Review: "Man of Steel"

I poured my heart out to the world wide web several weeks ago about how much the character of Superman means to me, so you had to know I was going to follow it up with a review of "Man of Steel" after I saw it. And saw it, I did! I got my Walmart "see-it-first" pass the morning they went on sale. I was at the theater by 5:45, first in line I might add, to see it Thursday night. Eager much? Yes. Yes, I was. I'd probably have gone to see it at midnight too if I didn't, you know, have to work Friday and all. Don't be surprised if you see me at an IMAX theater this weekend catching a second viewing.

Now, to get to the point. What did I think of it? With an intro like that, you think I loved it, don't you? Whoa-ho-ho. Not so fast, Sherlock. Warning: This post might contain some minor spoilers. Read ahead at your own risk.

Honestly, I'm still processing my reaction to "Man of Steel." Did I love it? I'm not sure. Maybe. Did I hate it? Some parts, yes, but mostly, no.Would I recommend you go see it? Abso-freaking-lutely! It was a fun movie!

To put it short, there were some things about this movie I loved, loved, LOVED, and some things that irked me beyond belief. I mean, I wanted to pull my hair out because of these things. Throw chairs at people. Buy a plane ticket to California and punch director Zach Snyder in the face. That's how much they irked me.

First, the things I LOVED about this movie.

Henry Cavill as Superman and Amy Adams as Lois Lane. OMG, they were phenomenal in their roles. Henry was born to play this part. Plus, I want to have his babies. But mostly, he owned the role from beginning to end. And Amy Adams. Oh, you brilliant, wonderful woman! She was a kickass Lois Lane, and I was worried before at her casting. I was, but not anymore. Nope. She was AWESOME. This one scene where she escapes from Zod's spaceship was...I loved that scene. In fact, the entire Clark/Superman/Lois storyline was handled very well. It didn't hold to most of the traditional Superman canon, but that's okay. I was fine with it. It makes sense the way they handled it in this day and time. And Henry and Amy as a team had great chemistry. The romance wasn't a focus, but the classic Lois/Clark teamwork was there. Such a relief!

The story. I thought the story was refreshing and heartfelt and reminded me of all the things I enjoyed about "Smallville." Seeing how Clark was raised. Understanding why he's such a good person. Leading up to how he transforms into Superman and giving him a reason to defend Earth. It was just very well done. Kudos to David Goyer.

The special effects. Praise heaven, the CGI was at a bare minimum and the special effects, for the most part, were really, really good. When Superman flew, it looked real. The beginning of the movie is set on Krypton, which is something we've never seen in live action film before, and there were some wonky special effect things going on there, but overall, it was cool to see the planet brought to life. 

The action. There was plenty of action in this Superman film, that's for sure. A complaint of previous films was "not enough action!" You won't hear this now. Superman throws punch after punch after...you get the idea.

Russell Crowe. This is a hard admission for me to make. Russell Crowe has always been one of my least favorite actors. If he's in a movie, I usually refuse to see it. When I heard he was cast as Jor-El, I gave a mental fist to the air and thought-cried "Noooooooo!" But Russell Crowe was very well cast in this role. He played the part well. I (gulp) actually liked him. There, I said it. Now, moving on.

The ending. The last scene of this movie almost moved me to tears and I'm pretty sure I had a nergasm watching it.  :)

The things I HATED about this movie.

For the love of God, Zach Snyder, can you please make a movie without stripping it of all color, giving it a dreary gray overcast, and making me feel like leaving and checking into a mental hospital because of its dreariness? This is Superman - the one superhero in the superhero universe who is all about light and hope and the sun! I felt like he grew up in Seattle for all of the grainy grayness in this movie. You certainly didn't do any of your actresses any favors either. The beautiful Diane Lane and Amy Adams both looked like they needed facials half the time because their palor was so gray. Good grief. Way to ruin a fantastic movie.

Not to mention, what the heck was with the shaky cam? Shaky cam overload, man. I think I needed a Dramamine to sit through the first half of this movie. I know some directors think it's edgy and cool to use handheld shaky cams while people are standing there talking, but most audiences find it distracting and annoying. I swear someone needs to tie Zach Snyder to a chair and slap him repeatedly for every second of shakiness in this movie. For real.

The action. I loved that a Superman movie finally had lots of action, but come on. After a while it just kept on for no reason. It made no sense. I found myself wondering, "Why are they still fighting? Because they can? Oh, okay. I guess. Yawn." 

