Men of Stupid Decisions

Rating: 5/10 (7 August 2016)

Man of Steel is an average movie with quite a few flaws. Henry Cavill, who plays Superman, looks and plays the part quite well, and I enjoyed the fact that the film deals with his character struggles as being a person...er, a being, trapped between two worlds. The allusions to the DC Extended Universe are quite fun, and you'll see them if you are familiar with the source material. I also believe that Amy Adams, a fantastic actress, plays her role as Lois Lane well, although sometimes the script leaves one wanting more for her to do than taking orders from the men around her.
Another highlight of the film is Michael Shannon, who makes an excellent General Zod. He truly sounds the part and I was left feeling quite empathetic towards him regardless of how genocidal he is.
The first of my two major problems comes as a rather simple one. The special effects seem unconvincing and too reliant on the green screen. Even the explosions seemed computer generated and that left me disappointed. Also, the overall feel and color scheme of the film reeks too much of the bleakness of the Nolan-verse. I expect Superman's Metropolis to be more brightly-colored and optimistic. I make exception to this complaint with the scenes in Kansas that are beautifully shot, and the cinematography of the more religious scenes, which I did enjoy as well. More on Kansas later.
My other complaint revolves around my belief that Man of Steel demonstrates that bad decisions are not unique to this Earth. I find it highly unlikely that Jor-El (Russell Crowe) would be the only one with any foresight as to the challenges facing Krypton. Besides Jor-El and even Zod, the rest of the Kryptonians seem rather clueless and I was sort of cheering for Zod in their conflict.
Finally with this criticism, back to Kansas. I don't know if it was just me, but it seemed like half the state and their mothers knew where to find Clark Kent, yet no one at the Daily Planet besides Lois connected the dots. The makes the fact that Clark Kent looks like Superman with glasses when he works at the newspaper even more unconvincing. I guess journalism is in as bad a shape as they say?
I give Man of Steel 2 out of 4 stars.