Ladies and Gentlemen: The King Has Returned

Rating: 9/10 (16 June 2013)

Does this film live up to the hype that it has given off via the trailers on delivering to us a well-crafted and interesting take on a Superman origin film? For the most part, yes.
This film asks us to erase all knowledge of past made Superman films, much like Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy asked us to forget the other Batman films, and with that in mind the film holds up pretty well on its own. To judge it fairly as a Superman film you have to look at the core values of the character and see if he stacks up and fulfills those duties; Gentle, Kind-hearted, selfless in his acts of heroism, and an unshakable foundation of right or wrong.
In the film we are given many instances that define these characteristics, and they are for the most part portrayed well. Clark stepping in to ask the drunken trucker to leave when he starts to overstep his bounds after hitting on a waitress is one of these scenes. Kal-el helping out citizens on an exploding oil rig, or saving a school bus full of children are things that the character is compelled to do because he knows that it is the right thing to do.
Here Henry Cavill hits a home-run as the introverted and withdrawn alien that has been showcased in the rebooted New 52 context of the character, just as Christopher Reeve gave his iconic performance based on the Silver Age comics set in the 1970's.
The supporting cast stands up just as well as the Man Of Steel himself with strong performances of a saucy and intelligent Lois Lane by Amy Adams, a resolute Perry White by Laurence Fishburne, a villain that you love to hate with Antje Traue as Faora, and a menacing Michael Shannon as General Zod. Along with this are also stellar performances from Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, and Russell Crowe.
The plot of the movie is solid and what is shown on screen is very well done but there are some moments in the film that suffer from two basic things; editing and dialog.
There are moments in the film where you are allowed to linger in an emotional moment and feel a connection with what is happening on screen, but there are also moments where the scene is playing out really well but then it shifts into another scene rather abruptly. I chalk this up to editing, though this may not be entirely Zach Snyder's fault.
He has stated in interviews that the film was originally just under 3 hours long, and he removed only one scene and trimmed others to give us the 2hr 23min movie of Man Of Steel.I would personally like to see these trimmings reinserted for an extended cut on DVD to see just what was trimmed, because this seems to be a problem in almost every scene in the middle of the film.
Dialog in films is a no-brainer, but this film lets its characters deliver dialog that is occasionally flat, or something that could be changed into something else for the better. One such example is near the end of the film where a member of the military shouts out to Kal-El, "Are you effing kidding me?"
No I did not censor that word, *beep* that is how it is spoken in the film, "Effing."
This could easily have been fixed to something along the lines of, "Are you out of your damn mind?" and it would have made the delivery of the line much more believable. With the execution of a few flat lines like this, you sort of get drawn out of the story at times.
There are a few minor plot holes in the film, but there are plot holes in almost any film if you delve deep enough. For example; The Dark Knight is one of the greatest comic book films ever made but one plot-hole near the end of the film totally negates Joker's ferry scheme. Nobody in their right mind on a crew would depart port without first checking to make sure everything in the engine department is running smoothly, and therefore they would see Joker's bombs long before they ever departed. But it is a movie, and certain plot holes are allowed for the sake of progressing the story.
The same thing occurs in Man Of Steel; If Krypton is in an energy crisis and cannot afford to evacuate the planet because of a lack of energy, how can they send nine Kryptonians on a massive ship out into space to travel through a portal to the phantom zone?
To address the concerns of those saying that there is too much action in this film, I say you all do not know how to tell time. I had read many reviews before seeing the film that said Superman and Zod were locked in a fist fight for thirty minutes. The entire fight actually lasted somewhere between six and eight minutes.
The entire Metropolis climax of the movie barely stretches over the thirty minute mark, which is about the same time-frame of The Avengers climax. And much like the Avengers there are other action set-pieces within the film, most notable is the Smallville sequence which is about fifteen minutes long.
One small last observation, the romance between the two leads did seem to come out of nowhere. I can buy Lois knowing that Clark/Kal-El is Superman and the whole middle of the film seemed to be building up to a friendship where they would explore a possible romance in the sequel. But the kissing scene during the Metropolis climax caught me off guard and was a little bit out of place given the current state of what their relationship appeared to be.
Overall this is a solid reboot with plenty of potential for a sequel: 4 out of 5