Man of Steel is magnificent!

Rating: 10/10 (24 June 2013)

I saw this movie in IMAX 3-D and I was blown away! It brought respect to the Superman franchise. For a while Superman was only being held up by his character in the comic books and some animated series but largely on the big screen he has been lacking impact. From the well-intended Smallville series- which just deteriorated into another eye-sore of a soap drama from CW, to the flop that was Superman Returns. Live action superman flicks are just not satisfying enough. But bringing on Zack Snyder to finally portray Superman, with all the power and abilities he has, in bad-ass epic fight scenes, I was just sitting there going, "Now that's the Superman I know!".
People keep pointing to the ending as breaking the cardinal rule that 'Superman doesn't kill!'. Have you ever asked yourself , Why? As much as he is an alien genetically, his upbringing was as a human, raised by humans exposed and vulnerable to faults and errors in judgment. So essentially, even though he has all these powers and abilities, he is still a human, a Super-human, but a human nonetheless. For all intents and purposes, he is more Clark Kent than he is Kal-El. So saying that 'he can't kill' just for the sake of it is just not realistic. Being THE Superhero, you'd expect him to encounter the worst adversaries who would do anything to have victory. So you want to tell me that without any past experiences, that he can realistically keep defeating his adversaries without killing at least one of them. Come on! I'm glad Zack Snyder came out and gave his reason for the end scene, which was my first thought when I saw the movie. I expect that after that, the thought of ever killing another being will be haunted by this particular scene. I think that was quite clever actually!
The only thing that stops me giving this movie a perfect 10/10 was the pacing of the story. And I place the blame for this on David Goyer. He did the same thing on TDKR and I didn't like it. His stories are so fast paced and seem like he's trying to wrap things up quickly. Were it not for the pure beauty of Zack's directing and artistic colouring of the movie and action scenes, together with Mega performances by Michael Shannon and co., the flow/pacing of the story-line would have bombed. At points it felt like I was still watching an extended trailer. I felt he could've added a few more intricacies. Like when Zod is killed, Superman could have done more than just shout out in a 2 second scene. He could've tried to fly him to the Sun or something in attempt to heal Zodd. Then of-course find out that he can't be saved and a whole sob scene could be added that could really show the impact of Kal-El killing the last of his people. That's just an example but throughout the movie parts of the story just don't seem right. I hope that the second Superman movie gets a new story writer. One who can be intricate and has better story-writing skills. Most of the characters, despite their great performances, lacked the depth of character needed. The only person who had an impact in terms of the story was Zod, who I was actually rooting for by the end of the movie.
Also I felt Superman's character could have been a bit less authoritarian. He seemed liked a school Headteacher at times. It wasn't seriousness as some critics were saying, or the lack of humor, rather he was kind of snobbish. The strictness of the character didn't do Henry Cavill any favours in terms of facial expressions. But that's just nit- picking.
Other than the slight lack in pacing and story depth, the movie was all I've wanted to see in a Superman movie for a long time now. I thank you Zack Snyder for amazing us. You brought the kid out of me in this. And for the first time in a long time, I was eager to go see a movie in the cinema, rather than just on DVD. And I left feeling that it was completely worth it! Best Superman movie ever!