Man of Steel

Reader my back is against the wall on this review.  Although my viewpoints are valid and I stand completely behind them, most of my concerns with Man of Steel revolve dangerously close to that two-word phrase everyone hates to hear and loathes to find out: 

Spoiler Alert.
(Don't worry, you won't find any in this review!)

Man of Steel is the newest film by Zach Snyder (Watchmen, 300, Sucker Punch) who has this unique directing style and once you know it, it is easy to tell that this film has his name written all over it.  Snyder is one of those film makers who utilizes a  technique known as "Shaky Cam" and mixes that with dark cinematics.  Shaky Cam is used to add a little more realism and grit to the look of the film, in actuality, Shaky Cam is: a headache inducing, vision blurring, nuisance.  It detracts from the overall story.  Snyder didn't completely ruin my movie going experience, however the use of shaky cam in this particular instance left me feeling drained and strained from the inability to focus during most sequences, slow or fast.  One thing I did really enjoy was the "dark" look and feel of this film.  The visuals made it seem more grounded and less spectacular, at least somewhat less spectacular than a film revolving around an alien super hero.  To assist Snyder was someone we all know as the man behind "the man behind the mask": Christopher Nolan.

Red or black?  Does it even matter?

It seems Nolan didn't waste much time transitioning from one DC superhero to another, and his influence on this film showed.  Unlike other Superman films in the past which all seemed overly bright and positive, this film as mentioned above, seemed more "human", more dark and gritty.  As with the Batman reboot, this too was a nice change to what we were used to from the past films of the Man of Steel.

As much as the look of the franchise has changed, the real shocker comes from the changes made to the story.  I will keep things brief regarding these changes as to not cause turmoil in your lives and to insure your adoration and loyalty to my reviews.  The plot behind this film, and I verified this with a comic book "genius", was not like any other Superman story line.  The plot took an original story and implanted numerous elements from the various Superman comic books and eras in order to make their story stand out.  This combination of new and old allowed us to see a whole new side of Clark-El, or is that Kal-Kent?  Getting a unique story line was rather...unique, but since Nolan did this similar mash up with the Dark Knight, it made for an interesting ride, and was rather less surprising than one would think.

I'm no Superman expert by any means, however, there were some issues I had with some of the twists offered up to us.  I won't name names here people, but for any of you with the slightest knowledge behind DC's Superheroes, you too will notice the change.  What I can tell you is the iconic "S" in the center of Superman's garb was replaced adding yet another new feature to 2013's Man of Steel.

Old and legit!

There's a line in the film, don't freak out I'm not spoiling anything, after all it's in the trailer, where Lois Lane refers to this new S like symbol as an S.  Superman tells her that the symbol isn't an S, instead the S-like shape is a Kryptonian symbol and his families "crest" meaning: HOPE.

Aw, how cute!  Kinda makes you wanna shed a tear or two, don't it?

One thing is for sure, I really did enjoy all the background, new and old, given in this film, even if it was on the long side.  For a film surpassing the 2 1/2 hour mark, I think about 90-100 minutes or more were spent as a Clark/Kal/Superman history lesson.

This got to be a little long in the tooth, and actually fatigued my brain.  Throw in that shaky-cam I mentioned earlier, and you got yourself a relentless barrage of the senses; don't get me wrong, I actually really enjoyed the background.  It was nice getting thorough story-telling within a film, and you know how I feel about story telling.  In all honesty I think the part of the film which I found to be the most troubling was not the length or shaky-cam, but the fighting.  It gets a little difficult to watch a super-man fight an equally powerful being from Krypton.  It looked like a bout from Tekken when both players lack skill and are instead button mashing.  Needless to say, it was a Michael Bay worthy fight sequence resulting in a very uncharacteristic end result for any and all Superman franchises and stories.

Now speaking of the Man of Steel, our protagonist in the skin tight blue jump suit, was one who probably hasn't yet become a common household name, even though many of his co-stars are: Henry Cavill.

Yes I know, you thought I said the S wasn't the original style, well at some point in the film it got changed back, and without any explanation.  Hmm, can you say flimsy?

Cavill is previously best known for the CGI heavy Immortals, a film which followed a similar stylistic feel as that of Zach Snyder's 300.  Cavill has also occupied numerous other roles in film and television, however most of them have been relatively less impressive to the actors clout than Superman will be.  Cavill's co-stars consisted of many big names: Amy Adams, Laurence Fishburne, Diane Lane, Kevin Costner, Russell Crow, and yet, the person whom I feel was probably the most impressive character was Krypton's own General Zod, played by Michael Shannon.

Dun dun duunnnn!!!!!  I'm evil!

Now some/many of you may be thinking to yourself, "Who is Michael Shannon?"  To answer that I  say, "Hello??!!! Premium Rush anyone?"; just playing.  Yes, Shannon was in that dreadful film, but that isn't his only gig to date.  Michael Shannon was also in Bad Boys 2, Boardwalk Empire, Pearl Harbor and 8 Mile.  He is one of those guys not form fitted by stereotypes, conversely he is a very unique actor and has the ability to be good, bad and indifferent, thusly fitting nicely within this and many films boundaries.  All in all people what I am really trying to get at is that no matter how big or small of a name graced the silver screen in this the most recent version of Superman, I truly felt that every actor was quite good.  I most definitely believed that every intention from every character was genuine and "necessary".  Sometimes you watch a film and you think that the motivation or "passion" behind an action seemed weak or like it lacked provocation, in Man of Steel I truly felt the love, hate, fear, and drive behind both human and Kryptonian actions, and that people is something to strive for.



Final Words: Medium Popcorn 
Although I really enjoyed the background story and information about Kal-El, Clark Kent, Superman, I seemed to struggle with some of the plot twists and liberties taken, about which I have not mentioned.  This film was a bit long, and some of it was a bit relentless, however, I do believe that my review here today is only the stepping stone to your own thoughts.  See this film, most people found my issues to be more petty than I.

Until next time, happy viewing!

Review Rating based on popcorn sizes: small, medium, large, extra-large; 

films worth skipping get snore...zzzzz