Man of Steel

Man of Steel (2013)

Directed by Zack Snyder

Story by David S. Goyer & Christopher Nolan

Screenplay by David S. Goyer

Based on the comic book series created by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster

Stars: Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Russell Crowe, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne, Christopher Meloni, Harry Lennix and Richard Schiff

My feelings for reboots of reboots are that they are unnecessary filler to get butts in the seats. Man of Steel is no different. Everybody and their mama knows about Superman's origin. We don't need to have it retold for the the billionth time. This movie has been getting slammed in the reviews. I kinda understand where they are coming from. The common denominator is that telling a Superman story is boring.

As the planet Krypton is imploding, Jor-El (Crowe) sends his only son in a capsule to escape the planet's fate. At the same time, General Zod (Shannon) organizes a coup to get rid of the higher officials of the planet, including Jor-El. Zod and his army are tried and sent into The Phantom Zone. Over thirty years pass as the baby's capsule crash lands in Kansas, the baby is raised by Jonathan and Martha Kent (Costner, Lane) and the boy-- now named Clark (Cavill), has to hide his secret from the people of the planet. A nosy journalist, Lois Lane (Adams) tries to find the stranger that consists various acts of heroism.

I tried not to have too lofty of expectations with the film, because of my feelings of Superman in general. Superman is a boring character to bring to the comic books, video games, television or the big screen, because he is too powerful. He has heat vision, bulletproof, flame retardant, able to fly and has super strength. Nothing could harm him. That's the biggest flaw with the character. He could only be weakened when the story fits around the situation.

The angle of Clark being discovered as an alien amongst the people of Earth was a good idea, but it could have a gone further with it. If they did this with Lex Luthor, who is known to hate Superman, an alien, I would have got into the story more. I know that the makers of this movie wanted to make a grounded version of Superman that could be relatable to the masses. It felt that the idea of Clark not getting caught being superhuman was something lost in the film.

I felt bored with the movie some of the time. Other times the action felt like a Michael Bay movie one minute and the next it was like an episode of Dragonball Z with a bit of the "climatic" scene of Thor thrown in there. I don't think the movie is greatest movie ever, but it's not the steaming pile of shit that sent fanboys in a teezy online. It was passable.

My Rating