Review - Man Of Steel (2013)

Starring Henry Cavill, Amy Adams and Michael Shannon.
Directed by Zack Snyder.

The much awaited Superman reboot is directed by Zack Snyder - the same guy who directed the awesome adaptation Watchmen. It is also written by Christopher Nolan who I hoped would imprint on this reboot and stir it into the right direction - like he did with Batman. One would also think that Zack would have learnt his lesson after Sucker Punch but he seemed to have carried his mess right over into our DC Comic book superhero.

Let me start off by saying that Man of Steel is pretty awful. This is probably the worst Superman movie I've seen thus far (Yet to see Superman IV). I appreciate Snyder giving us the origin story and all but I refuse to believe this is the actual movie. The movie opens up on the planet Krypton where Superman is originally from. The planet's core becomes unstable which will result in its destruction, so Jor-El (Russell Crowe) and his wife send their baby Kal-El to Earth where he is raised by Jonathan and Martha Kent (Kevin Costner and Diane Lane).

When the movie left Krypton, it sank. What follows is a sequence of flashbacks cutting into the narrative where we try to get to know Kal-El or as he is now called - Clark Kent (Henry Cavill). We learn a little about his childhood, the bullying and his coming to terms of him being "different". I found Man of Steel's narrative structure distracting because it didn't allow me to get a sense of attachment to the characters, especially Clark Kent. Poor story-telling, poor character development and pacing issues arose. There is not much build-up within the story; one moment I'm watching flashbacks and in another moment Kal-El is now in his suit now ready to be the world's saviour. I was really bored by this movie and I sat there after awhile not giving a damn about what's going on within the story. We meet another important character Lois Lane (Amy Adams), an award winning journalist covering the story of an alien vessel. She is suppose to be Clark's love interest but at the same time, there was no real spark or chemistry between them. They were like zombies on the screen. As much as Henry Cavill has that Superman look pat down, he was unimpressive as the man of steel. His lines seemed to have come from a nursery rhyme book - as so did the rest of the cast. Poor script.

Michael Shannon played the film's antagonist General Zod. He's pissed off at everyone on Krypton and decides he wants to take over - only to find out that the Kryptonian codex is sent to Earth with baby Kal-El. Shannon tries to do what he can with the role and on the second watch of this movie - I warmed up a little to his character. He wasn't a horrible villain but at the same time, he was nothing special with his constant shouting at one point. Everyone else was pretty lame in this movie except Kevin Costner and Russell Crowe, who I thought did a good job with their respective daddy roles. I couldn't get into the plot or its characters so I was hoping the action sequences would do some justice. Ha!

There were a few moments that I liked. However director Zack Snyder then decided to himself that he's going to try and out-do other movies with more action. Man of Steel could have seriously toned down with these action sequences; it became overbearing. Not to mention some really bad CGI and cartoonish sequences followed. It looked messy, fake and ridiculous. The last thirty minutes or so was pure destruction and I was not impressed. On the flip side Man of Steel is visually impressive. Planet Krypton looked great, there were a bunch of impressive shots and the film's sci-fi elements were nicely done. I was a bit disappointed at the lack of humor present in this film as well - but then again the characters weren't given a lot to work with. The Superman flying bits were cool but at the end of the day, I just couldn't wait until this movie was over.

This movie should have stayed on Krypton. Instead of getting a good Superman film, we're introduced to underdeveloped characters, lame ass story-telling and almost one hour worth of bad CGI. Was this Man of Steel or was this "who can destroy the most buildings?" I blame the writers.

Rating: 4/10