These days, superhero movies try to present them in a serious way rather than the pantomime we used to see in the past. Both styles are enjoyable in their own way. But I think that after The Dark Knight trilogy, realism in the superhero genre seems to be workable nowadays.
With Man Of Steel, I was hoping there would be a lot of info that would be well explained and flow well into the next scene, rather than putting something in that made no sense whatsoever. One great example of that was Superman IV: The Quest For Peace, which is one of the worst films I have ever seen.
To the movie, and I was satisfied with it. The good stuff is Hans Zimmer's score, the visual effects, and most of the performances.
Henry Cavill did gives us a very different look to Kal-El and Clark Kent compared to the late great Christopher Reeve and Brandon Routh in Superman Returns, which I personally think is a lot better then people say. I think Cavill's performance was fine. But when you break it out, I felt that Cavill didn't actually do much. It was a CGI heavy performance. He rarely has moments of dialogue and in the end lacked depth.
However, I don't think that was his fault. I don't he and many others characters were not given the right material to make this as good as it should have been.
Michael Shannon as General Zod was pretty good and very believable. But I still feel Terence Stamp's portrayal of Zod is still the best, despite Shannon putting on a show for us to enjoy. Amy Adams as Lois Lane, I thought was mixed. She did show us that demanding reporter side of her, but didn't show the charm as Margot Kidder did with Reeve.
The performances I felt were the best, were Rusell Crowe as Jor-El and Kevin Costner and Diane Lane as Jonathan and Martha Kent. They played great parents and were brilliant at showing us their protective side towards Clark. Crowe was good as Jor-El. It was obvious that trying to better Marlon Brando's portrayal was going to be a tough act to follow, but I think he gave it a good go and that passionate father side came out really well.
We did not see enough of Laurence Fishburne in my opinion as Perry White, so I'm not sure how to comment his performance. One final mention must go to Antje Traue who was a bad-ass as Zod's right-hand person.
I felt the best and most intriguing scenes were the ones with both sets of parents interacting with Kal-El/Clark, and a lot of the travelling scenes when he is trying to find out who he is. There is a beautiful bit between Costner and Cavill that did make me slightly gasp, and I thought that whole bit was played with a lot of heart.
The score by Hans Zimmer is great. It is what you expect with Zimmer and I will definitely be listening to it long after seeing this. The Kyrpton segment I really liked. That set-up the lovely really well. There is also some promising segments, but I felt the 1970 version did it so much better.
As much as I enjoyed it as was never bored. There are problems with it. The structure of the film seemed inconsistent. The flow seemed all over the place. The tone is quite depressing when you think about it.
One thing that I was really surprised was the writing. With David S. Goyer leading the screenplay who has been part of a lot of Christopher Nolan's films managed to not give that much development. It was more about action rather than giving us an interesting story. One big problem relating to the writing was the lack of a believable romance between Superman and Lois. It did not feel believable, it felt forced and the development was pretty much non-existent.
The action scenes are impressive as you would expect. But a lot of it, especially towards the scene seemed a bit over-the-top and looked too digital. They do make the most of everyone's abilities and crank it up a few notches. But sometimes, less is more.
The cinematography could have been smoother. But as Amir Mokri was the cinematographer, I was not surprised to be problematic with it as he has done the Transformers films and that camerawork was hard to make sense what was going on screen. Also, the editing felt jumpy as if I was missing some scenes.
Overall, I did enjoy it a lot, but I knew it did not deliver to want I and many others wanted it to be. I know a lot of people are sort of expecting a Dark Knight feel to it, due to the appearance of Christopher Nolan as producer. But sadly, there is not enough Nolan magic to make it great rather than good. There is a solid mix of Nolan and Snyder's styles that will please everyone. The critics seem to have wanting another Dark Knight and therefore giving it a lot of negative comments.
I don't think it's bad as they say it is. I did enjoy it a lot, and I will want to own a copy of this. But I know it could and should have been better. I was happy to see the technology involved and the explaining the reasoning of certain incidents well to make them believable. It is a solid summer blockbuster and one of the better I've seen this year so far. Just a shame it did not have bit extra to make it great.
Rating: 7/10
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