The bad language. I know it's realistic and cool and edgy to have some bad language in a Superman movie, but there are kids seeing this thing, people. Granted, there wasn't all that much bad language, but enough that I noticed. Probably because the maybe-10-year-old next to me leaned over and asked her parent, "What's a dick, daddy?" after one particularly memorable line. Geez.

Speaking of, the flying penises. See the movie and you'll know what I'm talking about. The escape pods for Zod's people looked like flying penises. Jor-el's robots looked like floating penises. Kal-el's spaceship? Penis. Or maybe sperm. That one's a toss up. I'm thinking someone - yes, I'm looking at you Zach Snyder - has an immature fascination with a certain phallic symbol. Oh wait, or is it just me? Nope, my friend noticed the floating/flying penises too.

I have to pound on Snyder some more. I'm sorry, Zach Snyder, but you deserve it. I felt like I should have been a lot more emotional watching this movie than I was. Instead, I felt oddly detached, which is weird considering what a diehard fan of Superman I am. I'm pretty sure it was Snyder's crappy directing to blame again. The man has been well criticized, and not just by me, for making emotionally shallow movies. The emotion was there in the script, but for some reason, it just didn't translate to the screen all of the times it should have. Amazing, considering what a great job the actors did.

Finally, one of the things that nearly broke my heart and made me want to punch David Goyer in the face (MAJOR spoiler here): Superman takes a life. Any true fan of Superman knows this is sooooo WRONG. Superman does not kill. That's one of his defining characteristics. And this, his origin story retold, has him doing exactly that. Made. Me. Want. To. Sob. This is where Goyer totally tried to Batmanize the movie, and I hated it.

Oh, and one last note: There is no teaser to another film or sequel in or after the credits. If you're dying to pee after 2 1/2 hours and risking bladder disease to stay and wait, you'll be kind of angry when there's nothing. Or so I hear. :)

So....

I both loved and hated this movie. I have to give it props for not being as dark and Batman-y as I had feared it was going to be, but it was still far too dark and Batman-y to be a genuine portrayal of Superman. If not for the color-stripping and craptastic directing and that one major faux pas in the script, this movie could have been the best superhero movie I've ever seen. But it fell short of that mark.

Maybe I'll feel differently when I see it again. Did you see it? Am I being too hard on Zach Snyder?

VIDEO: Dusti helps me change bedsheets...sort of

Here's a silly video I made with my cat, Dusti. She likes to help me change bedsheets. Yes, I know they're tacky, but they were on clearance, so...shut up. Plus, ignore the messy room and hot mess of a woman.

 

Ever been here?

Confessions of an audiobook-aholic

I’ve found that whenever I hit a snag in my own writing, nothing helps motivate me to write more than reading — reading other fabulous and awe-inspiring books. Unfortunately, my schedule can get a bit craaazy, so picking up a book and losing myself in it for a few hours isn’t always an easy option.

For several years, I commuted to work 30 minutes each way, every day, even on weekends. That’s when I discovered Audible, and podcasts, but I'll save those for another post. I tried the Audible free trial, downloaded some books to my iPod, and have been a subscriber ever since. I know listening to a book isn’t the same as reading one with your own eyes and imagination and inner voices, but I’ve really come to rely on it to get through my To-Be-Read pile. If I hear about a book releasing that sounds good but it’s not on audio, I think twice now about buying it. Sad, but true. I already have more than 100 books on my Kindle that I haven’t found time to sit down and read. Every now and then I make time, but oh how I wish half of them were available as audiobooks on my iPod. 

When I found out my first book was being released as an audiobook, I was thrilled! Seriously, I was. Did backflips in my head and everything. I’ve also tried to discover as many other Carina Press authors on Audible as I can, many of whom I’ve befriended on social media.

My most recent audiobook listens have been Wreck of the Nebula Dream by Veronica Scott (which was fraking fantastic!) and The Tales of the Underlight series by Jax Garren (which is really, really good y’all).  I’ve got to get to Pooka in My Pantry by RL Naquin and Soul of Kandrith by Nicole Luiken next because I loved both of the first books in those series. In fact, I’m kind of shocked I haven’t listened to them yet except, well, maybe I’m saving them for a weekend when I know I’ll have time to listen to them all the way through.

Then again, I’d probably best not wait for that to happen…

Happy birthday, Superman, from the little girl you taught anything was possible

I’m pretty sure I must have been about 9 or 10 the first time I saw “Superman: The Movie.” We had just gotten HBO, which was super awesome and very rare back then, being the early 80s and all, and it was the first movie my mother allowed me to watch on the channel.

