Henry Cavill is SuperMan!

Rating: 10/10 (17 June 2020)

As long as I live I will never be able to speak highly enough of this movie. The opening scenes on Krypton were amazing! So much happened. Baby Kal-El was born, General Zod tried to disband the council and Jor-El fought off his army and beat down General Zod himself before Zod killed him. I thought Russell Crowe was awesome as Jor-El, he played a much bigger part than past versions of the character and was involved in some cool action scenes. I liked the part where he started riding that massive Dragonfly looking thing and swimming through the water to steal the codex. Visually this movie was stunning especially on Krypton. I really liked the close up of those ships with the giant red sun behind them and when the ships were in the air firing lasers at each other. I also liked whatever that dinosaur looking thing was. There were some lovely emotional scenes such as when Lara and Jor-El were saying goodbye to baby Kal. Lara has tears in her eyes and I liked the soft humming that goes with the scene and you hear it again towards the end the first time SuperMan is healed by Earth's sun. The music just goes perfectly with the movie, I mean I'd expect nothing else from Hans Zimmer. The man is an absolute living legend! Eventually Krypton begins to explode and there is only Lara left. She looks to the sky with tears in her eyes and says "make a better world than ours Kal" as a violin plays a sad theme in the background. It really captured the sadness and the tragedy of the situation.
I feel like Zack Snyder did a great job with the character of SuperMan. During his life Clark faces a lot struggles trying to adapt to Earth and his special abilities but also to keep what he can do a secret. He is an outcast who never fitted in anywhere but also has to show unbelievable restraint when other kids at school or other adults when he's grown up challenging him physically. I think the movie was the perfect balance of him being a super being, a god basically but things still not being easy for him. I like the fact that all the main characters did something heroic like Jonathan Kent for example. In most versions of SuperMan Jonathan dies of a heart attack but in this movie he gets caught in a hurricane saving the lives of other people which I think is a better way for him to go out.
Clark becomes SuperMan about 45 minutes in and that scene where he takes his first flight is absolutely awesome and breathtaking. What makes it so brilliant is the fantastic score by Hans Zimmer and the way the sky around cracks open. Henry Cavill does a great job in this scene of capturing how exhilarating flying would be. The scene always gives me goosebumps every time I see it.
The movie also has a great villain in General Zod played by Michael Shannon. He doesn't quite steal the show from Henry Cavill but I would say he was very close. I love the scene when he and his forces first arrive on Earth. The ship is hovering in the sky and Zod delivers a message broadcast worldwide, everywhere is dark and everyone is just silent staring at the TV screen listening to his words. It's really cool and chilling at the same time. I think what makes this Zod such a great character is Michael Shannon's acting and the way he spoke and delivered his lines. He starts his message with "you are not alone" and then goes on to threaten the entire planet to turn Kal-El over to him or Earth will suffer the consequences. Zod's motivation for everything he did was clear and made sense and I think that is important when it comes to the villain of the story.
The Daily Planet was different in this movie. Usually it is noisy and Perry White is a very eccentric guy talking loudly and to multiple different people at once. In the old movies scenes in the daily planet were pretty fast paced with loads of people rushing round doing whatever they are doing but in this movie it is much more calm.
The final battles in Smallville and Metropolis were epic! In Smallville SuperMan fights off two of Zod's minions Metropolis is the scene of his final battle with Zod after all the other Kryptonian's are back in the phantom zone. I liked the part where SuperMan is strapped down to a bed on Zod's ship but Lois helps Jor-El's ghost change the ships atmosphere to give SuperMan his strength back. He breaks the restraints and just gives the guard a really intimidating look and he is intimidated. He quickly gets out the room with a look of terror on his face, it was cool and funny. I just loved how manly Henry Cavill is as SuperMan, he has that deep, sophisticated voice that is shades of Christopher Reeve who had a brief cameo when his face was morphed with Henry Cavill's for a second or two. At the end of his fight with Zod he has him pinned down and some civilians are trapped and Zod shoots his heat vision at them. It is burning slowly across the wall and before it gets to them SuperMan breaks his neck and kills him. All those years of showing restraint he just couldn't do it anymore. He begged Zod not to kill them, he gave him the chance but in the end he had to save the humans. I admit I was shocked but not upset. I was like "wow! SuperMan killed somebody. If I was a virgin I'd be freaking out right now."
I wasn't a big fan of the Lois Lane. Don't get me wrong she did a lot in the movie but I always expect the love of SuperMan's life to be, I don't know..... beautiful I guess? I really liked the character of General Swanwick and I've been hearing lately that Zack Snyder's plan was to reveal him eventually as The Martian Manhunter which would have been an amazing twist.
Now on to the part I've really had a long time to think about. I thought about going the high road but I need to get this off my chest. I'm talking about all the stupid nerds who hate this movie. When I hear the reasons why they don't like it I just think they are pathetic. It's very simple, if you think this movie sucked it's because you wanted it to from the get go. SuperMan killed Zod and Jonathan Kent said maybe young Clark should have let his classmates die. That's enough to make the movie bad is it? I hear people say he doesn't act like SuperMan. How is that? I think he is as SuperMan as they come. He saved all his friends on the school bus then he pulls Pete out the river. He saved all them men on the oil rig and he saved that pilot in Smallville when he falls from his plane and is just a pit to hit the ground. The reality is I grew up idolising Christopher Reeve, I used to run around in his costume pretending I could fly. Dean Cain was the SuperMan of my generation and I idolised him too. I watched ten seasons of 'Smallville' with Tom Welling who was also excellent in the role. However you get these nerds who have an attitude of "well I've read this comic book and that comic book so my opinion matters more than yours." Oh really? I wish I could look all those butthurt cretins in the eye and say. "I don't care how many comic books you've read! You don't know SuperMan better than me." There is also no evidence that SuperMan was responsible for any civilian deaths in this movie. He was over at the Indian Ocean trying to destroy the world engine when most of the damage was done to Metropolis. Although he did crash Zod's ship when he finally got to Metropolis. He had to do that though to save the planet and there's no proof anyone died because of that. The most ridiculous thing I've heard was that those people who Zod tried to fry before having his neck broken could have ran away. I just have such an undying amount of respect for that individual it's unreal. Honestly everyone just hangs on his every word.
All in all this movie will always be special to me. Every aspect of it was just well made and I'll never get tired of watching it. I've put off reviewing it for so long because I had just so much to say and didn't know how to put it all together. I've finally decided to stop thinking about it so much and just do it. I hope Henry Cavill returns one day as SuperMan! He's done so much in the role in the three movies he's already been in.