A good movie, but it

Rating: 6/10 (1 February 2014)

I am going to tell you a little secret – I hate Superman. Out of all of the super heroes that have appeared over the years Superman, who is probably the original, is also the one whom I detest the most. I guess the reason for that is because he is the epitome of the human desire for a powerful entity to come along and solve all of their problems. In a way represents that belief that we ourselves are actually okay, and that everybody who does wrong against us should be punished, yet we completely ignore the fact that we ourselves also deserve to be punished as much as everybody else. In a way, what Superman represents, is the false Christian idea of a Crusader Christ that will come along and destroy everything and everybody that we hate, yet we complete ignore the fact that if such a Christ were to actually come then we would be squarely in his sights.
However, this movie was actually really entertaining. I guess that is because Zak Snyder and Christopher Nolan were both involved in creating this film. In a way, if it was not for the fact that this film was Superman, it would have been one damn good movie. With the exception of all the standard Superman stuff (Clark Kent, the Daily Planet, Smallville), this was one brilliant piece of Science-fiction action, what I have basically come to expect from the mind of Christopher Nolan. In fact there was quite a lot in this film (such as the soundtrack) that reminded me of the typical Nolan film.
The story deals with the origins on Superman and how he comes to the a superhero. What really impressed me was that there is no hire or hair of Lex Luther (probably the supervillain that I hate the most, especially since all of the other Superman movies, with the exception of Superman II, had him as the main villain – it is as if there were no other villains in the Superman universe). In this film it is the exiled general of Krypton who finds his way to Earth and gets into a massive fist fight with Superman, with the resulting mass destruction that comes out of it.
The other interesting thing that I found in this film was that there seemed to be a lot more of the psychological struggle within Superman explored, and in fact a lot of the story is actually told as flash backs (and flash backs, when done well, as it was done in this film, can be very effective). What we have is a man who has, well, superhuman strength, and his struggle to not only come to terms with it, but to also learn how to use it appropriately. I was in fact very impressed with his Earthly father, who actually makes it clear that he does not want Superman to use his power when he is confronted with an oncoming Tornado. This, in my opinion, is the correct response to power, and that is to use it wisely, not to use it to protect one's own life, or to keep one safe. There is also the moral struggle of what does one do, expose one's power by saving a bus load of drowning children, or remain quiet an left them die.
In the end this is a pretty good movie, and the opening scene on Krypton, and in fact the whole Krypton backstory, makes you wonder at first whether it is actually a Superman movie (but I guess the existence of Krypton pretty much gives it away). However, as I suggested, what did drag it down was that it was, in the end, just another Superman movie.