I snuggled up on the end of the sofa with my faithful sidekick, an orange and white tabby named George, and stared in awe at the television for two hours.

Christopher Reeve made that wide-eyed little girl that I was truly believe a man could fly. And if a man could fly, surely a man could do anything, right? I'm convinced CR and Superman opened my imagination wide that day and it never really shut.

Yes, I found a red towel and pretended it was my cape and kept jumping off the sofa trying to fly until I eventually hurt myself, but a seed was planted in my heart that day that took root and grew as I grew older. The worlds I created in my mind...the characters and the scenes...

With hindsight, I think “Superman: The Movie” impacted me far greater than any movie probably should. And I’m very glad Superman was a good, solid, old-fashioned type of hero, because I still believe he’s been my biggest (fictional) role model in life, ranking up there with my parents and Jesus.

I grew up in a house with three older brothers, no sisters, and with very strict, old-fashioned parents, so I was a bit of a tomboy. My mother was a stay-at-home mom who depended on my father for everything. She didn’t even have a driver’s license! I thought Superman was the coolest dude ever, but Lois Lane was something else.

You mean a woman could be bold and brass and kick butt, too?

Awesome.

Suddenly I went from wanting to be Superman to wanting to be Lois Lane, because, honestly, how cool is she? Plus, she was Superman's girlfriend, or sort of girlfriend at the time, and that was wicked better.

Lois and Clark were newspaper reporters, so I joined the student newspaper staff in middle school. Know what? I loved it. That's where my love of using words to create began to develop into a real career.

When I went to college, I studied journalism with an emphasis on newspapers. One of my first nights in the dorm as a college freshman, guess what TV show premiered on ABC? “Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.” I took it as a sign from the universe — a kind of wink, wink, kid, you’re on the right path sign. It was my first time away from home. I was scared, alone and feeling sorry for myself since my roommate hadn't yet arrived and I was too shy to venture out and make friends of my neighbors. The actors at the time were new to me, but the characters of Lois and Clark were old and familiar friends. They comforted me and helped make that first night away from home not so bad. Whenever someone would make a comment in class and call me “Lois Lane,” I secretly thrilled to the idea inside. Honestly, what female reporter or journalism student hasn’t been called Lois Lane at some point? Isn't it awesome?

I admit I’m a total fangirl and go ga-ga over all kinds of SF/F things — Twilight, Doctor Who, The Hunger Games, Star Wars, True Blood, Vampire Diaries, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, etc. — but there’s nothing I fangirl over more than Superman.

Even when Batman hit it big and people called Superman lame, I still preferred Superman. He is light and hope and always does good, no matter what, whereas Batman can sometimes have questionable morals. I'll never understand why people call Superman lame for that, but whatever.

I own all of the movies, all of the TV shows (even the animated ones), have a crate full of comics, action figures, t-shirts, and toys. I cried — no lie — when DC Comics launched the New 52 and relaunched Lois and Clark, effectively ending their marriage. I haven’t been able to bring myself to continue reading the New 52 for that reason.

Lois and Clark: Best couple EVER.

Since he’s celebrating his 75th anniversary today, I couldn’t let the day pass without giving Supes a shout-out on my blog. And Lois, too. Maybe it’s kind of sad that I still love him, them, so much, and I’m pretty sure he’s one of the reasons I’m still single well into my 30s. You know, normal guys just don’t compare to Superman, and I have always had a mad crush on Clark Kent. When I met Dean Cain at DragonCon last year, I swear to God I almost passed out when he hugged me. Words couldn't even convey to him what his portrayal of Clark-Superman had meant to me.

When Warner Brothers premiered the new trailer for “Man of Steel” yesterday, it was the highlight of my week. And I’ve watched it over and over and over again already. I have high hopes for it, despite my misgivings. I’m already madly in love with Henry Cavill, and Amy Adams looks kickass as Lois Lane.

Can’t wait for June 14. Can’t. Wait.

So, happy birthday, Superman, and thank you.

Thank you for making a little girl believe a man could fly…and do anything if he or she put their mind to it.

It’s true. Writers can find inspiration anywhere.

My writing efforts have seriously been derailed lately because of one thing or another, but I’m feeling that itch to finish my current manuscript — the one about the psychic medium investigating a serial killer in Charleston, South Carolina — because all of these other ideas keep coming to me that sound awesome to explore.

