Somebody Decided To Take This Way Too Seriously

Rating: 2/10 (28 December 2013)

"Man of Steel" has way too many explosions and crashing spacecraft and simply overdoes it with general mayhem. And, somewhere along the way, Superman got lost. Yes, Henry Cavill was here playing the part, wearing a blue costume and red cape, but I'm talking about what you might call the spirit of Superman; the sense of fun that should be a part of this. It's based on a comic strip for goodness' sake. And what happened to truth, justice and the American way? Really, this just turned into a non-stop battle between Superman (or "Kal" as they called him - short for Kal-El) and General Zod (Michael Shannon.) And the fact that it was essentially non-stop meant that, really, it became quite dull, and there were points during the mayhem when I found myself thinking, "good grief, not more." But, yes, there was more. Always more.
It just wasn't interesting. If all you care about are explosions and mayhem then it will satisfy, but if you care about story or characters or performances? Well, this is totally lacking in any of that. Cavill, Shannon or Amy Adams as Lois Lane? They all faded into the background, because the star of the movie was the overdone special effects and action.
The most obvious comparison to Man of Steel would be Superman II in the Christopher Reeve series of movies. That one, in my opinion, was immeasurably better. It had a story that flowed well from beginning to end, whereas I found the story in Man of Steel - especially in the early going - to be disjointed and difficult to follow. The Reeve version also had the sense of fun added by Gene Hackman's portrayal of Lex Luthor, or even Margot Kidder's turn as Lois. There was no character in this that one could have fun with.
With the emphasis on the alien ships and assorted ominous looking alien outfits, plus the explosions and spacecraft, one got the impression that director Zack Snyder really wanted to do a Star Wars-Superman hybrid, with the emphasis definitely on Star Wars. (2/10)