A Pleasant Surprise

Rating: 7/10 (17 November 2013)

An entertaining take on the oft-told Superman tale, MAN OF STEEL is a solemn but imaginative comic book movie.
Dreading both the words 'reboot' and 'origin-story' - I had very low hopes for this expensive-looking picture. To the filmmaker's credit, the movie manages to get a back-story in without interrupting a solid, simple main plot of good versus evil.
The tone is serious, but it is not dour enough for audiences to recognize that MAN OF STEEL is a feature-film version of a cartoon. The movie jumps all over time and place, with a canvas that reimagines Krypton as a Lord of the Rings/Steampunk planet, has Clark Kent a low- key do-gooder embarrassed by his super powers, and a General Zod that is a misunderstood baddie who is only trying to protect his home planet. Occasionally, the big battle at the end in Metropolis echoes some 9/11 imagery and the mind begins to wonder about all the people who are inadvertently killed during the superhero showdown.
Much has been made about the changes to the Superman folklore here. I have no problem separating this version of the legend from the 70s Richard Donner iconic epic or the 1950s TV show or even the last time Superman was rebooted just a few years ago in SUPERMAN RETURNS. They're all interesting, and even in the comics, interpreters frequently devised new story lines - ones that altered the established canon with their own sensibilities and reason to exist. Zack Snyder's version is just one of those, and I'm sure there will be others.
MAN OF STEEL boasts a uniformly great cast, and the picture's style and settings are impressively huge in scope. This big-budgeter delivers visual style and big action set pieces, and refreshes the Superman character just enough to make it new and interesting for longtime viewers. It was a pleasant surprise.