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.