WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!
Man of Steel is not necessarily the Superman movie you would expect, but it definitely packs a powerful punch and absolutely explodes in the last half of the film.
I should preface this review by saying I know very little about Superman, and I’ve never seen the classic films. I have a very cursory knowledge of Kal-El and Krypton, so I have no idea how well the film portrays his home planet and his origins.
What makes this Superman movie different that the others is it’s focus on Kal-El’s home planet of Krypton, and his native race of Kryptonians. The planet looks incredible, with advanced alien technology mostly deriving of morphing metal balls/fluids, but I feel like if we were going to look at Krypton, we should have probably devoted more time to it, maybe it’s own origin film, because it feels rushed. In addition, the movie centers around General Zod and his stubborn-minded approach to preserving Krypton and its people. General Zod and his minions are certainly terrifying foes, just as powerful as Superman until they lose their masks. The fights they had were definitely action-packed and exciting to watch. But again, I think more character development on Zod would have been interesting; he just steps in and is immediately identified as the villain. Only later near the end of the movie do we find out more about why Zod is so bent on accomplishing his mission. All of this being said, I think some of the more confusing elements of the story come from explanations about Krypton.
When it comes to Superman’s story, I was not a big fan of the non-linear approach (starting off with adult Superman and throwing in random flashbacks to him growing up and learning to deal with his powers); once again, I feel like many of the more fascinating elements of Superman were rushed. I know a similar approach was taking for Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy, but I think it worked better with Batman than it did in this film. In addition, I always thought Superman adopted the Clark Kent “Daily Planet” persona (with the glasses and all) before he started acting as Superman, so I was thrown off by that aspect of it. It’s always interesting seeing Superman (acting as Clark Kent) having to deal with people who don’t realize his true power, so there were a few fun and intriguing scenes depicting that.
As stated earlier, while the first half of this movie deals with Superman learning more about who he is and strengthening/testing his abilities, the last half is a non-stop, action-packed explosion of super-powered fight scenes. It is very intense and very exciting to watch, and is especially powerful with IMAX’s impressive sound quality. I always wonder in these types of movies how in the world the city recovers from such utter destruction; buildings are leveled, hundreds of innocent bystanders are killed, streets and roads are smashed. By the end of this movie, Metropolis looks like an apocalyptic wasteland!
In terms of the acting, I think everyone did a fine job. Michael Shannon was born to play villains, Amy Adams had her trademark feistiness that fit well for Lois Lane, Diane Lane did an excellent job as Clark’s mother, Russell Crowe seems like a good fit for Jor-El (Superman’s dad), and Henry Cavill did a fine job playing a darker, more realistic Superman that Nolan was shooting for.
FINAL DIAGNOSIS: 8/10
The story jumps around between past and present and can be a bit confusing at times (and at times almost feels like an alien sci-fi movie that just happens to feature Superman), but it’s definitely exciting and action-packed. It’s certainly one of the better Superman films, but it’s definitely different than the other ones with it’s heavy focus on Krypton.
Dr. A's Diagnoses 