Super Cinema Review: Man of Steel

Superman. The Man of Steel. The Last Son of Krypton. The Metropolis Marvel. This long awaited and much needed reboot promised a fresh take on Supes while still embodying what he's all about. Was the significantly darker Superman reboot what the world needed? Or was it's slight but significantly noticeable shift in mood blasphemous to Superman's fans?

Let's dive right in. Spoliers ahead.

The Plot

Since this is a reboot of the Christopher Reeves Superman films, there will be some comparisons to those films because everyone was looking for these films to be different yet better. That said, this was definitely a darker take on Superman, obviously because of the success of Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy. Superman was a deeper character than he was in the original films, and despite him being a super powered alien he had very human, very relatable issues that he had to overcome like fitting in with the world and finding his purpose in life. I believe that was the overall goal of the film and it did so perfectly. I can watch a Marvel film if I want an enjoyable kick-butt tongue-in-cheek film because it works for their characters, but for a guy with basically every thinkable super power there is to sell on the silver screen, he needs to have a level of relatability. DC clearly gets that and I'm glad it was presented in Man of Steel, because otherwise, this wouldn't have been nearly as good a film. .

Superman's origin is arguably the most important part of the film, and it was still the classic story we're all familiar with, but not too familiar so that it wasn't interesting to watch. Though perhaps he didn't spend enough time learning and practicing his powers, (though there was a lack of super breath and freeze breath, so maybe MoS2 will delve into his breath related powers) and perhaps the Fortress of Solitude was found too easily, but for me, those things were easy to ignore. What I really enjoyed about the origin story was how each of Superman's dads, Jor-El and John Kent, played a significant but different roles in him becoming a hero. Jor-El provided him with the knowledge and tools to access his powers and be a hero physically, while John Kent gave him the emotional support and inspiration to actually do good. I found this to be one of the high points of the movie. 

I did have some issues with the pacing of the film and Supes origin, however. Things didn't necessarily happen in chronological order. Supes would be doing something and it'd flash back to a certain childhood memory, so we didn't get his whole origin story until the end of the film. I think I would've preferred everything had been start to finish, no misplaced flashbacks, but by the end of the film I didn't mind much.

Another high point of the film was the way it focused on who Superman was and not Clark Kent. It's always been portrayed in comics and previous films that Clark Kent is Superman's secret identity, when really it's the opposite. The movie acknowledged this and focused on Superman finding his place as an alien in a world full of humans, and then at the very end showing his human disguise. For a character like Superman, this makes more sense because he isn't a human with a super-powered night job as opposed to someone like Batman or Spider-man. He's an alien with a human identity, so it makes more sense to focus on the real alien and not the fake human.

And because the film focused on his alien identity and not his human one, the Lois Lane love story had to be done differently. Instead of Lois getting together with Clark and having a fangirlish crush on Superman, she has to love the lazer-shooting building-destroying alien himself. And since she always knew he was an alien, it was a little hard to sell the love story since a person typically wouldn't fall in love with an alien she knew almost nothing about, even if he looked human. Despite that, it wasn't a bad love story, just a wee bit unrealistic one. 

There is a good deal of controversy surrounding the ending of the film, where Superman is forced to choose between killing Zod or letting an innocent family die, and he chooses the former, in a rather brutal manner. However the controversy is hypocritical since Supes also killed Zod in Superman II. Not only that, but in Superman II he didn't even really care. He laughed about it, and the audience cheered. In Man of Steel, he's clearly upset by his decision, yet the audience boo'd, or in some cases tried to storm out of the theater. Honestly, I didn't care that Superman killed Zod. Maybe there was another way, or maybe the killing could've at least been less brutal, but either way the scene shouldn't have sparked so much hate. Way I see it, this could be the set up for his no kill policy. He hated the feeling of doing it and never wants to do it again. This is an origin film; Supes is still learning and he's going to make mistakes.

The Acting

Am I the only one who thought this guy's performance was one of the best?

I loved most of the performances in Man of Steel. Henry Cavill, while not having the same physically resemblance to Superman as Chistohpher Reeves did, definitely had the acting capabilities of portraying a dramatic Superman. Amy Adams and Lawrence Fishbourne also played their characters perfectly.  I especially liked Kevin Costner's performance of Superman's father figure. Very accurate, very emotional. Russel Crow made a good Jor-El too. Diane Lane's mother figure performance was almost as good as Costner's father figure. Aylet Zurer's role was nearly insignificant, but that's alright. My favorite performance was probably Michael Shannon as General Zod. He's made it on my top ten list of movie villains. Most people probably disagree with me on that, but whatever. 

I also spent much of the film trying to recognize Christopher Meloni and where I'd seen him before. A few hours after the movie I remembered, "Oh yeah, Law and Order dude!"

The Design

Gotta get me some of them Jor-El flashdrives!

Another strong point of the film is the Kryptonian costume and environment design. It was nice to actually see Krypton's environment before it was blown to bits, though it was a little too CG. Some of the little things about the Kryptonian costume design helped Superman's origin make more sense. Seeing Kryptonians wearing the same dark blue mesh and all having crests with symbols on them made Superman seem like one of them, although they never explain why his suit is more colorful. Zod's armor was badass looking, loved all the little alien details. I also really liked the floating metal that formed pictures. It was certainly better than the sci-fi hologram cliche. 

The Earth designs were fine too. Smallville was a tiny town where all people really did was either run small businesses or farm. Metropolis was a big city with tall buildings, although we really only got to see it destroyed. Overall, designs were awesome throughout the film. 

Overall

This movie was everything I had hoped it would be and more. Although there were a few nitpicky things, I felt like this was the perfect blend of fantastic out-of-this-world heroics and a realistic drama. The costume designs were awesome, the action was intense, the acting was superb, everything about this film was awesome. The comic-bookish pacing of the film knocks off a point, but I loved everything else about it. I look forward to seeing many more Man of Steel movies being made.

9/10

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-I will be doing Super Cinema Reviews for more comic book movies in the future. Next up is...