Phantom Zone and sought the outposts gathering weapons and an world engine. Clark is weak on the ship due to the Kryptonian atmosphere. Lois, with the help of the command key and the Jor-El program, frees Clark and escapes. Jor-El tells Clark to save the humans and Kryptoinans and help them live together. Superman must face Faora-Ul (Antje Traue) and the Army forces under Colonel Nathan Hardy (Christopher Meloni). Zod is taken down after a battle with Superman thanks to Earth’s air. But Faora is a hard opponent and Superman has to save Hardy and fight her. In the end she is overtaken and Superman gains Hardy’s trust.

Lois has gotten info from Jor-El and knows they can defeat Zod’s forces with the drive in Kal’s ship. She, Hardy and the others prepare to drop the ship as a blackhole bomb onto Zod’s main ship. Superman must fly to the other side of the globe to destroy the world engine that is terraforming Earth to make it like Krypton. They both succeed but Superman has to defeat Zod. Their battle rages and destroys large sections of Metropolis and Gotham. The end comes when Clark choses his new home and the people of Earth over Krypton. He kills Zod to protect the humans.

Having found his place in the world as Superman, the Man of Steel and the one who brings hope; he must find a place for Clark. He goes to work at the Daily Planet along side his love Lois. Lois is happy but can’t pursue or be pursued easily by Clark since everyone knows Superman loves her.

Summary:

Man of Steel is much darker than people expected. It is grittier and asks the hard questions that people in this century would ask about an alien living among us. The movie questions Clark’s motives and asks the hard questions. Gone is the superhero brightness of Superman past. People didn’t know to expect it from Superman like they did from Nolan’s Dark Knight. But I though the movie accurately portrayed the destruction that would happen when super beings clash. The story also makes clear comparisons between Clark and Jesus coming into their own at 33 and choosing to stand up. A lot of the more gritty special effects and ship design were inspired by the realism of the re-imagined Battlestar Galactic and it showed. I also enjoyed Zimmer’s soundtrack, but more on that later.  I do think the film has tone issues led into BvS and were not corrected until Wonder Woman, but thought it was a solid movie and worthy of the name.

Add It To Your Library:

Get the movie on iTunes
Get the movie from Amazon 

Music:

The movie score was done by the modern master of soundtracks Hans Zimmer. I really appreciate his work here in building the tone of the world and the people in it. This movie set Hans on the path that would take him to Interstellar and it is clear to see the journey from Krypton to Earth and earth out into the galaxy flows smoothly. But enough of my rambling. Here is the Main Title from Man of Steel.

You can buy the soundtrack from Amazon or on iTunes.

 

Also check out this great YouTube video documentary on Hans Zimmer.  “The Meaning in the Music: Hans Zimmer and Time” by Dan Golding.

Name That Movie:

The clue this week was:   Jumping from Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice which is next week’s discussion, we’re looking at Ben Affleck who starred alongside Tracy Phillips in this direct sequel to one of Kevin Smith’s creations that John and Cory looked at in January when John came on TripleCast full time.
Which lead us to the following movie:  The movie is  “Clerks II” and we will jump from Tracy Phillips next week! Have a great week, TripleListeners.

Support:

Do you want to buy this movie (from Amazon or iTunes)? Do you want to help support Triplecast and the other Golden Spiral Media podcasts?  You can do that by clicking this link: https://www.goldenspiralmedia.com/support.  We would greatly appreciate it!

Feedback:

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