An Beautifully Bittersweet Insight To the Character of Superman

Rating: 9/10 (25 March 2016)

As an avid Superman fan, I've been following the production of Man of Steel for almost two years now, ever since they announced Christopher Nolan would be producing and some Brit named Henry Cavill was going to be Superman.
I went into the movie with very high expectations, and not only were those expectations met, they were just blown out of the park.
Let's just start by saying that I am not a fan of Russell Crowe. Loved him in Gladiator (who didn't?) but after seeing Body of Lies and Robin Hood, my trust in him to play Jor-El was shaken. However, he did a marvelous job at conveying to the audience that he was willing to do anything to save his son, but also to protect his people.
We also get to meet the film's antagonist, General Zod (Michael Shannon) and his ever so alluring partner-in-destruction, Faora (Antje Traue). As a fan of Michael Shannon, I was surprisingly lukewarm about his portrayal of Zod in the early scenes of the movie. It was a role that I expected him to thrive in, yet he seemed ratherrobotic. Maybe that's the angle he was going for (I can see how he would choose to portray the character like that) but I wish he gave in just a little bit more to Zod's rage.
A few massive explosions, a death scene that should have had me in tears, but didn't (I blame Ayelet Zurer's lack of a reaction) and Russell Crowe riding a giant butterfly-dragon- eagle thing later, we finally get to Superman! Or rather, Clark Kent (Henry Cavill) as he wanders about the world, asking the ultimate question of "Why am I here?"
Just going to stop and say it here : Henry Cavil was absolutely brilliant.
I admit, I am a Henry Cavill fan (thank you The Tudors.) but from the perspective of a comic book fan, he quite simply was Superman. Fit the part and did a phenomenal job acting as Superman. Not the Christopher Reeve Superman, so please do not come up to me and tell me that Superman should have been saving cats of a tree.
No.
Do I think that Kal could have smiled a bit more? Yes, this Superman was a bit on the broody side. And did I miss the dorky charm of Clark Kent? Yes, but this film wasn't about Clark Kent and Superman. It was about Kal-El.
But back to the movie review.
Quickly summarizing the rest of the film, it is a constant picture of explosions and space ships and crazy stuff flying in every direction. Many critics are saying that it was too much action and they needed to take a break.
I do agree with the fact that the action scenes could have been broken up by scenes of dialogue (mainly between Lois Lane (Amy Adams) and Superman) but at the same time, I don't dislike the endless explosions. It's two angry Kryptonians going at it, and yes, buildings will be falling down, things are going to light on fire, and yeah. There's going to be a lot of explosions.
Speaking of Lois Lane, let's talk about that. For being such an important character in the film, Lois really wasn't in the movie that much. That being said, the scenes that she was in, I thought Amy Adams was one of the best Lois Lanes that I've ever seen (the other being Erica Durance of Smallville). She captured the pure force of determination that Lois Lane is, and her chemistry with Henry Cavill was breathtaking. Despite the fact that most of their romantic development seemed to happen off camera, the two were able to communicate that Superman, yes, saves Lois Lane, but in a figurative sense, Lois saves Kal. She gives him a reason (other than his mother) to care about Earth. I just wish that we had seen a bit more of her sass.
The film also lacked some key character development between Lois and Clark. I though what they did in the film was very sweet and very very hot, but it was also very rushed. In the comics, there are so many moments that you can see that Clark just is amazed at Lois just by the way he looks at her, and this film sadly lacked that.
Before I talk about the major twist at the end of the film, let me quickly say that Johnathan and Martha Kent (Kevin Costner and Diane Lane) were also incredible as the heartwarming Kent couple. The twist of Johnathan's character (which I will not spoil here) was completely unexpected, but really made sense and fit into the movie. The only thing I didn't like about it was that it wasforgotten five minutes later. Snyder really could have taken and drawn out this scene to further give us insight into what the heck made Clark Kent so broody.
Zod'sdemise at the hands of Superman was completely unexpected, but completely in character. Which was odd to me. In the comics, Superman does not kill. At all. The way I look at it, he had no choice. He knew he had to kill him to save Earth. That was the sacrifice. Let Earth and it's seven billion inhabitants perish, or kill this one man (and leave yourself alone again.) but save them.
It's as simple as that. Kal had no choice.
All in all, one of the best films that I have ever seen. In my opinion, better than Dark Knight, which was my favorite movie ever since I saw it back in '09.