Review: Man Of Steel
At a Glance:
A thrill ride from start to finish. It has a promising start on Krypton, setting up the plot and a strong background. Unfortunately this greatness does not continue throughout the whole film but that is not to say the film is bad. Henry Cavill IS chillingly good, genuinely brilliant and proves he deserved to play cinema’s most iconic hero. You’ll enjoy this fresh approach to Superman and the mind-blowing collateral damage.
Quality 6/10
Entertainment 9/10
In Depth:
The opening on a doomed Krypton is a masterpiece of a prologue, it got me very excited for the rest of the film which was unfortunately short-lived. It lulls the audience into thinking that we’ll see the full transformations and struggles that turns an alien baby into Earth’s saviour but instead they pretty much skip it all. There are a few flashbacks to try and establish the character which I think they could have done more with it, especially with Kevin Costner as Jonathan Kent.
The bulk of the film is consumed by really well thought through fight scenes which at first I thought were over the top with more collateral damage than most wars. On reflection I feel they are more true of what a super strength fight scene would be like if they were a reality. I guess I’d expect nothing less of the fight scenes with Zack Snyder (300 and Watchmen) AND Chris Nolan (Inception, Batman) at the helm. But I will stress that they shouldn’t have watched Star Trek before making this film, the amount of lens flare made me want to trade in the 3D glasses for sunglasses. I also didn’t like the shaky-cam aspect (thanks Jason Bourne) which starts too heavy but to my relief does fade away.
They try to establish the romance between Clark and Lois but I didn’t see the chemistry myself. They meet each other 3 to 4 times before they kiss and in those encounters they hardly speak to each other.
Lets talk acting, bloody hell Henry Cavill is good. There is one particular scene where Clark reacts to General Zod’s (Michael Shannon) threats towards his mother with such intensity I genuinely felt like I’d wronged him, terrifying! Michael Shannon makes a true villain of General Zod and I really liked the dialogue with Russell Crowe (playing Jor-El) and how the arguments flow true between them both. Kevin Costner is a great minor player and I feel definitely could have done with more screen time. Amy Adams is good as Lois Lane but nothing really stands out from her performance.
The good:
- Henry Cavill is bloody brilliant (Thank God he wasn’t cast in Twilight!)
- Amazing prologue, worth seeing by itself (even if a bit short)
- Insane super heroic fight scenes
The bad:
- Jonathan Kent’s raising of Clark could have been done better (maybe more in deleted scenes?)
- Lack of chemistry on the romance side
- Morpheus offered no one any pills
