Breathtaking

Rating: Null/10 (14 June 2013)

There has been a lot of hype around Man of Steel since images started to surface on the internet showing a pretty drastic re-design of the Superman suit a while back. With the hype, there is always going to be a degree of pessimism that turns out to be no more than someone looking for a negative to jump on and bury.
That said, critics are wrong about this film. I don't mean all critics...I mean the critics that are looking for something that this movie doesn't deliver on. I think they are trying to look at this film on the level of The Dark Knight sheerly because the hand of Christopher Nolan is definitely at work here. Are they trying to criticize this as an Oscar candidate? Maybe. That's where they go too far.
Forget everything you have seen on the silver screen involving Superman. This is a FAR cry from any Superman movie to date. You've read that it's an origin story...a reboot of the franchise. This is true, but only skin deep on the surface of this film. This is a story of Clark Kent and his discovery of himself as Kal El and his coming to terms with his second identity...his true identity.
You can definitely see the hands of Zack Snyder and Chris Nolan at work together in this film. Snyder wants this film to be larger than life while Nolan keeps it grounded and real. The casting and direction of characters is excellent...perfect in a couple of cases. The story is conflict. I mean this in the sense that there is some sort of thematic struggle with the main cast of characters throughout the film. Clark struggles with the truth of his identity; Kal El struggles with his purpose and responsibility; Lois Lane struggles with her role in the main conflict...to expose Kal El or to validate her involvement in the main story; General Zod struggles with his born purpose. It's deep.
This is the Superman film that Hollywood has wanted to make. This is the Superman film everyone has wanted to see. If this is the future of DC Comics filmmaking, sign me up. If this DC franchise continues to grow in this direction, Marvel and Phase 2 of the Avengers stories will struggle.