Review Detail

Of all the Man of Steel edits I've seen, this is definitely one of the better ones, if only for how much was able to be cut out while still maintaining the shape of Man of Steel, if that makes sense. For example, there are numerous cuts to Zod's scenes, Clark & his family in the truck, Clark talking to his mom on the farm, but they cut straight to the point while maintaining the context of everything. That, as well as making Superman mournful over the loss of life in Metropolis, makes this worth the watch.

On that same token though, a lot of the more judicious cuts make the pace too fast & robs the film of moments to breath (the oil rig scene, Clark & Jor-El’s talk on Zod’s ship, Martha telling Zod to go to hell, Clark seeing Pa Kent’s ghost on the mountain, the first flight in the suit).

The cuts also highlights/creates some “and then” storytelling, where things happen with little rhyme or reason. For removing the scene of Clark saving the bus full of kids, I know he was successful because we were introduced to adult Pete Ross earlier, but it’s still jarring in the moment.

As for the first flight, removing it isn’t bad in and of itself, but then the film just cuts from Clark learning about Krypton, to “something” flying in Earth’s atmosphere, to Lois investigating Clark. I think a way you get around this is by putting the Krypton exposition before Clark saves Lois on the ship to allow for some “therefore/but storytelling.” For example, Clark sneaks out at night to investigate the ship, therefore he meets his birth father & learns of his planet’s history, but Lois followed him into the ship & got injured, therefore Clark saves her, therefore Lois leaks her story, therefore they meet at Jon Kent’s grave, etc.

It’s also surprising that there are cuts that weren’t made that feel like they should’ve been. Why show the explosion caused by Clark punching the big Kryptonian into the train yard & make Clark responsible for the destruction? Why keep the bit with the Lexcorp truck exploding & potentially putting more people’s deaths on Clark’s head? Why not intercut the scene with the jerk at the bar in the beginning with the scene of Pa Kent telling young Clark that fighting back against someone weaker than him won’t make him feel better?

One final note, while I appreciate the goal for wanting to establish Clark as the boy scout we’re familiar with, I’m a tad surprised there wasn’t a variation of the eight word origin from All Star Superman used (“Doomed planet, desperate scientists, last hope, kindly couple”) to tell the audience “look at this Superman as the one you know?”

I don’t want to sound like I’m disparaging Wakeupkeo’s efforts here. While this isn’t the definitive replacement for Man of Steel that I was looking for, it does highlight that the movie has a solid foundation that can be made worthwhile, & I still recommend it.