They will stumble, they will fall

Rating: 8/10 (18 June 2013)

Superman is arguably the most famous superhero of them all with a history spanning over 70 years. He is one of the most recognisable figures in pop culture, but since the rise of the superhero genre in cinema Superman has somehow struggled to return to the silver screen. Man of Steel seem set to save Superman's fortunes.
On the planet Krypton the planet's chief scientist Jol-El (Russell Crowe) and his wife Lara (Ayelet Zurer) have the first natural born child on the planet generations. But Jol-El discovers that Krypton has only weeks left before the planet collapses on itself and General Zod (Michael Shannon)attempts a military. Amidst the chaos Jol-El and Lara send they son Kal-El to Earth before the planet is destroy.
33 years later Kal-El has grown up as Clark Kent (Henry Cavill), a Kansas man with amazing abilities who attempts to remind anonymous but ends up saving people wherever he goes. As he investigates his own past when the American military discover a lost spaceship in the Artic a top journalist, Lois Lane (Amy Adams) tries to find out who her mysterious survivor really is. Even worst Zod and his follows had survived the destruction of Krypton and demands Earth hand over Kal-El, believing he hold the key to the rebirth of their race.
Superman Returns was disliked by audience, but I personally enjoyed it. The big criticism of Superman Returns was that it lacked action: Man of Steel has the opposite problem, it is too action heavy. Zack Snyder, the director of 300, Watchmen and Sucker Punch was brought in to helm the film. He started the film with massive battles, fights and chases in opening ten minutes and the film does not stop. Snyder knows how to shoot action, particularly the big battles and showcasing the powers; but his trademark slow-motion is cut back, instead using a hand-held style (but there are some annoying zooms when showing things in flight). Man of Steel is a film that racks up a lot of death and destruction, with half a city getting destroyed. Michael Bay and Roland Emmerich would have been proud. 2013 is a year that has racked up a massive body count in blockbusters.
Whilst the action is great, the story is very thin and the film is too long. 30 minutes could easily have been cut and the film is not as thematic as it intends to be. The film wants to have a message of destiny and free will and nature versus nurture: but the film is not as deep as wants to be. Snyder is not a subtle director, but the real let down is the script by David S. Goyer: it really lacked depth. We do not get to see much of Superman as Clark Kent, especially as an adult: we needed to see more of what made him tick and occasionally Superman did feel like a secondary character with the military and Lois Lane taking a lot of screen time. The basic plot of the film is also similar to Transformers and Transformers: Dark of the Moon, i.e. find the alien device that could bring new life to an alien planet/race and try and turn Earth into a habitable world for the aliens.
Because of the origins story it is easy to think about the original Superman film and Superman II, there were similarities to the story. Christopher Nolan was a producer for the film and it is clear Warner Brothers were hoping for a repeat of his Dark Knight Trilogy (which it will do financially), but its style and approach actually reminded me more of The Amazing Spider-man, particular some of the plot points, the basic look of the film and the wider picture, such as the use of the military. There are also some elements of J.J. Abrams' Superman Flyby script in Man of Steel as well, examples being Clark Kent trying to control his powers as a child, the use of the military in the narrative and the climax and the use of Zod who takes up Krypton and being the main villain of the film (though in Flyby it was Kal-El's cousin).
Man of Steel has a fine cast, with Snyder and his team filling the film with a top actors, a great combination of stars and respected character actors. Cavill does look the part as Clark Kent/Superman but his performance was a little bland: Cavill tried his best but he did not have much to work with. Crowe, Adams, Laurence Fishbourne were all strong in their respective roles and will be serve future Superman films well. But the most fun was Shannon as he chews the scenery as Zod; he is great at playing insane characters. Antje Traue too was notable as Zod's second-in-command.
John Williams' famous Superman theme was not included for the reboot. Whilst it is missed, Hans Zimmer's new score was excellent, powerhouse piece of music. The final think to note was cinematography by Amir Mokri was disappointing, having a murky filter making the visuals a little unclean and the colour pallet was a brown, dulling out the film when its colours should have been brighter.
Superman is a series that needed a reboot and Man of Steel does set up a new world and the action. But it is a film that plays its hand to early considering the action on the screen, the amount of destruction and how world changing an event it would be. The film should have been a little more small scale. But I will still go and see the sequel.