Subpar Man

Rating: 6/10 (23 March 2014)

Now, before we get into the meat and drink I'd better confess that a) I'm not particularly big on super-hero films and b) I've always found Superman as a character just, well dull. I've always struggled to feel any sort of sympathy, interest and most importantly any sense of jeopardy for the caped crusader. He's indestructible. He's nice, and, let's face it he's a bit, well boring.
All that being said, I went in with my curiosity piqued by a deliberately oblique trailer - all out of focus flashback shots and plinky-plonky soundtrack. For sure Hack Snyder's (see what I did there?) name is in the director's chair but you never know eh?
Well, I guess you do. A frustrating experience all round. A totally redundant prologue drenched in sub Star Trek CGI which involves Russell Crowe trying to keep a straight face undoes any sense of mystery from the off. Let's not go into the final act which involves our hero and General (snigger) Zod punching buildings in the face for about half an hour..
In between this CGI sandwich there is much to like in terms of the origins/ growing pains/ flashback side of things. Michael Shannon camps it up as the baddie. Amy Adams does a feisty Lois Lane. Kevin Costner plays it charmingly straight and Henry Cavill looks er super in a slightly teak kind of way. However, all the interesting stuff gets crushed under-foot by the CGI money-shot effects, non-jeopardy battles A missed opportunity to do something genuinely interesting.