Man of Steel: An alien child is evacuated from his dying world and sent to Earth to live among humans. His peace is threatened when other survivors of his home planet invade Earth.

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Introduction

It has always been DC films over Marvel for me, unfortunately DC films haven’t gotten the edge over Marvel, specially when they released Iron Man starring Robert Downey Jr., so when this came out, I was ecstatic. I thought, “Finally! DC brought out the big guns!”

The story of Man of Steel starts off with the imminent destruction of Krypton, their home planet, Jor-El (Russell Crowe) and his wife seek to preserve their race by sending their infant son to Earth. The child’s spacecraft lands at the farm of Jonathan (Kevin Costner) and Martha (Diane Lane) Kent, who name him Clark and raise him as their own son. Though his extraordinary abilities have led to the adult Clark (Henry Cavill) living on the fringe of society, he finds he must become a hero to save those he loves from a dire threat.

Characters

Henry Cavill was perfect for the role of Superman. Aside from his physical appearance, mainly his chiseled face and the fact that he specifically bulked up for the role. In an interview he states that he declined the use of any digital enhancements and that he’s aiming for a natural transformation. Couple that with his powerful and resonant voice you’ve got yourself a hero.

There’s something innocent with a fighting spirit when I see Amy Adams as Lois Lane. I also love that they didn’t make her wear a brown hair wig, that would’ve ruined everything for me. She’s a good partner for Cavill I think.

Russel Crowe as Jor-El, even as a supporting character, he shines bright and fought til the end like a true Gladiator (Yes, I love that film).

Michael Shannon was a perfect cast for the character of General Zod, he sort of resembles Terrence Stamp’s portrayal of Zod in Superman (1978), but with a taller stature. He had a stellar performance and really brought that antagonist character to life. His shouts and screams were full force and initmidating. In my opinion, he had the best performance in this film.

Pacing

I won’t sugarcoat it, Man of Steel pacing was trash. First we start in Planet Krypton, then Earth, then we see Kal-El as a grown-up, then as a kid, then grown-up, then teenager, then grown-up, then kid again. I don’t know what Snyder was aiming for but it backfired bad. As soon as the tension is building, it shifts to a different timeline again.

Dialogue

There really wasn’t much dialogue heard throughout the whole movie, more on the crescendo background music, then some scenes with music again, the exchanges in conversation wasn’t too focused on in my opinion.

Music

I did love the music, however, I think they should’ve invested a little bit more on the dialogue. Just to have a better pacing in character development, specially with Superman. But hands down, the music in Man of Steel was great, composed by the great Hans Zimmer (Gladiator, Inception, Interstellar, Dune, Mufasa: The Lion King)

What I didn’t like (TL;DR)

• Pacing was trash
• Dialogue felt rushed
• Superman appeared to never cared for the citizens except for Lois Lane.
• I get the death of Kevin Costner’s character. That Clark Kent’s secret is worth more than his life etcetera. But I think it could’ve been done more tastefully. The scenario was kind of stupid.
• Superman was too brooding.

Conclusion

In terms of modern takes, Man of Steel has the best Superman by far. Though the movie itself failed in some aspects, but the character and iteration itself, I’d say, was great. The pacing was trash and it destroyed the tension of some scenes. I’d watch it again, but I’ll still say the same things about it. Great movie, poor execution.