A loud, deafening cacophony of "meh"

Rating: 5/10 (1 July 2013)

And so the disappointing year in movies that has been 2013 so far continues with Man of Steel. This was one of the year's most anticipated movies, and with good reason. Movie-goers were bombarded by trailers that promised epic action right alongside an intimate and moving character study/ origin story. Zack Snyder had proved he was capable of making of making good superhero movies with 2009's Watchmen, and Christopher Nolan's involvement as producer/ co- writer was promising, seeing as he was behind three recent Batman films that were all of very high quality. Add to that the fact that the cast was full of well-known, talented actors, and it's no wonder excitement was so high for this movie.
I guess it all ended up sounding to good to be true. This film tries to be so many different things at once, and this leads to a number of problems that I personally found very hard to overlook. I think most people are going to find the jumps between scenes in this movie very jarring. We often go from overblown action scene to quiet, drawn out character moment without any warning whatsoever. Watching this movie sometimes feels like riding a malfunctioning roller- coaster- you might think it's fun, and you might even have a little bit of fun, but you'll be concerned the whole time because you never really know where the damn thing's going. I'm all for surprises and a lack of predictability in movies, but tonally it needs to be consistent, and changes between scenes have to feel smooth and comfortable. Otherwise the movie just ends up feeling vague, and this makes it hard to really get into the film's events.
When scenes aren't transitioning awkwardly into other scenes, they're usually dragged out for too long. This movie makes both the dialogue scenes and the action scenes fairly boring at times, which is kind of crazy when you think about it. The middle third of the movie is quite uninvolving, filled with flashbacks happening that come out of nowhere, and painfully drawn out and repetitive monologues about "destiny" and "what it means to be a hero" and so on. Then we get to the final act of the film, which involves so much senseless and repetitive fighting and destruction that what should be a grand and exciting finale becomes tedious and dull to watch. The special effects are quite amazing, but they do start to overstay their welcome after a while. There's only so many times we can see a building fall down, Superman punch someone, a vehicle explode, or a bad guy throw Superman through a building before it gets old.
The writing's pretty off too. As mentioned before, the story doesn't flow too well and the film as a whole never really finds its groove, awkwardly transitioning between a disaster movie, an origin story, an alien invasion movie, a superhero film, and even a coming of age movie (sort of). The dialogue leaves a lot to be desired as well, with a lot of unnatural sounding dialogue and quite a few attempts at humour that fall flat.
But it's not all terrible though. As mentioned before, the special effects are stunning, as are the action scenes before they become tiresome. Hans Zimmer delivers another effective score as well. Performances are decent too, particularly Crowe and Costner; in fact, I enjoyed the scenes with these actors in them the most. Russel Crowe's kind of the star of this movie for the first fifteen minutes in an opening sequence that depicts the destruction of Superman's home planet Krypton, and honestly, I would've much rather watched a movie exclusively about the fall and destruction of this planet than the muddled, occasionally very dull movie we actually got.
Also, sequels are set up, which could always be good if done right. I'm not holding my breath in excitement, but I will remain somewhat open to the idea that this (eventual) franchise can redeem itself. I didn't hate this movie, and there is stuff here that can be enjoyed, but I ultimately still left the theatre very disappointed, mainly because I felt that this film showed almost all the major problems of mediocre big budget Hollywood action blockbusters these days. - Predictable storyline that plays it safe, and contains very few legitimately unexpected moments? Check. - An emphasis on special effects and action instead of having exciting action scenarios containing likable, relatable, well-written characters? Check. - Loud noises and a ridiculous number of explosions? Check. - Very little emotional or intellectually stimulating material? Check. - Almost nothing to make the audience and/or future generations feel like actually remembering the film? Check.
These big budget Hollywood films need to evolve, primarily because they really are starting to become stale. I want to go to a movie and feel like I'm seeing something that was either unique, or made by people who were clearly passionate about what they were making. Or, ideally, both. I want to be moved by movies. I want to be surprised by movies. I want movies to imbed themselves in my mind and stay there for days to the point where I just can't stop thinking about them. I want movies to take risks. I want movies to be made in a way that they'll appeal to future generations.
I want huge summer movies like Man of Steel to actually be exciting again.
Don't you as well?