Spoiler Alert – Man Of Steel Review – DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE FILM YET.
This was a review I wrote for my co-workers, the monday after opening night. I never really intended it for a blog post, but I’m at work and don’t feel like working so I’m copy-pasting it into a blog window. Enjoy. I’m aware this is way to late to be relevent.
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On a scale of 1 to 10, I gave this movie a 6.9999.
Let me just say, before I begin, that I wasn’t able to see this movie till 10:30 on Monday evening do to vacation complications. (serious bummer)
For the first hour of this movie I sat in my chair thinking, “Mr. Snyder (director) what the hell have you done!” Before I continue it’s important to know that it is not specific plot details that bothered me initially. However, some things were just epically lame. For instance, at the beginning of the movie, Jor-El (Superman’s biological father) jumps onto a flying pet dinosaur ‘Avatar’ style during a Kryptonian civil war in order to escape the fighting. Seriously… a flying dinosaur? This is a technologically advanced civilization, and you have the head scientist of the planet jump on the equivalent of a horse-drawn carriage to out run the bad guys in flying enemy warships? Did no one think this detail was retarded or did one of the producers just love flying dinosaurs?… I digress.
The main problem with this film was pacing. As we witness Clark growing up as an outcast on planet earth through flash backs to his childhood, I got the impression that the editor had worried the movie would move too slow and cut every second that didn’t contain dialog. I understand that the younger generation has a short attention span, but in the case of Man of Steel this diffused the emotional impact of every scene. In addition, Kevin Costner as Clark’s adoptive earth father was severely underutilized. It was not the actor’s fault it was the scripts. It was so poorly executed that when the father inevitably dies to protect the secret of Clark’s identity one does not find themselves moved, but instead finds themselves thinking “That was just stupid.”
The redeeming factors for this movie were the action sequences. These truly were everything that could be desired in a superman movie. The man of steel is thrown through walls, characters are literally hit with bombs, and the inevitable demise of the villain was believable and even somewhat followed a story line from the source materials. That and the film is not without its fun moments. For instance, before Clark dawns the suit and cape, there is a scene were a trucker attempts to pull him into a bar fight that I do believe audiences will enjoy.
Lastly, I enjoyed the new approach to Lois and Clarks relationship, although Henry Cavill’s acting was at times bad enough to be distracting in some of their interactions. The only thing I thought was rushed about the relationship is their make-out session towards the end of the film which was better left to a sequel. Oh! And Martha Kent has a Border Collie!
All this said, I’m gonna go see this again. I can’t help it, Superman is just epic.