Man Of Steel: Review
Directed by Zack Snyder, Man Of Steel stars Henry Cavill in the role of Clark Kent. As the planet Krypton is on the verge of destruction Jor-El (Russell Crowe) and Lara (Ayelet Zurer) give birth to a naturally delivered son which hasn’t happened for centuries. General Zod (Michael Shannon) sees that the planet is soon to be in ruins and decides to overtake it’s council. Jor-El has already set a plan in motion that sees him implanting a “codex” within his infant son Kal-El and launches him towards Earth in order to preserve the Kryptonian race. When Zod finds out that Jor-El has taken the codex he murders him. Eventually the council stops him and his minions and imprisons them in the Phantom Zone. Kal-El finds his way to Earth and is found by Jonathan (Kevin Costner) and Martha Kent (Diane Lane) and raise them as their own son. They name him Clark. Years pass and as Clark has more questions about his past General Zod finds his way to Earth to collect what he feels is rightfully his and will save his Kryptonian people.
Superman has been a staple in many peoples lives for 75 years. You won’t find a single person who doesn’t know who the Man Of Steel is and in 1978 we first saw him grace the silver screen. Since then we have only seen one other incarnation of The Last Son Of Krypton and as it wasn’t horrible, it just didn’t feel like a COMPLETE Superman movie. After that I think plenty of people kind of lost hope that anyone would get a Superman film right. That is until Christopher Nolan‘s name started getting thrown around during the inception (pun intended) of The Dark Knight Rises. Immediately the fanboys let out a squeal of excitement heard round the world (or maybe just the internet). Even though he isn’t directly involved you can see the influence in the story. This was the biggest thing that I was concerned about. After TDK trilogy we were introduced into a much darker world of a superhero and many thought right away that Nolan’s involvement meant just that. With a story like Superman’s you have to tread very lightly with how dark you take it and Snyder (with the help of David S. Goyer on writing duties) didn’t really take it to that level. What they did do was take the extraordinary story and inserted it in the “real world”. I think one of the best things that they could’ve done was that after the brief intro of how Kal-El reached Earth they skipped ahead to him as an adult. We all pretty much know his story and how he was found so it was fresh to see the film move ahead with glimpses of his past here and there without it feeling like it was being rehashed again. The emotion in the film was tremendous! Every scene that Costner was in really showed that. He was so perfect as Jonathan Kent and although the part wasn’t huge it was integral to the story and showed how he shaped Superman into the man he became. I’m not going to lie, there was a moment or two that almost got me teary eyed. I can honestly say that they accomplished what they set out to do as far as tone and emotion. I loved the handheld look of the film but they probably shouldn’t have done it the whole way through. The very beginning of the film was extremely shaky and they were only in the Krypton council chamber. Next time I think they should mix it up and do handheld as well as some stationary shots. Cavill was everything that Superman should be. Honestly, he makes it cool to be Superman again. The moment he steps into a scene he owns every bit of it. He makes women want him (from the sounds of the squeals within the theater) and men will want to be him. Every bit of his presence was demanding yet he had the “small town kid” part down as well. I feel like they FINALLY got it right. My ONLY gripe is the hairy chest. I mean, it’s not a huge deal but when Superman is in his suit you can totally see chest hair coming up out of the top of it. It wouldn’t have hurt to wax/shave the top of his chest…haha! Shannon really surprised the hell out of me. He took a character that people know and made him ruthless but with a side to him that wasn’t shown in Superman II. Towards the end of the finale of the film you can almost understand why Zod was doing what he was doing. I was kind of skeptical at first with Amy Adams playing Lois Lane but she really proved me wrong. It wasn’t the usual Lois that we have been used to seeing. It really felt like she was a reporter and not just a person playing a reporter. Since this film marks the beginning of the DC Cinematic Universe this was very important to get right and they really knocked it out of the park. It really gets me excited to see what is next to come for Superman and everything else moving forward.
Man Of Steel is NOW PLAYING at your local theater from Legendary Pictures
