Tuesday, September 20, 2016
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Review: Man of Steel (2013)
Warning: Spoilers
Superman, Batman & Iron Man are the superheroes who always thrill me. Both Batman & Iron Man were honoured by amazing movie series, and when I heard about Zack Snyder working on Superman movie, I had a lot of expectations.
But when I watched Man of Steel, I was disappointed to the extent I would call it the worst Super Hero movie I have seen. I did like the way everything was presented in modern age, but nothing more than that.
I did not like the scene where Jonathan Kent gets killed in a tornado, even when his son Clark would have saved him. Well it was shown he did not want world to know about Clark's powers, but then Clark could just save him by taking him to some other place, not back to the bridge under which they were waiting...nobody would have known at that instant.
The scene which unleashes the flying power of Superman was amazing! The way he gets happy on flying, the depiction of him crossing the sound barrier (or the Mach speed I guess) were brilliant. But that's it! He just keeps on flying in the whole movie: when he's beating others, when he's beaten by others, even flies to dodge a bomb or bullet! In the action in later half of the movie, there is so much of destruction done, I wondered what was Superman there for? To protect people or to let them get killed! It appeared as if whole Metropolis was left in ruins after the war (kind of) He saves the Earth from getting converted into Krypton, but at what cost? Death of so many humans? This is not expected especially from Superman, who is looked upon as a saviour Super Hero, who can prevent most of the mishappenings.
Also the fight sequences between Superman & Zod were cumbersome to watch. They were so fast paced, that I literally wasn't able to decipher who was beating whom. I understood that only when one of them fell down! And frankly speaking wasn't at all happy to see Superman getting battered by Zod, that too after Jor-El declares to Zod that Kal-El is twice as strong and better than Zod. In the final scene where Zod tries to kill people with his laser vision, I actually felt that Superman could have closed Zod's eyes with his hand, as Superman can never burn. Well he did much better by killing him, but with an action that even a guy from the Army is expert at - breaking his neck! There was very little "Supermanish" action.
Another important thing is lack of dialogues and short but excellent action scenes. We have seen movies like Avengers, Dark Knight, that some dialogues dwell in the mind for long time. Like "We have a HULK" "I am always angry" "Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist". There also some action scenes that are talked of later, like Hulk beating Loki, Iron Man taking the Nuclear missile, Batman's batpod getting converted into a two wheeler, etc. This movie had nothing like that! For God's sake why not? From the trailers, I expected the movie to be at par with The Dark Knight, or Iron Man, but was much disappointed... And I later saw that many Superman fans &critics all over the world were disappointed with it - rating on www.rottentomatoes.com (56% as I am writing)
One good thing is that the movie's end (Clark joining Daily Planet), has kept my hopes of better sequel alive. Keeping fingers crossed as of now.
 |
| Image Credit: http://www.impawards.com |
Superman, Batman & Iron Man are the superheroes who always thrill me. Both Batman & Iron Man were honoured by amazing movie series, and when I heard about Zack Snyder working on Superman movie, I had a lot of expectations.
But when I watched Man of Steel, I was disappointed to the extent I would call it the worst Super Hero movie I have seen. I did like the way everything was presented in modern age, but nothing more than that.
I did not like the scene where Jonathan Kent gets killed in a tornado, even when his son Clark would have saved him. Well it was shown he did not want world to know about Clark's powers, but then Clark could just save him by taking him to some other place, not back to the bridge under which they were waiting...nobody would have known at that instant.
The scene which unleashes the flying power of Superman was amazing! The way he gets happy on flying, the depiction of him crossing the sound barrier (or the Mach speed I guess) were brilliant. But that's it! He just keeps on flying in the whole movie: when he's beating others, when he's beaten by others, even flies to dodge a bomb or bullet! In the action in later half of the movie, there is so much of destruction done, I wondered what was Superman there for? To protect people or to let them get killed! It appeared as if whole Metropolis was left in ruins after the war (kind of) He saves the Earth from getting converted into Krypton, but at what cost? Death of so many humans? This is not expected especially from Superman, who is looked upon as a saviour Super Hero, who can prevent most of the mishappenings.
Also the fight sequences between Superman & Zod were cumbersome to watch. They were so fast paced, that I literally wasn't able to decipher who was beating whom. I understood that only when one of them fell down! And frankly speaking wasn't at all happy to see Superman getting battered by Zod, that too after Jor-El declares to Zod that Kal-El is twice as strong and better than Zod. In the final scene where Zod tries to kill people with his laser vision, I actually felt that Superman could have closed Zod's eyes with his hand, as Superman can never burn. Well he did much better by killing him, but with an action that even a guy from the Army is expert at - breaking his neck! There was very little "Supermanish" action.
Another important thing is lack of dialogues and short but excellent action scenes. We have seen movies like Avengers, Dark Knight, that some dialogues dwell in the mind for long time. Like "We have a HULK" "I am always angry" "Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist". There also some action scenes that are talked of later, like Hulk beating Loki, Iron Man taking the Nuclear missile, Batman's batpod getting converted into a two wheeler, etc. This movie had nothing like that! For God's sake why not? From the trailers, I expected the movie to be at par with The Dark Knight, or Iron Man, but was much disappointed... And I later saw that many Superman fans &critics all over the world were disappointed with it - rating on www.rottentomatoes.com (56% as I am writing)
One good thing is that the movie's end (Clark joining Daily Planet), has kept my hopes of better sequel alive. Keeping fingers crossed as of now.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Shri Ananta Madhusudana
This is a prayer for Lord Vishnu. It is one of my favorite prayers. The prayer is in Marathi. I did not find the lyrics available on the web, so here I present them :
श्री अनंता मधुसूदना, पद्मनाभा नारायणा
जगव्यापका जनार्दना, आनंदघना अविनाशा || १ ||
सकल देवाधिदेवा, कृपाळुवा जी केशवा
महानंदा महानुभवा, सदाशिवा सहजरूपा || २ ||
चक्रधरा विश्वम्भरा, गरुडध्वजा करुणाकरा
सहस्त्रपादा सहस्त्रकरा, क्षीरसागरा शेषशयना || ३ ||
कमलनयना कमलापती, कामिनीमोहना मदनमूर्ती
भवतारका धरी त्या क्षिती, वामनमूर्ती त्रिविक्रमा || ४ ||
अगा ये सगुणा निर्गुणा, जगज्जनित्या जगज्जीवना
वासुदेव देवकी नंदना, बाळरांगणा बाळकृष्णा || ५ ||
तुका आला लोटांगणी, मज ठाव द्यावा जी चरणी
हेची करीतसे विनवणी, भवबंधनी सोडवावे || ६ ||
(Any mistakes in prayer either typing or wrong wording are entirely mine)
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