» Blog Archive Man of Steel Review -
Amanda Harvey Comic Book News, Movies, News, Reviews

I’m going to first state that I have set my expectations for this film very low. My expectations were in fact so low that anything I saw would have been better than I expected. Being a comic fanatic I feel this is the mentality most fans should walk into these movies with. I say this in case the film is terrible so fans aren’t left heart-broken. This being said, I was surprisingly pleased with what I saw.
The movie was well casted, which truly makes for a great film. Russell Crowe was the first appearance of named individuals seen at the opening of this film and was hands down the best pick for Jor-El that I could have fathomed. On top of the excellent casting choice of multiple Krytonians the whole portrayal of Krypton and it’s demise was beautifully done. The CGI was astounding and the way the implosion of the planet and Kal-El’s escape was executed was masterful. The whole first hour of this film was utterly captivating. Whoever was on the creative team for designing these sequences deserves some serious accolades. This was something I was extremely worried about. How are you going to transform one of the most catastrophic back stories to a character from still images of a comic book to the illuminated screen of an action blockbuster? The answer is carefully and elaborately, and for this I applaud. Originally, when I first saw the trailer in which General Zod(Michael Shannon) was shown I speculated that Krypton was under siege and that it would be destroyed by warfare and not implosion. I’m very happy that this was not true. The fact that warfare was integrated into the fate of Krypton was a nice touch. There was an ultimate sense of urgency that was placed in the opening of this film thus procuring a hook that all of my fellow audience members found themselves hanging upon. Through the betrayal and imminent doom resided on the damned planet baby Kal-El is launched onto Earth with the survival of the Kryptonion race, the codex, fused into his cells. Zod and his conspirators are sentenced to isolation in ice chamber tubes in a space ship far away. Kal-El makes to earth where he is then found by the Kents. This is where the typical super hero origin story was tossed out the window and given a new twist. Usually in films like this an origin portrayal of the childhood of a hero is played out in a nostalgic sequence that takes about a half hour and is redundant and expected in every film. The fact that this was not the case in this film was probably it’s greatest accomplishment. Clark Kent’s childhood on Earth was displayed in flash back sequences that completely and thoroughly related to what was going on in his adult story line. This little attention to detail gave viewers the action that they craved as well as unfolding bits about our heroes personality and traits in a tasteful exotic fashion. Through these flashbacks we discover the Kevin Costner and Diane Lane have raised Clark to be very secretive about his powers, even if that means allowing someone to die in order to keep his identity sealed. All the while we see our adult hero, played by Henry Cavill, doing just that… jumping from location to location working manual labor jobs in order to hide. This is instantly thwarted in a scene in which an oil rig is ignited and Clark Kent springs into action with his super strength to save the crew. The action scenes in this film were to be expected. They don’t call it a blockbuster for no reason. Here lies my first pet peeve with this film. Every single action sequence used slow motion. Every single one. I don’t think this style of filmography attributed to the scenes. Yes, it was awesome the first time we saw it in the trailer, it was still kind of cool the first time we saw it in the film, however, it became redundant and unnecessary very quickly. If you have a multimillion dollar production team that include the best of the best, was there really no creative thought process in presenting some different kind of shot? I know I’m not the only one who was bored of this by halfway through the film. Moving foreword Louis Lane who is played by Amy Adams was introduced somewhere in the midst of all of this showing up to an ice ridden waste land where Clark is working trying to dig up something buried beneath the ice. Through a series of events a ship from Krypton is found, a Tupac style hologram of Russell Crowe appears to speak to Clark Kent and he discovers he’s Kal-El, an alien, with superpowers. Bam! Oh, and he saved Louis Lane’s life because she’s being nosey and gets herself into trouble, as usual. I thought this fit in nicely. It established Lane’s connection with Superman early on and explains her infatuation with him and why she follows tips around the world to find him. This also got the whole “Who am I, where did I come from” bit out of the way a well. Fantastic, moving foreword. Lane finds out Supermans true identity, track down his parents house in Kansas, he tells her to keep away and to keep his secret, blah blah blah. Skipping ahead, General Zod finds earth. He needs the codex and interrupts frequencies to announce that there is an alien living amongst Earths people and that unless they turn him over, Earth is doomed. This part of the film really dragged for me. There was about 4 or 5 sequences in which Zod dispatches his minions to talk to Earths people and then they leave, only to come back. Clark goes through moral distress at a church to figure out whether he should turn himself in. This portion of the film could have been cut in half. I understand the moral dilemma and exposition but it was played out far to long. Finally Superman turns himself in. I’m not going to ruin the rest of the film for you but, what plays out next entails MASSIVE CARNAGE to Metropolis and some pretty fucking sweet fight scenes. If you look closely enough towards the end of the film you see some awesome easter eggs as well, such as LexCorp logos on trucks being flung around and Wayne Industries labels on Satellites. This was a nice touch. Another one of the major highlights of this film was that the typical use of Kryptonite was not used, at all. Thank God. I can’t tell you how boring comics and movies about Superman had become because of this one element. It was always featured to weaken his state and well, you know the rest. No signs of Luthor either. There were a couple of inconsistancies with the plot lines, however nothing major that had solid backing for argument. There’s a scene where Louis Lane puts a piece of of Kyptonian technology in a hole to open a door and she never picks it back up, yet it magically appears again twenty minutes later. I was a little peeved by Louis Lane and Superman’s relationship. There was an awkward kiss in there that I thought there was no solid backing to. This film also waited until the very end to introduce Clark Kent’s alter ego as a reporter which was nice because him and Louis had already established that his secret needed to be kept and she had met him prior to them working together. All in all the film was decent. It was enjoyable to look at, it had a creative story line that had not been done before in the Superman lines. I saw flashes of Superman: Birthrigh by Mark Waid and partial hints to Brainiac lived out through General Zod’s weaknesses, however for the most part it was a decently original story line. I would give this movie a 4 out of 5 stars. Mainly because I feel like this film should have been 45 minutes shorter than it was, but the length was to be expected. This rating also does not including some massive comic nerd nit picking. It was definitely worth the watch. It’s playing in theaters now, and if i may suggest, see it in IMAX.

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