Not One of My All Time Favorites, But Still Worth a Watch

Rating: 6/10 (23 August 2013)

Growing up, I was always in the Spider-Man, Batman, X-Men and Power Rangers kinda crowd. When it came to the big guy with the "S" on his chest, I thought he was cool but I never really gravitated towards him as I did with the Caped Crusader and the Wall Crawler. Nevertheless, he was still an awesome character and I could see why he was considered an American icon as well as the pinnacle of the superhero genre. When it came to movies based on Superman, it's quite obvious what zooms to the mind first. Richard Donner's Superman flicks are fun movies even if there are some elements that are extremely outdated and Christopher Reeve solidified Mr. Sups and made the role synonymous with his name. 3 and 4 of the series are admittedly guilty pleasures just like 3 and 4 of the Batman series and Superman Returns, well, it's not Citizen Kane but I liked it better than most.
Now comes a reboot of the Last Son of Krypton, straight from the mind that brought us the on screen adaptations of 300 and Watchmen. Did Zach Snyder prevail with his reimagining or did it all go down the crapper. Well, the latter certainly isn't true, but Man of Steel is not one of my personal favorites. It's a good movie, far from being one of the worst, but there are several flaws that I think should have been improved upon. But there are certainly tons of goodies thrown in there as well that make Man of Steel entertaining as well as satisfying to the average movie goer. Hans Zimmer's score for the film is just as exciting and memorable as John Williams' classic score for the Donner films and if you are a sucker for CGI effects, you'll be captivated by the film's eye candy and brilliant imagery.
The planet Krypton is a marvelous place. It's like Pandora from Avatar, only darker and more mechanized. Some of the technology on Krypton is amazing to look at and makes me wish we had technology like that on Earth. I also liked Russell Crowe as Sups' father Jor-El. If only he had a singing number or two (just kidding). Crowe portrays Jor-El very similar to Brando, but with a little more edge and agility never seen in the character before. The scene where he engages in a fight with the film's villain, General Zod is suspenseful and one of the film's best action scenes. It's a pity though that he couldn't fight alongside his son in the film's climax. That would have been spectacular. Nevertheless, Crowe's Jor-El is one of the film's best players and the wise father figure that guides the hero through his journey.
The other actors are okay. They have their moments of blandness, but they get the job done. Henry Cavill did a good job of filling Reeve's red boots and there's just something about the guy that makes him a great Superman for a new era. He's got edginess like his dad and a determination to take out the invading Kryptonians, but his character development is all over the place. One minute, he's a fisherman, the next minute, he's a nine year old boy saving his classmates from drowning in a school bus. I wish these scenes could have been sorted out more and put in order, for it would have helped us to understand the character a little bit better. Michael Shannon as General Zod is a decent superhero foe, but he just comes off as an abused war general kinda villain that is driven insane because he can't defeat the main hero. I was also disappointed that he didn't shout "Kneel Before Zod" anywhere in the film. Come on, if Terence Stamp could do it, Michael Shannon certainly could. Amy Adams, Lawrence Fishburne and Kevin Costner, there pretty good as well, but they lacked a bit of character development that could have made their characters a bit more relatable.
The action, it's pretty darn monotonous. Sometimes it's so fast, you can't even depict what's going on. I think it will give people a headache or make their eyes pop out of their skulls. Sups and Zod hurl into buildings at thousands of miles per hour, no doubt killing many innocent civilians in the process. And the fact that Zod becomes a psychopathic slaughterer that wants to kill all humanity, it just comes off a bit clichéd. Luckily, Sups snaps his neck like a tree branch, has a good scream and is comforted by Lois. He then goes on to work at the Daily Planet and puts on those corny glasses that somehow conceal his true alias. The End. The film's climax feels a bit rushed and hackneyed and I think a few more touches could have made it much more iconic and memorable. Still, it's fun to watch and a sweet Easter Egg can be spotted when Sups and Zod brawl in space.
So there's my review of Man of Steel. Not a groundbreaking piece of cinema, but certainly worth two and a half hours. Looks like a Superman/Batman crossover is coming up next, so I'll certainly give that a watch when it arrives. Chow!