Skip to main content

Man of Steel




















After seven years, Superman made his triumphant and controversial return to theaters. And he split both fans and critics down the middle while doing it. I normally tend to jump on the hate bandwagon, but I actually like Man of Steel quite a bit.

So the movie opens with the destruction of Krypton, which grabs the audience’s attention from the very start. Hans Zimmer’s glorious score blasts through the speakers, and the movie gets off to a solid start. Like every other Superman adaptation in recent memory (by this I mostly mean Smallville), Clark eventually sets out to discover what the heck is going on with him. His search leads him to the site of a crashed alien craft from Krypton, where he coincidentally runs into Lois Lane and is forced to expose his abilities. And so she sets out to find him and he sets out on a journey of self-discovery. Meanwhile, a rogue Kryptonian group led by General Zod shows up and demands that humanity hand over Superman, and so the plot is set into motion.

First, the good things. Henry Cavill does a great job with his role, making Superman seem almost human and easy to relate to. The rest of the cast does a fine job as well, but really, this is Cavill’s movie, and it shows. Zimmer’s score is also excellent, as it manages to give Superman a new, memorable theme and set the tone for the movie quite nicely. The writing is solid, the pacing is good for the most part (I’ll get to this in a minute), and the direction is confident. The character development is handled pretty well, and the character motivations work.

Now, the bad things. As I mentioned above, there are some pacing issues, and most of these come in the first half of the movie. It basically follows Clark around as he seeks to discover who he is, and so when he does finally become Superman, it doesn’t feel earned, really, and seems forced. The scene in which he finally becomes Superman basically goes like this: “Hey son. I'm your dad. You're great and you were sent here for a reason and stuff.” “Great! I'll be a superhero.” epic music blasts Nothing about it feels emotionally rewarding, and that’s a critical flaw. Nevertheless, it does manage to make us sympathize with Clark, and this was no easy task to accomplish. So, kudos to the writers for that. Secondly, I sometimes feel that the end battle goes on slightly too long. It clocks in at nearly 40 minutes. However, it has to be taken into account that there’s been very little action before the finale, and in some ways it feels necessary. It certainly couldn’t have hurt to trim it by 10 minutes or so, however.


So, to sum it up, Man of Steel is a pretty solid movie. Not great, but certainly good. The dark tone works well, and doesn’t feel forced, which can’t be said for Batman V. Superman. The character motivations all make perfect sense, and the plot isn’t convoluted. It’s a relatively straightforward, simplistic superhero movie. Its strengths lie in the facts that it’s emotionally rewarding and does truly feel like a fresh take on Superman. Do I recommend it? Definitely. I’m giving Man of Steel 3.65/5 stars.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Revenge of the Sith Review

I’m sure you’ve probably heard that Revenge of the Sith is just slightly better than The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. In my opinion, that is completely untrue. Revenge of the Sith is a masterpiece. Let me explain why I think so. First of all, the plot here is just so much better. Even the dialogue is greatly improved. It’s still not perfect, but it’s only cringe-worthy in a few scenes. That in and of itself is a huge improvement. Secondly, George Lucas has the power of his own legendary original trilogy behind him this time. Finally, we get to witness Anakin become Darth Vader. And it’s glorious. We finally get a little bit of believability when it comes to why Anakin turned to the dark side. This time, it’s not just because he was an arrogant brat. We’re finally able to believe that he was pushed over the edge. On a technical level, everything is flawless, and the CGI still looks incredible today. The acting is far better this time around, and Hayden Christensen i...

Tomorrow Never Dies

Tomorrow Never Dies boasts what may be the most absurd plot of any Bond film. The head of a media outlet tries to start wars in order to have a monopoly on the media coverage of them. If you can’t comprehend the absurdity of that, let me try to give another example. CNN starts World War 3 and has journalists in place to report these events before anyone else can, and no one on the face of the earth thinks that’s shady in any way, shape, or form except for MI6. The question we should all be asking ourselves is how the heck this movie managed to actually be kind of good with a plot like this. The opening sequence is not quite as exhilarating as we’ve come to expect from Brosnan Bond movies, but it’s competent enough. From there, we’re plunged directly into the story. The first act takes its time, explaining delicately in a detailed manner exactly what the media mogul’s plan is, and how he’s going to carry it out. His plot may be absolu...

Spider-Man: Homecoming

Spider-Man: Homecoming is the Spider-Man film that should never have succeeded. Reboot after reboot finally gave us a Spider-Man series we can safely trust will be consistently good. I’m going to touch on a few plot points, but no spoilers. Picking up in fresh territory, after the apparent death of Uncle Ben, Homecoming takes us down a thematic path we’ve never seen before. Gone is the dark brooding, the constant crying, and the cheesiness. Instead, we’re confronted with comedy, plot twists, and heart in (mostly) all of the right places. Homecoming could really only be rightfully classified as an action-comedy or comedy-action. There are probably more jokes than punches thrown, now that I think about it. And yet the comedy is miraculously far-removed from the cringe-worthy quips found in most Marvel movies. It’s genuinely, consistently, and thoroughly hilarious. Another fresh element is Peter’s relationship with Aunt May. Gone is...