My mind has been scattered ever since I found out my kitteh sidekick, Dusti (or DustiAnna as I sometimes call her), needed a dental procedure to remove a tooth. She had the surgery, but they actually found five teeth that needed to come out. Five! They removed the three worst ones on one side of her mouth, but she’s still gotta have surgery next month to remove two on the left side. I've been a nervous kitteh mom wreck for about a month, since I first learned she needed this, and it threw my imagination and motivation to write all out of whack.

My poor lil kitty. Look how pitiful she looked after surgery.

Yesterday, I took her for her one-week followup. The senior vet in her practice did the surgery, so I met with him. He’s a delightful, seemingly grumpy ole fellow who dresses funny. Long story, but I ended up back in his surgery clinic to fix his computer. While I was there, I couldn’t help but take in the small, cramped space and all of its many gadgets. My mind immediately went to “Is this what the dissection rooms in alien spaceships look like?” I think so. And I started imagining what all of those strange instruments did. I blame Mulder and Scully for this.

That was the first sign my writing mojo was coming back.

Today, I was reading the blog post at Here Be Magic by Veronica Scott, about the sinking of the Titanic. This got me to thinking about a little known fact: my birthday is April 15. The day the Titanic sank. It’s also the day Abraham Lincoln died, and of course, it’s tax day. I’m one more in a long list of tragedies. I’m really over the whole birthday thing — I stopped counting how old I am when I hit 35 back whenever that was — but I have to admit when my birthday rolls around, I do find it kind of cool that I was born at exactly 4:15 p.m. on 4/15/I’ll-never-admit-the-year. A psychic’s spam sent to my inbox every so often assures me there’s a cosmic significance to that fact and that I am, in fact, destined for great things because of it. I’m wondering when my superpowers will kick in, because they haven’t yet.

Now I’m thinking of all kinds of ways to work this into a plot.

Yes, I know I’m weird. So what?

Point is, if I can find inspiration to write from something as dreaded as my own birthday, I’m a happy gal. My writing mojo is starting to flow through my veins again. Oh, how I’ve missed it so…

Fun Fridays: Catching up with “Doctor Who”

I blogged before about my new obsession with that British treasure “Doctor Who” after giving it a shot on Netflix, and I also mentioned that I had to stop watching to mourn the Tenth Doctor. I didn’t mean to take such a long hiatus, actually, but life got in the way and caused some road blocks that prevented me from getting back to the show until now. I finally started watching the Eleventh Doctor episodes this week, and now I’m on episode 11 of series 5. I swear, this show is like crack — not that I have a clue what crack cocaine is like. Better to say it's like potato chips. You can't just watch one episode at a time. Well, I suppose if you were watching the show live you'd have no choice, which is what brings me to this. I’m well aware that the new episodes premiere on BBC America tomorrow night, and I don’t have BBC America. Lowers head, sobbing.

Now that I’m watching the Eleventh Doctor, I have to say I quite like him. Not as much as David Tennant’s Doctor, but I like him a lot. I like Amy. I like Rory. Anyone else think Karen Gillan and Felicia Day could play sisters? I see you nodding your head right now. Uh huh. Weird, right?

Anyway. I’m still considering doing a full-day marathon of Doctor Who tomorrow to reach the point where I could, in theory, watch the new episode. Is BBC America available online? Can I stream new episodes anywhere? Help? For the love of the Doctor, please help me!

In the meantime, have you seen this behind-the-scenes video of EW’s photo shoot, in which Matt Smith discusses the 50th anniversary episode?!? Epic.

Right? Wrong? Wha? Why 'don't judge' is more than a saying to me — it's a way of life

I saw this article on Huffington Post that got me to thinking (and over-thinking) about this. It struck a cord with me because I am surrounded by judgmental, critical people. Friends. Family. Co-workers. Nothing wrong with that. It's just their way. Shoot, we're all judgmental in our own ways, aren't we? It's a part of being human.

That said, I’m not a very critical person. That’s a fact. I’ve tried hard to be more critical because of the old adage "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em," and…I didn’t like how it made me feel and the experiences to which it limited me. So I stopped. Cold turkey. Or tried to anyway.

Now I’m wondering, is my mostly non-critical mind what’s holding me back from being a truly great writer?

If so, well, crap.

