No Cape of Good Hope

Rating: 4/10 (15 June 2013)

"Man of Steel" does not redefine the superman franchisee like Chris Nolan's Dark Knight series did for Batman.
The Krypton origin back story of Superman is unfortunately pretty tame and does not define him for what he went on to become on Earth. Director Zack Snyder (he of the flops "Sucker Punch", Dawn of the Dead" fame) and co producer/co writer Chris Nolan try and add new elements to Superman's character like edginess, violence, grimness, grittiness but the end result is still pedestrian. Nolan, in fact, tries to do a Batman to Superman but fails spectacularly.
First half of the movie shows some potential but the second half is just an excruciatingly boring slug fest of explosions, fights, clashes, crashes, flying, tumbling, falling etc. We have seen it all in umpteen movies before. "Man of Steel" has nothing new to offer in the 2nd half. It gets so tiresome that the viewer needs to have nerves of steel to sit though the entire second half. Whatever little Snyder managed to build up in the pre-interval phase, he destroys it in the last 45 minutes of mind numbing action.
As for the lead actor, Henry Cavill, he certainly looks the part but his granite face remains just that (stiff and stony) for the better part of the movie. Cavill is definitely an improvement on Brandon Routh of "Superman Returns" but Christopher Reeve still remain the actor the role continues to be identified with.
Even though the rest of the star cast comprises of such acting heavy weights like Russell Crowe, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane and Amy Adams, the movie remains distinctly underwhelming on the emoting front thanks to their characters being sketchily conceived.
In the end "Man of Steel" is neither style nor substance. The movie must rank as this summer's biggest disappointment. "Man of Steel" is just an expensive, soul less, dumb, long drawn and lazy spectacle. And in my book that is worth only 2 out of 5 stars.
PS - True blue Superman comic fans will never forgive Zack Snyder for killing off Costner's character in a way which is absolutely different from what happens in the comic and therefore taking off all the significance of that event.