The Start of Something Great

Rating: 6/10 (28 June 2013)

I've just got back from the cinema after seeing Man Of Steel, and I have one thing to say: it was absolutely great. I'm not taking that away from it. However, in my opinion, not as great as it could have been.
Let me start off with the positives, because there are a lot of them. You have to take your hat off to everyone involved for making this film work. And it does work, really well in fact. One of the film's best attributes is that is manages to ground Superman in our modern day and age, without it seeming ridiculous. This, Snyder nails perfectly. The cinematography in this film is noticeably Snyder-esque, and the camera movement reminded me a lot of 300, which isn't a bad thing. All of the actors involved nail their roles, and Cavill does a fantastic job of portraying our modern Superman. Hans Zimmer's score is unsurprisingly stirring and uplifting, and completes the overall package, just like he managed with the Dark Knight trilogy. And the action, well, the action is something else entirely. The CGI is the best I think I've ever seen, surpassing even The Avengers of last year, and the sound FX hits all the right spots.
However, it's not a perfect film. My biggest gripe is that I felt there was very little character development in any character besides Superman himself. I felt like, had someone stripped away all of the CGI and action, the resulting film wouldn't have been up to much. This doesn't mean I'm taking away any of the merits the cast & crew accomplished in the epic action sequences, because they really did take my breath away, but in the words of another critic, 'less could easily have been more'. I felt that the final standoff (not giving anything away) could have been easily halved, or even cut altogether, and the film would not have lost anything. By the end of it, the huge action scenes became somewhat dull, because I felt like I'd already seen enough of them. This is one of the things I loved about the Dark Knight trilogy - there is a fine line between character driven moments and action, a line which Nolan hit perfectly and one that I feel Snyder did not. I suppose that's what to be expected from a director like Snyder whose previous films have revolved a lot around action sequences. I hate to compare the Batman trilogy and Man Of Steel, but it's very hard not to.
Overall, Man Of Steel is not as good as it could have been, that's for sure in my mind. However, credit must go to everyone involved, especially the great direction from Snyder himself, for pulling off what could easily be the start of a fantastic new franchise. I look forward to seeing where they take Kal-El next