This Movie Would Not Allow Me to Like It

Rating: 2/10 (2 July 2013)

It did so many things right. Good acting/casting, decently well written story (I'm not one of the "grimdark" complainers, that didn't bother me,) and it had a big plus in Shannon who was excellent as a very well-written Zod. The fight sequences were suitably huge and bombastic... all in all, this movie didn't make very many mistakes. But... the one mistake it DID make was so pervasive that I could not leave the theater NOT hating Man of Steel. EVERY SINGLE SECOND of this movie is shot in shaky-cam, pretentious, "realistic-o-vision." Editing the movie to look like it was filmed on an iPhone is OK for maybe ONE or TWO action scenes. Maybe a long shot or 2 as well. It is unnecessary and unforgivable in a scene where 2 people are standing still and speaking to one another, and even worse if it is every single frame of the movie. Add to that the bizarre use of intentionally blurring foreground and background to give the impression it was filmed by 1970's camera technology as opposed to the state of the art digital cameras we KNOW they used. It is a baffling (and ugly and stupid) choice of visual aesthetic, and was SO overused it never stopped being annoying. So, 2 out of 10. If petit-mal camera doesn't bother you... I'd say at least a 7.