Superman's re-entry into pop-culture didn't have to be shiny and bright, but it shouldn't have been this boring.

Rating: 4/10 (18 November 2017)

'Man Of Steel' is a dull, dreary and disheartening start to the initially interesting promise of an interconnected DC cinematic universe - though when this was released it was simply intended as a lifeless reboot to the 'Superman' series, one which couldn't even bear to have a single character refer to the eponymous hero by name (at least not uncensored) - which is just genuinely consistently boring even during the 'no-brains-required', high-flying, punch-up finale that takes up a good chunk of the far too long flick's latter third; it's so contrived, silly and simultaneously overly serious that there's no wonder that the piece is just simply no fun at all, regardless of its downbeat and occasionally dour tone (which isn't an inherent flaw as some people seem to think), and at the end of it all I was just left feeling tired, resigned and like a little bit of the hope I once had that the great DC characters could be back on form on our silvers screens again had died - there was honestly a time when I thought this was clearly the worst superhero film of recent years but, now that the DC extended universe has had a few more entries, I'm not so sure anymore. 4/10