If you're a Christopher Nolan fan, bad news...

Rating: 6/10 (3 July 2013)

If you're a Zack Snyder fan, good news! Man of Steel is among his best work, with some "Zack Snyder"-y action and violence. If you're a Christopher Nolan fan, bad news! Man of Steel feels like a poor attempt to mimic the success of the "Dark Knight" trilogy.
The main problem with it is the plot. It's just not a very fun movie. Even "The Dark Knight" has a few laughs or clever lines, but in MoS, I think I only laughed once towards the end. The fight scenes are overlong too, and become a bit dull and monotonous after a while. The film is trying to be another gritty superhero film, like so many that have come out recently, and unfortunately that's all it is. Trying. It never succeeds in engaging the audience fully. On a more positive note, I did enjoy some of the backstory, and thought that this could have been more prominent. Superman's rescue of the school bus is one of the few completely enjoyable scenes, and Kevin Costner is especially good as his adoptive father. And of course, this wouldn't be a real superhero film without the life-changing death of a parent or guardian. And Superman does lose his father. Twice.
The other problem is the style of the film, everything is washed out and a bit grey, and the camera-work is annoying. Snyder films it in such a way that it's an effort to actually see anything, because everything is shaky, even if it's just two people having a conversation. Hans Zimmer's score is far too loud and intrusive too (his scores for "The Dark Knight " and "Inception" are just about bearable), and this means that all of the action and explosions have to be even louder. You leave the film with a very apparent deafness.
One of the few redeeming features of the film is the acting, which is occasionally very good. Amy Adams plays Lois Lane very well, and she delivers the finest performance in the film by far. Cavill plays a convincing Superman, and Russell Crowe's Jor-El, despite his early death, is quite fun in his 'digital form'. I did laugh out loud when he closed a door on one of Zod's accomplices by moving his hand. I don't think this was written to be humorous though.
As a movie, it's not a bad one. It has fairly good action sequences and a nice backstory for Superman. It's well acted in places. As a movie that is selling itself using the Christopher Nolan name, it's disappointing and nowhere near any of his previous work. Thankfully, he says that he gave most creative control to Snyder, so we're still able to look forward to "Interstellar" next year.