Film Review: Man of Steel

Director: Zack Snyder

The latest superhero franchise to be rebooted, Zack Snyder (Watchmen) is the director with Christopher Nolan producing and David S. Goyer writing the screenplay. Goyer was part of the team that wrote The Dark Knight franchise for Batman so the production team had a group with an impressive record in this field. Unfortunately some of the little touches that elevated The Dark Knight to being one of the best superhero films are missing in Man of Steel. The original movie superhero is no longer the top dog in his field.

Superman (Henry Cavill)

Kal-El is saved from the destruction of the planet Krypton after being sent in a spaceship to Earth in possession of the codex that can rebuild the Kryptonian race by his father Jor-El (Russell Crowe), much to the chagrin of General Zod (Michael Shannon) who wants to rebuild the race in his own way. On Earth we see that Kal-El has been raised as Clark (Henry Cavill) by Kansas farmers Jonathan and Marta Kent (Kevin Costner and Diane Lane respectively) where he learns about his powers and how to control them as he grows up.

The opening scenes of Jor-El trying to escape the attacks of Zod were a complete CGI-fest which at times reminded me of Avatar, obviously not a good thing, with Crowe diving on a flying dragon to escape. Whilst the devices used to communicate and protect on the planet in silver with a liquid type face were more reminiscent of Prometheus, again not a good movie to be aiming to emulate. Pure CGI fighting and escape scenes just aren't that entertaining for me, the stunts aren't impressive considering a computer drew them and, as is the case here, are often too long and repetitive.

General Zod (Michael Shannon)

The story of Clark growing up in Kansas through school whilst gradually realizing that he is different due to the powers he possesses was a marked improvement in the movie from the opening although was a little rushed and underplayed. Henry Cavill was excellent as Superman, he truly showed the physical strength and strength of character required to play the great superhero. He outshines most of the cast, especially Amy Adams as Lois Lane who is a disappointment but more on that later, and the early scenes where we see him working as a grownup were some of the best. This is the section where you see the magic that Nolan brings in creating a character with a likable history that sets the tone for everything they do in the future movies in the series.

The main issue with the movie was the fighting and action scenes, they were often needlessly long and un-original. Once you've seen Superman or one of the antagonists thrown through a building, tanker or other large object a dozen times without much injury it loses its meaning. The camerawork during the action scenes was also incredibly jumpy, to the point that I felt quite nauseous on a couple of occasions (and I wasn't even watching in 3D, obviously).

Lois Lane (Amy Adams)

Man of Steel, like the latest Star Trek movies, in some ways is displaying what's wrong with cinema these days with far too much over the top CGI action which doesn't really go anywhere over genuine character development and script. Lois Lane's character was just a half baked idea and her discovery of who Superman was clearly just thrown is an after thought when the screenplay was coming together. The key many felt to the Dark Knight films was that Batman himself was rarely in the film for longer than 15-20mins so the scenes where he was present were of much more importance, something which is sadly lost here.

1.5/4 A messy start to the reboot mainly saved by Superman himself