Ending can't live up to very promising first half

Rating: 3/10 (30 June 2013)

Man of Steel feels like three different movies edited into one. The first installment shows Jor-El (Russell Crowe) trying to persuade Krypton's council to allow him to send his naturally born son, a first in over a hundred years on his home planet, which apparently is in the habit of preconditioning their infants to fulfill whatever need it has, to a faraway planet in order for their race to survive. It's pretty similar to the events that take place in Superman: the Movie, except in this version, Krypton is more of a fantasy world in which its inhabitants ride dragons when they want a change from their more luxurious space craft. It also shows the imprisonment of General Zod and his followers, who are trying to stage a coup in an attempt to purify the planet's bloodline so as to avoid its leaders from making the same mistakes that led to its demise the next time around. The Kryptonians, you see, are a people of parasites, who move from one planet to the next after its natural resources have become depleted. They even have a huge machine to turn every new planet they conquer into copy of Krypton. Think Independence Day, except with Aliens who look human and wear capes. No wonder Jor-El can't wait to send his son away to live among the much nicer human race on Earth.
Which leads us to the second part of the movie, definitely its strongest. We see how a young Kal-El, or Clark Kent, if you wish, learns he's not like the other kids in his class, has to deal with being an outcast and is considered by his peers to be somewhat of a freak. Luckily his earth parents, portrayed by Kevin Costner and Diane Lane, teach him how to live with his, up until then still uncontrolled, superpowers, which to Clark seem more of a curse than a blessing. Although his father thinks it best to hide who he really is out of fear that the world might see him as a threat, he is also convinced there must be some reason for him having been sent to earth. So Clark sets out to try and find out more about himself and goes on a quest that eventually leads him North. Here he first encounters journalist Lois Lane, played by Amy Adams, who has been sent to cover the US Army's discovery of an alien ship that has been buried underneath the ice for thousands of years. Clark learns he can communicate with his late father through the technology on board, finds out who he is and is given the famous tights and cape we have all come to love, except they're missing the swim trunks bit. Unfortunately, by activating the space ship, General Zod (Michael Shannon), who has been freed from the Phantom Zone by the shock wave of Krypton's demise, learns of Superman's location and sets out to find him to recover a device Jor-El supposedly sent to Earth with him, which contains vital information needed to rebuild Krypton and its race.
And here starts third part, which completely negates all the good elements that were so carefully put together in the second. General Zod basically tries to destroy Earth by turning it into another Krypton and wiping out all human life and Superman has to make himself known to the world in order to save it. Which wouldn't be all that bad were it not for the fact that this part basically consists of 45 minutes of over the top CGI fight scenes in which so many of Metropolis' buildings get brought down on top of our hero this movie should have been called "Man of Bricks". It got to a point where one can't help but suppress a couple of yawns. After all, since he's survived the 5th building's collapse and has been thrown through 6 consecutive skyscrapers you don't really worry he might die when Zod and Co bring the 6th down on top of him anymore.
Henry Cavill does a really good job of portraying Superman, though and the idea of him trying to find his place in our world is very well conceived, but where Christopher Nolan managed to bring us a human and believable Dark Knight right up until the end, Man of Steel's final sequence sadly ruins any chance of this film being anything more than Transformers in tights. As is the case with so many action movies, its makers just got too carried away with CGI and the result is so over the top I wouldn't recommend it for anything other than to give the kids something to watch on a rainy day while their parents have company over. A shame, since it could have been so much more.