Man Of Steel: 7 Reasons The ''S'' Stands For Sucks
5. Special Effects
You will believe a man can fly was the tagline for the original Superman movie and while no one will defend the special effects in Superman IV: The Quest For Peace; the special effects in Man Of Steel will make you believe a man can hang by wires in front of a green screen while CGI effects are added all around him.
The era of being impressed by special effects is long gone and while you can normally say well done to the computer that is working away to make the most imaginative designs a soulless reality on screen, you never sit there and say wow anymore. That is because your brain automatically cant get past the fact that it all ''magic'' has been put together by computers and fake. Man Of Steel takes that to the next level by going out of its way to make everything look fake.
Nothing takes you out of a film more than seeing fake fire, water and actors obviously reacting to a tennis ball on a stick in front of a green sheet. That is all you keep noticing as you watch Man Of Steel, its almost like they were not even trying to make it look real. Everything had the feel of an XBOX cut scene. It meant everything they were saying or doing had no impact because it all looked fake.
One example is when Clark is giving the helicopter carrying survivors enough time to fly to safety from the oil rig. He bravely stops a huge tower from falling on top of the helicopter. Henry Cavill grunts and strains like he is suffering from really bad constipation but none of it maters because all you are focused on is how awful the explosions look. The fire all around him has and looks like its been added in afterwards and even the colour is slightly off.
The guns on Krypton looked cool, the bit where Zod was fighting to control the lasers shooting out of his eyes looked cool; everything else was by-the-books and nothing special. It was CGI overload in parts.
For a film like this, the effects are one of the main elements that will have you going along with the idea that a man is Super. So you have to go out of your way to make sure they look somewhat believable, especially when you are relying on CGI which always lacks the impact of practical effects. So if they let you down, then your whole film is pretty much doomed because no one will care about what is happening in the expensive action scenes. No matter how much CGI crap you throw on screen, if it doesnt look somewhat realistic, it will have the same impact as watching a fan video on YouTube.
In any case, the action was typical Snyder; over the top and big. Unfortunately it was not exciting to watch and soulless. And how many more times can we watch a city like New York get destroyed? I took a deep intake of air when the World Engine landed on Metropolis/New York to begin the terraforming. Not because I was anticipating the exciting action coming my way, it was because I knew that I would have to sit through another climax sequence that I've seen far too many times now to care.