Underrated Masterpiece

Rating: 9/10 (28 March 2020)

In my opinion, DCEU's 1st movie, Man of Steel, is very underrated and deserves more attention. We all know it may not be as good as Richard Donner's Superman I and II films, with Christopher Reeves as Superman, but this movie gives us a fresh new look at a modern, and updated version of the Man of Steel.
Zack Snyder's imaginative vision and knowledge of Superman and the world around him is a phenomenal one if I may say. He certainly did an outstanding job on picking the actors and their roles together. I think Henry Cavill was great for Superman, and he portrayed him as something we've never seen before, which is a very risky move, but I honestly think they executed it well. It is the same for the actors, such as Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Diane Lane as Martha Kent, and Michael Shannon did a great job as well, as General Zod. Everyone else acted accordingly, and there was an emotion to each of them which makes the film more realistic, and greater. and I think Zack Snyder did a great job orchestrating that.
Unlike other Superman films, Man of Steel's opening scenes featured Superman's/Clark Kent's/Kal El's childhood well, and those were of course, the writers' doing. In the start of the film, the writers started off with how Superman's home world, Krypton, looks like, the "people's" lifestyle and the political matters and problems there, and of course, how Kal El survived his way to planet Earth. After this, the writers' continued on Kal El's childhood first as Clark Kent, the son of a farmer at Kansas, and how he doesn't fit into society. This goes on to his adventure to a new life, without any help, in his struggle to fit in, so on, so forth. I think the writers did an amazing job in portraying the Man of Steel's dramatic adventure to finding his true self, and being the man he was meant to be. We were so used to seeing Superman as this perfect figure, or someone that has no flaws, while this Superman makes mistakes, is not at all perfect, and despite his powers, is still human.
I have nothing to say about Cinematography, but I guess it was great. Some of the good scenes with the great cinematography were when the Man of Steel looks below the United States Military, when little Clark Kent was wearing a red cape, posing to the sunlight. The cinematography was exceptional, only because some scenes of the movie have a perfect picture to portray something going on. Other scenes are controversial to the level of "greatness" the cinematography was on them, but I guess Man of Steel have their cinematography level at their best at the very important scenes. Honestly, I think "Acting" is one of the film's strong features. Henry Cavill did a fantastic job showcasing a Superman we have never seen on the big screen. Henry's Superman was a (kind of) darker, serious, and obviously a more modern Superman who deals with psychological problems, and Henry did an amazing job portraying all that. Michael Shannon, starring General Zod as the protagonist of Superman, did a good job too. General Zod is a Kryptonian who cherishes nothing more, but the future and the civilization of the Kryptonians, who's world was destroyed. Shannon portrayed Zod well as a man who cares for nothing more than his own people; a man who thinks he's doing right, and a man with a patriotic quality. Other great actors were Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Diane Lane as Martha Kent, Laurence Fishburne as Perry White, and countless others did a fantastic job creating the world where Superman currently lives in.
The production design did an amazing job as well, like how other key features did. Kansas in the film was portrayed as a rural area in the United States, and even if I've never been, I guess the production designers did a great job portraying the place. Metropolis is featured as an obviously very urban and modern city; a place which looks like a central city of a country. The production designers portrayed it as a sort of "crime-free" city, seeing as there are barely any criminals there, graffiti, and others. Krypton was portrayed as a very modern place with very advanced and high technology, with advanced military systems and transportation, which was very well indeed. Costumes were also a big part of the production designers' job, and they did an absolutely brilliant and fantastic job at doing this. This film's Superman is featured wearing a very modern version of the suit that was used in the Superman movies. The blue, red "S" symbol, and the red cape in the suit is darker in color and shade, and the red underwear the other "Supermans" wore was gone in exchange for a very unique belt. I honestly think this is a very huge improvement, and I think it looks awesome.
Yes, I won't deny its flaws. Despite the phenomenal action scenes, this was very under-utilized. Exposition and story telling were more emphasized in this film, disregarding its superhero type of a movie. Some dialogue in the movie are generic and cliche, and this could be further improved. Although these mistakes are noticeable and fair, some criticism regarding the film may also be unfair for the lack of understanding and analysis of different film critics. One example of this is the criticism that Superman should not have caused havoc and destruction to different infrastructures in Metropolis. I would like this to be a reminder to those who agree with this statement that this is Clark's first time being involved in a fight. Unlike General Zod and his fellow Kryptonians, he wasn't trained to be a warrior, or trained to analyze the battlefield. He just did what his gut told him to do. We expect him to be smart in this field because we are used to Superman being everywhere in different movies and TV shows, airing for nearly a century. Clearly, Zack Snyder's Superman has just flown for the first time. Another example of wrong criticism is that Superman should not have killed Zod, since it was nothing at all for which he stood for. I'll be using the same argument I have used that this is Clark's first time in a fight, and in this scenario, he had to be quick before he (Zod) puts other lives in danger. Zod was already in the brink of killing an innocent family, so because of this, Clark had to do what he had to do. Again, I will not deny this movie of its flaws, but I want others to understand that some of their criticism was analyzed incorrectly.
As I said before, I think this film, Man of Steel is very underrated, and I think it was a great film by Zack Snyder. i think this film was great way to open the new DCEU to the cinemas.
Note: I would rate this an 8.5 but unfortunately IMDb doesn't have this feature, so I'm just rounding it up.