Man of Steel Review

So while everyone and their dog has been giving conflicting opinions on the Superman re-boot, I have spent a while working on a review of the movie without actually knowing what to do with it. So since I had a lot to say after seeing the movie on it's UK opening weekend, I've decided to make this blog so I'll have a place for me to post this and other movie reviews so I can kind of just let it all out and hopefully entertain and inform some of you. Let us begin!

I’m a huge fan of DC comics and comic book movies in general and this was easily my most anticipated film of the year. But unfortunately, I was a little disappointed.
Like I said, I was really looking forward to this film, I was just hyped up that I was convinced that this was going to be easily one of the best films I had ever seen, so I think I had unreasonable expectations! The trailer made it look impossibly awesome, particularly the first full trailer that was released which hardly showed any action and featured a lot of fantastic looking drama scenes.

This brings me onto my first criticism. As far as these drama and exposition scenes go, what it shown in the trailers is almost all you get. This causes one of the film's main faults; a lack of character development.

Now, Henry Cavil makes a great Superman and Zod is an equally great villain, but the rest of the characters aren't particularly memorable. Take Lois Lane. Aside from the fact that she's a famous character and played by Amy Adams, she just isn't very interesting. I don't think I would have even remembered her name if she was another character!

My second point is how incoherently Superman’s origin is told. Remember how in Batman Begins, Bruce’s early life was told in flashbacks in the film’s first act? Well, here the same technique is applied, but it isn't nearly as effective as these flashbacks constantly switch between time periods, rather than being told in a chronological order like in Batman Begins. For example, the first of these scenes shows Superman as an adult, next he’s a child and then a teenager. These scenes are all well done, but they would have flowed much better if they were shown chronologically. Then we would have been able to better understand how Clark copes with his powers as he grows progressively older, making us more attached to the character and his arc.

I also felt that there was a bit too much action during the films finale. Don’t get me wrong, it’s spectacular stuff, but there’s so many action scenes close together that it makes it harder to appreciate these moments. For me, the best action scene was Superman’s final battle with General Zod which is amazing, but it comes right of the back of another long action scene and you’re barely allowed any time to catch your breath in between. Additionally, it goes on a little longer than I think was necessary.

After all this, you may think that I hate this movie, but I didn’t. I only sound so negative because my expectations were so high. Overall, I found it to be pretty enjoyable and I’m sure that most Superman fans should be happy with it so I’d say give it watch if you’re into comic book movies. 

Rating:  ***