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Directed by Zack Snyder
Watched June 13, 2013
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And the flick delivered.
The cast is uniformly great. Henry Cavill is absolute perfection in the title role, with Michael Shannon a great foil. Amy Adams plays Lois Lane with conviction for a change, not just the damsel in distress. Kevin Costner and Diane Lane leave a wonderful mark as the Kents, with Russell Crowe certainly a fitting Jor-El. The effects look great, with the flying especially being a highlight. In all prior Superman adaptations, the flying has been what's killed me, but the visuals here made it actually seem realistic. Director Zack Snyder uses quick zooms and camera effects heavily at times, but I don't recall feeling overwhelmed or distracted by them. For yet another retelling of the same old origin story, the story telling felt fresh and original to me, which is certainly welcome. The first challenge for the hero felt organic, personal and was interesting, more Batman Begins than Green Lantern (lucky for absolutely everyone involved). The film plays like an always surging roller coaster, the slow points only making the high points more fun.
Now, don't get me wrong, the film is by no means perfect. The "classic" love story between Lois and Clark is under-developed and rushed, and actually somewhat goes against the new take on Lois (she's not merely a damsel in distress type and is actually vital to the action-filled third act... but she still falls in love with the hero seemingly simply because he's the charming, sculpted hero of the story). The lack of development there also kind of makes Clark's decision to choose Earth over a new Krypton somewhat hollow and merely plot-based... aside from following his Earth father's lead, what inclination did Kal-El show that he loved Earth? He certainly didn't care enough to save Metropolis from near complete destruction, which was another of my problems with the film. Seems to me that when you are building a film series, you want to ramp up the destruction, not start off with essentially decimating Metropolis. This qualms, however, are overcome in the movie, I would say.
I know the movies don't exist to sell comics, but the first thing I did when I got home was to crack into Scott Snyder's new Superman Unchained comic. For the first time, I was exposed to Superman and craved more (the first issue of the series, by the way, is very strong, setting up what could be a great story). I would absolutely say the film has made me a fan of the character, which has been an issue for me in the past.
I don't think I could recommend Man of Steel enough. While I know I am solidly in the target audience, the film absolutely met my expectations (which have been set really high due to recent superhero movie experiences). To reuse the analogy from before, this film is much closer to Nolan's 'Dark Knight' trilogy than the messy, underwhelming Green Lantern. Bring on MOS 2 (and, dare I say it... The Justice League?)!
