I like many fans went to see "Man of Steel" in theaters. Unlike many, I waited until almost a week after it's release. My wife and I made it a point to schedule a night out to go see it, while her mom watched our three children. I didn't want to get my hopes up with this film, because the past few times we've gone to the movies I've been let down. First was with "The Dark Knight Rises". Though a good movie, it hardly lived up to expectations in my eyes. Next, was "A Good Day to Die Hard" which although there were a few decent scenes, it ended up turning John McClane from Action hero into a sidekick for his son. Then came "G.I. Joe: Retaliation" which killed off Duke and again made Bruce Willis into a side kick. All three of these movies left wondering "what the hell did I just watch?" Still I kept an open mind, after hearing all the positive to mixed reviews around "Man of Steel".
The movie opens on Krypton, and shows something completely different from how we've seen the planet portrayed on film or tv before. The way the planet was created, actually made me wonder for a brief time as to if we wondered into a theater showing some new Star Wars film. From the get go, Jor-El is portrayed as somewhat of a politician on a ledge struggling with doing things the way the council wants them done and becoming a revolutionary leader. He requests to the council that they give him the "codex" which holds the key to all life on Krypton, so that he can send it with "Krypton's only hope" off world, safe from the impending annihilation. Just before the councils says yes or no to Jor-El, Zod and his forces storm the council chambers which reminded me of Darth Vader and a group of Storm Troopers capturing Princess Leia. Jor-El manages to get away, and fly with the aid of his pet that looks like something from the movie "Avatar". It's rather hard to describe, but for arguments sake I'll just say it looked like the illegitimate offspring of a T-Rex and a Dragonfly. Jor-El leaps from the beast into a rather large pool used as the Kryptonian birthing matrix. Seeing all those pods of Kryptonian offspring, gave me flashbacks of the movie "The Matrix".
In the birthing matrix is a hidden chamber that houses the codex, which appears to be a tiny skull with the Kryptonian language inscribed on it. Jor-El takes the codex and leaves to meet back up with his wife and newly born son. He uses the advanced Kryptonian technology which can transform itself into any shape or person to transform the codex and place it inside baby Kal-El. Just before the father sends his son into space, Zod storms in and demands that Jor-el give him the codex and join him. Jor-El explains that he can't do that and tells Zod that he and Laura just had a natural born son, Krypton's first in thousands of years. Zod sees this as sacrilege and begins a viscous attack on Jor-El. Though only a scientist, Jor-El proves himself capable of holding his own against the Kryptonian general, but in the end is killed and dies a hero just after his son leaves Krypton. Zod and his forces are then over powered by Krypton's military and sentenced to the Phantom Zone. The Zone in this movie is basically a stationary pocket universe that is kept under control by Kryptonian technology. When the planet explodes, the technology keeping Zod and his loyalists imprisoned is deactivated and thus releases them.
Ok, so that's the beginning of the movie. I'll try to keep from giving you a complete play by play of the movie from this point on.
What I liked about the film:
1. The origin story of Superman was developed very well. It was something I hadn't seen on film before. The fact that the film makers spent so much time on Krypton at the beginning of the film was terrific. The film really gave us a look at Kryptonian culture and Jor-El's personality better than any other before it.
2. Lois manages to uncover this man from the alien ship's secrets and knows Superman's secret from the get go. She knows his human name is Clark Kent. She knows he's from Kansas. She knows all about his other aliases and the heroics he's performed. She meets Jor-El... well a ghost copy of Jor-El any way and plays a big part in Superman saving the world.
3. The movie really manages to show Lois' investigative reporting skills far more than any other film or show previously.
4. It doesn't play on Lois being this great reporter but still not being able to discover who Superman is. In fact she does. She tracks him down before he even becomes Superman and dawns the red and blue.
5. The action is epic. It's extremely fast paced but unlike "The dark Knight Rises" there's actually distinct separation between scenes.
6. Yes, Superman does break Zod's neck toward the end of the movie, but it's because he's left with no other choice. He doesn't kill him ruthlessly though, as just like in the comics, Superman feels a deep sense of pain by doing it. You see that he's not a murderer or cold blooded. He screams because he just took another living being's life.
7. Yes the government and the military know he's an extra terrestrial who was raised in Kansas, but they don't know he's really Clark Kent. In fact, at the end of the movie Superman drops one of the government's surveillance drones down right in front of a General and then proceeds to tell them that they don't need to know where he hangs his cape and they'll just have to trust him, after all he's just a farm boy from Kansas and that he's as American as it gets.
8. Yes there are Easter Eggs in the film that shows it's a joined universe. From the Lex Corp semi that gets blown to Hell during a battle to the Wayne Enterprises Satellite that gets destroyed. In fact, the Wayne Enterprises logo in the film is identical to the logo in the Dark Knight trilogy which isn't the same as the comics'. Is this because Noland was producing or is this a hint that we may have had the wool pulled over our eyes by film makers who said the next Batman film will be completely different from the Noland series?
9. Superman's limitations are apparent. He's not all mighty and over confident. He's just learning to fly. And just like the comics, he can only leap at first.
10. The entire cast did a spectacular job in their performances.
What I didn't like about the film:
1. The soundtrack isn't as epic and memorable as the other Superman films. non of the tracks are what you would expect from a Superman film.
2. The entire film was shot with handheld cameras that made it look like some kind of news broadcast. I can see the flash back scenes being done with handhelds, but the entire movie being done that way is ridiculous and adds nothing to a film of this caliber.
3. No one will ever take the place of Terrence Stamp as Zod. Zod never once says "KNEEL!" Let's face it, the original will always be the best. In this film, Zod doesn't want power he wants to destroy and slaughter all of humanity. He's not a tyrant like in the comics or other media he's Krypton's version of Adolf Hitler. Sure you can somewhat relate to him, but the beauty about Zod in the past was that he was power hungry and would stop at nothing to become a dictator even if it meant he would rule over the human race. This version of Zod is still ruthless, but he's not a dictator. He's a Kryptonian patriot who wants to preserve his planet's heritage.
Over all, the pros outweigh the cons and I highly recommend seeing this film. I give it 4 out of 5 stars. Most of the bad reviews I've heard and read was due to the character development of Lois and the rest of the supporting cast and that it was almost non stop action. I don't see these as negatives for a movie entitled "Man of Steel". For years, people have complained that we haven't gotten a decent Superman film with action etc. For years I've heard people complain because the films spent to much time on Lois Lane and the supporting cast and not enough on Superman. The same people who are complaining now are the exact same ones who complained about the opposite in past films. It just goes to show, you can't please everyone and some people will find any reason what so ever to complain.