Movie Review - MAN OF STEEL

Every reboot needs a beginning so with the reboot of Superman, Man of Steel shows the origins of the man of steel from birth (the movie starts out with his mother screaming in throes of childbirth) to him becoming indeed, Superman, and saving the world.  It does this fairly well and makes it rather exciting.  But it suffers from the same thing that the Great Gatsby seemed to suffer from (both are about 2hrs 20mins): Great first 90 minutes, lackluster final 50 minutes.

In this film we see Clark Kent struggle internally between doing what’s right and doing what he wants.  Even in the trailer when a young Superman asks his father, “What did you want me to do, just like them die?” and his father responds, “Maybe,” you see the pain of the possibility of allowing the mere mortals of earth to perish in order to conceal one’s identity.  This plays a pivotal role throughout his development.

The characters and actors are great.  Henry Cavill as Superman was an excellent choice and he’s surrounded by high-quality actors.  Michael Shannon knocks it out of the park as General Zod (despite a few moments of over-acting) and the supporting players pull their weight.  Russell Crowe and Kevin Costner are great at playing the dads we all wish we had and Ma Kent (Diane Lane) is good as well.  Amy Adams and Laurence Fishburne were fine, forgettable.  But pay attention to an actress named Antje Traue.  She plays the evil sidekick to General Zod and kicks some serious butt.

Once Zod reappears into Superman’s world the holes in the story start widening and things start to cliché.  Brilliant scientists are extra brilliant at figuring out what’s going on.  The military is extra stubborn and pays the consequences for their naivety.  It felt that the story started to revolve around action scenes as opposed to the story being the cause for action.  But the action scenes, for the most part, were good only they too got stale.  There’s just too much of the same action and I felt I’ve seen it before.  Two foes battle each other in the center of a metropolis (which so happens is Metropolis in this one).  The Incredible Hulk, Avengers, Spiderman.  Transformers.  I’ve seen it already.

Why directors feel the need to use the handheld to add realism escapes me.  It’s an overdone practice and it’s distracting.  We’re not watching a documentary, we’re watching a 200 million dollar summer blockbuster.  I want to see what’s going on, not pretend the filmmakers came across it.

So, in the end it gets a 3 out of 5 from me.  I’d like to see most of the actors again reprising their roles and I don’t believe this one will get pushed aside like the previous Superman Returns.  Superman movies usually aren’t very good if you think about it.  The last quality one had the same battle between General Zod and Superman and was made in 1980.  Christopher Nolan was a major producer on this one as well as credited for the story.  He and David S. Goyer did the script. I just wish they could have woven it together in a way that held the same caliber as their Batman trilogy.  To me, Man of Steel was just another comic book movie; one that’s almost forgettable.