Man Of Steel (Movie Review)

 ***This review will contain spoilers***

Summary:

With the imminent destruction of Krypton, their home planet, Jor-El 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 and Martha Kent, who name him Clark and raise him as their own son. Though his extraordinary abilities have led to the adult Clark living on the fringe of society, he finds he must become a hero to save those he loves from a dire threat. 

I've watched a few of the DCEU movies over the last decade but to be honest I haven't really gotten a chance to watch all of them. And with James Gunn heading every DC project I have full confidence that he will usher in a new era of movie making. He's produced and directed some of my favourite childhood movies and growing up I was a DC kid and boy as an adult it has been embarrassing just how bad DC movies have gotten. Recently, they released the trailer for Superman and it looks really good! While I'm waiting for it to be released this summer I figured I could review all the DCEU movies before diving in to the new era. 

Opening Scene:

The birth of Kal-El and the decision made by his parents to send him to Earth to escape the destruction of his Planet; Krypton. The destruction was caused by mining the planet's core. Jor and Lara-El took Krypton's codex filled with genetic information of Kryptonians and infused it into Kal. We also see General Zod trying to overthrow the council but ultimately gets defeated, however, he vows to find Kal once he escapes the Phantom Zone. I've got to say for an opening, it was done amazingly! It's engaging and as a viewer you're forced to pay attention so you don't miss any details. 

Of course, Henry Cavill is shirtless the first opportunity arises which is within 5 minutes of screentime. I wouldn't have pictured him as Superman and same goes for Amy Adams as Lois Lane. I grew up watching anything Superman including Smallville. For a short while it became my everything ands I was obsessed with the show. It has been years since I've watched it and I might do a rewatch soon and actually post a review on it. 

With that being said I don't believe that Cavill and Adams have good chemistry onscreen together. And then the script itself is lacking as well. Lois and Clark don't have enough scenes together for us to come to the conclusion that they are romantically involved. The love story of Lois and Clark is well known for decades, however, that doesn't mean you can avoid building their relationship in this movie. The story of Superman is so vast and complex that it makes it difficult to jam so much in a two and a half hour movie. 

I love the flashbacks of Clark's childhood, giving us a glimpse into the hardships of his youth and him adjusting to his abilities. I do have a few issues though. The scene with him in school feeling overwhelmed with his X-ray vision and his hearing abilities on overdrive, I hated the teacher allowing all the students to crowd Clark and his mom when she was trying to help him. Martha should have told all those kids to beat it instead of staring. Moreover, how stupid does it sound letting yourself get killed by a tornado instead of your alien son coming to save you? He's extremely fast, Clark could have went in and sped away without anyone knowing. Such a stupid way to off his dad. I can understand their apprehension of having their son interact with people on a day to day but teaching him to allow others to push him around isn't the best way to cultivate patience and self-control. 

There's a time and place for everything and a kissing scene after barely saving the world from annihilation by an alien race is not the time for a make out session. I feel like a lot of emotional building scenes were either rushed or felt short to jump into the action part of the movie. While Superman can very well make a lot of damage with how powerful he is, it's the man wearing the cap that truly demonstrates his emotional and human side. It's sad to say but the scenes with younger Clark had more of an impact, That actor had a better screen presence than Cavill. 

Rating:

I'm giving it 2.5 stars on 5. It was an okay movie but let's be honest here, there have been so many Superman movies that at this point that when taking on a project like this it should be impactful and well done. This movie felt like it had no heart to it. It's weird when the opening scene feels like it wasn't produced/ created by the same people who did the rest of the movie. The opening scene was so well done that the rest of it fell short.