An Underrated Masterpiece

Rating: 9/10 (15 April 2017)

"The night is darkest just before the dawn" - Harvey Dent
Man of Steel is one of the most divisive superhero films ever made and is still either greatly loved or greatly hated.
This film kicked off the DC Cinematic Universe in a way that Marvel never did. Marvel's tone is bright and humorous with the majority of fight sequences shot in the day. The tone of DC takes a more darker look and feel giving it a greater sense of reality.
The cinematography from Zack Snyder is absolutely beautiful with a perfect blend of light and dark throughout. The imagery and symbols such as religious symbols create a sense of a deeper meaning to the film, which makes it better than your average action film.
The casting choices for all characters were perfect with outstanding performances. The soundtrack was composed by Hans Zimmer and has the same feel to The Dark Knight soundtrack. It is iconic and powerful.
One of the biggest complaints about the film was the amount of CGI destruction and how it was too much. Granted, there was a great deal of action and destruction, however, this film depicts an untrained and inexperienced Superman against 10 Kryptonians, the amount of power and strength they have is shown accurately in this film from the comics. This film is telling the story of Superman's first encounter of an earthly threat, he would not be able to stop them without creating destruction. The future DC films will show the development of Superman's character and power.
The most controversial moment of the film was the ending, when Superman killed General Zod. This scene was the most powerful and most important moment in Superman's role in the DCEU. He had the choice of the death of the family, or Zod. It was not that simple, as Zod said "Never", even if Superman had let Zod carry this act out, he would then carry on causing death and destruction, the family represented the human race, and at that moment, Superman knew that he had no choice but to take Zod's life to save the human race. After showing Zod's death, it wasn't "that's it then, yay I won", Superman screamed in horror and upset, showing a layered emotion of character. It show's that the moment Superman killed Zod, it was the catalyst for him to never kill again.