The DCEU has long been the black sheep of the superhero world. Marvel obviously got the whole thing going with Iron Man and DC has been trying to catch up ever since. Arguably, Marvel got the ball rolling in the early 2000s with the first few X-Men and Spider-Man films. They’ve been at this one way or another for over 20 years now. And while DC had the Nolan Batman films they could have built from, they decided to start from scratch with someone else at the helm, Zack Snyder. His first big swing for the fences, Man of Steel.

Man of Steel was supposed to be DC’s Iron Man. It would jump start their franchise and give them proper footing to start competing with Marvel. Well that didn’t exactly work out. Financially it was able to compete with Marvel’s earlier flicks, but critically it was incredibly middling. People liked it for the spectacle and not much else. Since then the DCEU has been rocky at best, and with the Snyder Cut of Justice League right around the corner, we felt a bit of a duty to rewatch everything leading up to it so we could properly assess the franchise as a whole.

Of course there are some gems we’re excited to rewatch. You know which ones; Wonder Woman, Shazam, and even Aquaman. But Man of Steel did not impress us any more this time around than it did last time. It’s big time spectacle, but even that doesn’t exactly work. It’s kind of “on” constantly for the back half of the movie and it’s just too relentless. There are certainly parts that work though.

So how do you feel about Man of Steel and the DCEU as a whole? We love hearing people’s different takes on these movies since they aren’t as universally beloved as the Marvel stuff. It makes for more interesting conversation. Let us know over on Twitter or in the YouTube comments! For now though, settle in for a poorly mixed, cicada-fueled episode of So…I’m Watching This Show!

MAN OF STEEL SHOWNOTES!

Link to Justice League episode:
https://soimwatching.com/2017/12/20/episode-2-justice-league/