Man of Steel was one of the more controversial superhero films of last year and found itself in a rather unique position. It was a reboot of the franchise from the 1970s and 80s Christopher Reeves films and followed the acclaimed Dark Knight Trilogy. Additionally it faced competition from sequels Iron Man 3 and Star Trek into Darkness. Unlike Marvel, who's Avengers, X-Men and Spider-Man films franchises struck box office gold, DC's heroes outside of Batman have struggled finding an audience. The 2011's Green Lantern and 2006's Superman Returns were generally regarded as failures tho I liked Returns. I am unsure how to categorize Watchmen. In any case, Superman is brought back to bring the Last Son of Krypton into the 21st Century.
Man of Steel is a movie of two halves. The first half is quieter and focuses on Clark Kent's isolation from society and the second half is more action oriented with Superman confronting Zod and his team of Kryptonian survivors. While I felt that the first half was great, the second half devolved into a special effects action movie. I felt that the movie did well when its focused on Clark's alien nature and the fact that he was a wanderer. He didn't have any close friends and had to live a sheltered life to keep his powers and heritage a secret. This is especially apparent compared to the Clark Kent from the Smallville television series. From the small bits of Clark's childhood that they showed, I felt that they really fleshed out his character.The older movie series portrayed Kal-El as an all American boy scout who swoops in, saves the day, and winks for the camera. Despite his first flight and revelation to the world, his did not lose his alieness, the distance between himself and the human race Regarding the section half the action was excellent but I feel that the city destruction was overdone similar to the film 2012 which in my opinion, killed the disaster genre. I lost sense of what was going on during the Superman-Zod fight and I felt that it resembled of the a fight from Dragon Ball Z.
As for the characters, Superman showed emotion and humor when necessary but was mostly stoic. I enjoyed Amy Adams' Lois Lane but I feel like she was forced into later scenes and went from a strong female character to a damsel in distress. Zod and the Kryptonians that were given some character were decent and I was surprised that Zod wasn't nearly as one dimensional than I thought. He was murderous and destructive but did not just crave power for powers sake as he wanted to held revive his people. I did kinda want to hear a reference to the kneel before Zod line. However outside of Zod and his right hand woman, the Kryptonians were really just stereotypes. I also liked how they portrayed humans and the US Military as competent and not simply waiting for Superman to save them. Overall I feel like Man of Steel was a good movie that could have lost a few action sequences but it set a foundation for the future for the DC Cinematic Universe. While I would have preferred a sequel that fleshes out this world, Batman vs Superman should at least be entertaining.
Pictures Courtesy of IGN
Man of Steel is a movie of two halves. The first half is quieter and focuses on Clark Kent's isolation from society and the second half is more action oriented with Superman confronting Zod and his team of Kryptonian survivors. While I felt that the first half was great, the second half devolved into a special effects action movie. I felt that the movie did well when its focused on Clark's alien nature and the fact that he was a wanderer. He didn't have any close friends and had to live a sheltered life to keep his powers and heritage a secret. This is especially apparent compared to the Clark Kent from the Smallville television series. From the small bits of Clark's childhood that they showed, I felt that they really fleshed out his character.The older movie series portrayed Kal-El as an all American boy scout who swoops in, saves the day, and winks for the camera. Despite his first flight and revelation to the world, his did not lose his alieness, the distance between himself and the human race Regarding the section half the action was excellent but I feel that the city destruction was overdone similar to the film 2012 which in my opinion, killed the disaster genre. I lost sense of what was going on during the Superman-Zod fight and I felt that it resembled of the a fight from Dragon Ball Z.
As for the characters, Superman showed emotion and humor when necessary but was mostly stoic. I enjoyed Amy Adams' Lois Lane but I feel like she was forced into later scenes and went from a strong female character to a damsel in distress. Zod and the Kryptonians that were given some character were decent and I was surprised that Zod wasn't nearly as one dimensional than I thought. He was murderous and destructive but did not just crave power for powers sake as he wanted to held revive his people. I did kinda want to hear a reference to the kneel before Zod line. However outside of Zod and his right hand woman, the Kryptonians were really just stereotypes. I also liked how they portrayed humans and the US Military as competent and not simply waiting for Superman to save them. Overall I feel like Man of Steel was a good movie that could have lost a few action sequences but it set a foundation for the future for the DC Cinematic Universe. While I would have preferred a sequel that fleshes out this world, Batman vs Superman should at least be entertaining.
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