A Reboot Too Far

Rating: 2/10 (17 August 2015)

When Christopher Reeve first brought Superman to life in the movies, he didn't just create a movie; he established both a precedent and an ultimate prototype for all following live-action comic book movies to follow. "Superman" was an awesome movie that merged a great script with talented actors, an incredible musical score that inspired awe and wonder and an excellent plot masterfully plotted by the great Richard Donner. This prototype has served Hollywood well in all other comic book movies to come, from 1990s "Batman" with Michael Keaton under the helm of Tim Burton to the maestro of Sam Raimi's "Spiderman" with Tobey McGuire. However, Zach Snyder's "Man Of Steel" falls somewhere between Andrew Garfield as Spiderman and Ben Affleck as Daredevil. It's loud, it's obnoxious, it's more overblown than "Avatar," and it takes incredible liberties with a story that didn't need rebooting. It's a paranoid UFO-nut's nightmare come true. It has all the ingredients of a bad extra-terrestrial invasion movie amped up on a huge budget with Henry Cavil as Superman barely staying afloat in a plot that has more pointless violence, bizarre Christ imagery and destruction than a Michael Bay movie. Cavill looks good as Superman, much better than Brandon Routh from "Superman Returns," but the costume redesign stinks. What were they thinking moving away from the iconic red and blue uniform immortalized in the comics? Amy Adams is okay, making the best of her scenes, but Russell Crowe basically phones in his scenes with much less presence than Marlon Brando. I mean, he might as well be rolled through his scenes on a barcolounger by a couple of stage grips; it's that tedious. Kevin Costner is woefully under-used, relegated to a nearly endless stream of flashbacks that delegate him to the position of "extra" like a poor man's Louis Nye. Michael Shannon on the other hand dominates the film much like Willem DaFoe in "Spiderman" or Jack Nicholson as the Joker in "Batman." Ranting and raving like Hitler on crack; in some scenes, he sometimes almost looks exactly like Nicholson in "The Shining." Where the movie fails me, though, is the endless over-used CGI scenes of Metropolis and Smallville getting destroyed as Superman and the Phantom Zone villains crash, bang, bounce, ricochet and careen through buildings and personal property like the Hulk in a china shop, and then there's the annoying detracting details about Kryptonian relics and artifacts and memories which don't add anything to the movie but make it that much more insufferable, and let's not forget to mention the horrible DVD package with one DVD that has no bonus features and a second non-playable Blue-Ray waste of time that plays in. nothing!!!! Overall, "Man of Steel" reminds me of a German opera, over-blown and full of unnecessary exposition. It's "Superman Returns" on acid