Man of Steel

I'll start by saying, I'm not a Superman fan. As a matter of fact, when it comes to comic books, the only real superhero I could say I actually like would be Batman (and I do love Batman). Nothing against the guy, I'm just not much of a comic book fan. I still watched the Superman movies and I liked them, save for Superman IV, hell, I even liked Superman Returns even though most people seemed to have hated it. So, I went into Man of Steel with an open mind.

The movie starts on the futuristic CG planet of Krypton, which is in some sort of turmoil. Russel Crowe is trying to ell the high council that the planet is doomed to collapse, when all of the sudden some angry looking guy named General Zod, who's played by Michael Shannon, comes in and starts shooting up the place in a coup attempt. Over the course of the next fifteen minutes or so, space ships are shot down, lasers are blasted and baby Clark Kent gets shot off into space. It's a good way to start off the movie because it gets some action in right in the beginning but it also manages to not come off as being just a dumb, unnecessary explosion-fest and it explains a lot of much-needed backstory.

A lot of the movie from there on out is about how Superman came to be Superman. It's told mostly non-linearly, which I like because it's stylish and keeps the viewer on their toes. You can't tune out and just expect it all to make perfect sense, you actually have to pay some attention. The main point of this timeline of Clark's life is largely to show why he became such a strongly moraled person and there are a lot of deep meaningful ideas talked about in these scenes. What we were born to accomplish? Are there things that the human race still isn't ready for? Most of these are talked about mostly by Clark's adoptive father who is played very convincingly by Kevin Costner.

I still preferred him in Waterworld.

Assholes may complain, saying that the movie is too slow or long but I say it's all too necessary and helps set the movie apart from the usual Avengers-esque mindless blockbuster shit and gives the movie some emotion and drama. That's the main thing I liked about this film, it felt intelligent. Obviously, Christopher Nolan, the shining beacon of hope ever gleaming over in Tinseltown, left his mark on the film and it feels like The Dark Knight but with Superman instead.
Despite all of the talking, there is a hell of a lot of action. There's enough action here to silence any attention-challenged moviegoer and damn is it cool. My readers may be surprised to hear me say that considering much of it is CG but please, don't misquote me. What I don't like is the use of CG when it's clearly unneeded. Obviously, what's onscreen during the movie would be largely impossible without it's aid and there's no reason anyone should have to deliberately hinder their story, a value I talked about in the article Double Standards. So, to be fair, I'm not going to disparage this movie for that.

I actually saw the movie several days ago now but I've been having an unreasonably hard time writing this review. The problem was that I liked the movie too much. Everyone I've talked to and every review I've read has given me a resounding 'meh', like Man of Steel was some C+ material. To my own surprise, I disagree. The movie really blew me away. I loved it and I thought it was perfect. The acting was great, it was intelligent and dramatic, the action was amazing and is exactly what I'd hope to see in a faithful, live-action Dragonball Z movie (which we will likely never see in our lifetime). What was it about the film that people didn't like? I still don't know how to answer that question and I'm pissed that those naysayers made me second-guess my own opinion.
Man of Steel is an amazing film and really must be seen on the silver screen.

9.5/10 - Go see it.