MAN OF STEEL

comic book action/adventure

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS

Russel Crowe: Scientist Jor-El

Ayelet Zurer: his wife Lara

Michael Shannon: rebel leader General Zod

Cooper Timberline: 9-year old Clark Kent

Kevin Costner: Clark’s earth-father Jonathan

Diane Lane: Clark’s earth-mother Martha

Henry Cavill: the adult Clark

Amy Adams: Lois Lane, reporter for the Daily Planet newspaper

Laurence Fishburne: Perry White, the Daily Planet Editor in Chief

REVIEW

Loud movies loaded with copious CGI will certainly appeal to those whose literary choice is a comic book. For the rest of us it is an assault: not just to our ears but to our intelligence as though we expect nothing more of a movie than a series of hand-to-hand combat scenes that quickly become tedious all to the strains of an overbearing thumping score.

Without a  good story line and solid character development, a movie is just a bore and a waste of time. Instead of having us look up in the sky to see if it’s a bird or a plane and then discover it’s Superman we get to look at one scene of destruction, devastation and mayhem after another. At 2 hours and 23 minutes it is too long except for the die-hard fan who can’t get enough of this stuff.

Not being one of them, I should have walked out earlier.

CLASSIFICATION

 for some language, intense sequences of sci-fi violence, action and destruction.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY

• General Zod says Krypton is on the verge of implosion; in fact, just the opposite happens shortly thereafter.
• The Coast Guard helicopter pilot identifies the aircraft as number 6502 whereas the tail number is actually 6011.
• Two Canadian soldiers in uniform are in the bar. No member of the Canadian forces is allowed to be in a public drinking establishment while in uniform.
• The captain of the C-17 Globemaster tells the co-pilot to take over the controls which he does and says “co-pilot in charge”. The correct handoff is “I have control”.
• The aircraft is some distance from the city when permission is requested to drop the bomb; some ten minutes later permission is granted and they are no closer than before.
• The news network is seen by viewers all over the world and they are all watching it at night; somewhere it has to be daylight.

SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD

Comic book action/adventure

F.Y.I.
Scott Pilgrim is a graphic novel series by Byran Lee O’Malley consisting of 6 volumes released between August 2004 and July 2010.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Michael Cera: 22-year-old bass player Scott Pilgrim
Alison Pill: the band's drummer Kim Pine, Scott’s ex-girlfriend
Mark Webber: the band's lead singer Stephen Stills
Johnny Simmons: wanna-be-bass player Young Neil
Kieran Culkin: Scott’s roommate Wallace Wells
Ellen Wong: 17-year-old high school student Knives Chau
Anna Kendrick: Scott's younger sister Stacey
Mary Elizabeth Winstead: Ramona Victoria Flowers
Satya Bhabha: one of Ramona’s evil exes, Matthew Patel
Chris Evans: another evil ex, Lucas Lee, movie star and skateboarder
Brandon Routh: evil ex Todd Ingram, a vegan with telekinetic powers
Mae Whitman: evil ex Roxanne "Roxy" Richter, a half-ninja

REVIEW
Fans of the series will love it; others less so.

It starts off with great promise but once Scott meets Ramona things change: to win her affection he has to battle all her seven ex-boy or girlfriends and these encounters play out like a video game.

To many all this might be written off as silly, bizarre humour for younger people whose main source of literature is comic books. I would agree with that assessment.

CLASSIFICATION
for stylized violence, sexual content, language and drug references.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
• This is one of my classic nitpicks: when Stacey hangs up, Scott hears a dial tone. In reality the dial tone is only heard after picking up the phone before dialling. That’s why it’s called a dial tone.
• Scott and Ramona sit down on swings in the park, he on the left hand side, she on the right. In the next scene they have magically switched places.