A Couple of Hours Well Spent

Rating: 8/10 (10 July 2013)

All I can say about this movie was that both my wife and I enjoyed it very much. After being quite disappointed in Iron Man 3, I actually sat down in the cinema prepared to be disappointed in this film too, but to my surprise, I found myself leaving the cinema with a satisfied smile on my face. Is it a great movie? No, I don't think so. Will people get what they paid for and expected? In my opinion, yes. I'm over 50 years old, and the cinema has been a big part of my life, in fact it has been a big part of my family's life. My siblings and I are all named after movie stars. My wife and I own movies dating from the 1920's to the present, so we have a very broad range and taste in movies, and have watched thousands of movies. Part of the problem with too many young people today is that they will think a movie like "Iron Man 3" great, but they have never even seen movies like "The Godfather", "Citizen Kane", or "Double Indemnity" for instance. So "Iron Man 3" is great compared to what? You can see where I'm going with this, and why I don't think "Man of Steel" was great. But I do think that it was very good, and if people go to this movie expecting a decent story with plenty of action they will get what they paid for. Zod and his cohorts were true villains, and the Zod character wasn't destroyed the same way that The Mandarin was made a mockery of in the Iron Man movie. The meeting of Superman and Lois Lane of course differed from the comics, which is something we should all have grown accustomed to with today's movies, but the changes made in this area fit in nicely with the plot. As a person who has a great deal of respect for those who serve, I was pleased to see the military painted in a good light for the most. Too many films these days paint the military in a bad light, thanks to movie makers who don't seem to understand that their freedoms to make the movies they want are guaranteed by the very people they are so often critical of. Of course the military, and most people in general, would be a little wary of Superman initially.......after all, who wouldn't be when confronting a being that is almost godlike to us mere humans, and who could smoke the whole planet? Add to that the fact that Zod was from Kal's home planet, and who knows, Kal may have felt enough empathy for his fellow aliens to side with them. Fortunately this doubt or mistrust didn't play out for long, and it didn't take the military or the people of earth too long to realize that Superman was indeed a hero, and not their enemy. I liked that. I also liked that even though it was against his upbringing and nature to kill, Superman realized that to save humanity he did indeed have to kill General Zod. The anguish he faced was real, and would be the same anguish that most of us would feel if we had to kill to protect our loved ones for instance. That is a reality, and I thought that the film handled that well. While I am not American myself, I was also pleased that Superman was indeed shown to be American, as his creators, two Jewish Americans, had intended. His line about coming from Kansas towards the end of the movie was classic I thought. The fact is that most of these super heroes were created by Americans, and if people don't like them being Americans, don't go to watch the movies. Anyway, for anybody looking for a couple of hours to fill in, who likes super hero movies, I'm sure that you will enjoy this film. The story and script are more than acceptable, and the action sequences were terrific.