I love movies, and I love books. You’ll rarely hear me say anything negative about either because that’s just how I am. I prefer to acknowledge the “good” and overlook any “bad” I find in these things. That’s kind of a general rule with me — the only exceptions being when I’m PMSing or suffering from a migraine. Then nothing is good. Nothing! But mostly, I like to think I see the good in things...well, okay, except maybe exercise, helping people move, and pencils (I hate pencils). But otherwise, I try to see the good. Hey! Don't roll your eyes at me. I'm human, remember?

And simply writing this post proves that I AM, in fact, capable of serious criticism and — darn it, I'm overthinking again. Back to my original point.

For example, I read THAT book everyone was talking about last year, and believe it or not, I did not hate it the way so many of my author friends and acquaintances have. My thoughts on “Fifty Shades of Grey” were simple. Good for her for finishing three really looooong novels and getting them published. Good for her for bringing attention to the genre. Good for her at creating very tangible chemistry between her hero and heroine. Good for her at writing a very well-done alpha hero. And I stopped before lamenting too much on any of the things I didn't like about it.

I can’t remember ever reading a book I didn’t at least like a little. I’m sure there is one, if I think back to school, but nothing comes immediately to mind.

Same thing with movies. I went through a mega-marathon of viewing “good” movies prior to the Academy Awards. I pretty much liked them all. But you know what? I still like “Plan 9 From Outer Space” way better than “Life of Pi.” I’ll still re-watch “Twilight” before I will “Silver Linings Playbook.”

I took Angela James’ BEFORE YOU HIT SEND workshop, which teaches you to be more critical in your self-editing. Perfect. Exactly what I need. And I’ve been employing Angela’s suggestions at self-editing, and my manuscript is really a better read now, at least in my opinion. Funny thing is, the biggest lesson I took away from that workshop is so common sense I felt beyond stupid when I had the epiphany. It also applies to everything and not just writing.

There is no “good” or “bad.” There is only preference.

Honestly, I don’t mind if someone doesn’t like the same movies as I do — as long as they don't try to make me feel bad for liking what I like. My best friend hates “Twilight.” She also loves “High School Musical.” I thought “High School Musical” was okay. When she goes on and on about how bad “Twilight” is, I never hit back with well, you like “High School Musical” and it sucks! Um, at least I hope I never have. Okay, so I might have been PMSing that one time, but — you get the point. She likes what she likes. I like what I like. (For the record, yes, we are both adult women far into our 30s. Don't judge). It’s the same with my niece and nephew, who loooooove “Harry Potter.” They think it’s an extraordinary piece of literature. I read it and liked it okay, but I didn’t go beyond the first book because it just wasn’t my thing. I know I'm probably in the minority in feeling that way, but I do. I thought it was too archetypical. That’s also the reason I liked “Twilight” so much. Meyer broke so many conventional rules with vampires, I loved her creativity.

So, should I feel bad about myself? Am I making the "wrong" choice when I pick up a book that has only gotten negative reviews as opposed to that best-seller everyone loves? Should I hang my head in shame because I write romance novels instead of literary masterpieces?

Heck, no!

Why judge? Because that’s exactly what we do when we say “Ugh, that was a bad book” or “That movie was stupid.” One of my pet peeves is when someone turns up his or her nose at reading a particular book or seeing a movie because "it looks stupid." So what? You're limiting yourself and potentially missing out on something great. At least read/see the thing before you judge it. Geez.

I’m convinced that in this Internet age that encourages anyone to say what they like free of consequences, we’ve bred a generation of pretentious and judgmental critics. And yes, I realize that in making that comment I am also being judgmental and pretentious. Stop rolling your eyes! I already told you I could be as judgmental and critical as the next person, didn't I?!? No getting around that.

And another thing. I also dislike when people confuse critical consensus with objective truth. Too often I’ve heard someone say, “It’s the truth,” when no, actually, it’s only your personal preference or observation. When it comes to personal preference, there is no collective truth. Statistics don't apply; only feelings.

So, yes, being a mostly non-critical person in this judgmental world probably puts me at a disadvantage. It certainly makes me a fun and amusing target for those who don't share my views. I'll tell you straight up I'm not the best person to ask when it comes to feedback on books or movies, because I pretty much like everything. That makes me weird, certainly, but does it make me a really horrible writer?

Maybe.

I prefer to think not. You can disagree, and that’s okay.

Number one rule of publishing: It’s all a matter of preference anyway.

By the way, I really like my story. I've come to the conclusion that's all that matters. I'm ready to hit send now. Hopefully some lucky publisher who shares my tastes will love it, too. Wish me luck!