Zach Snyder Understands Comics

Rating: 7/10 (16 June 2013)

The Man of Steel is back in this reboot. Going into it I was excited to see what Snyder could do with Superman, after all 300 and Watchmen were great and even Suckerpunch was decent considering who the lead was.
Snyder showed he knows how to film great action. Despite the characters moving at insane speeds, he still lets the audience see what is happening (unlike transformers) and man is it fun. The fights are fun and exciting and everyone should watch the movie for them if nothing else.
The three leads are excellent as well. Superman, of course, does a good job of exploring the internal conflict that so often plagues superheroes. What is the right thing to do with all this power? Lois is an intelligent investigative reporter who brings a more proactive roll to the character. Finally Zod is a wonderful villain, showing depth of character as well as forcing the viewer to feel some empathy for him. You can't quite bring yourself to hate him, even if you do know he needs to be stopped.
Now for the problems. Side characters should be just that, side characters. The story does not need to bend over backwards to give Perry White moments of glory. In addition there were several scenes that appeared to try to follow Nolan's example of having characters do wildly idiotic things in order to let the plot get to where it needed to.
Finally, there were a few scenes that tried to seem more over the top in order to deliver more drama which actually diminished the overall effect. What should have been the most moving scene in the movie, for instance, was laughable rather than heartfelt because the writers apparently forgot how to make a good script momentarily.
I thought it was well worth a watch. It is comparable to Batman Begins in that some people will love it but the rest of us won't particularly care unless the follow up can really blow us away. It was disappointing how much potential the script had yet the writers seemed to get lazy a little too often which took away from the overall experience.
It was enjoyable but it was no Avengers and certainly was no Dark Knight.