Man of Steel movie review

Here's what you need to know; Clark Kent has lived a life unlike most people, having discovered his alien heritage and god like powers at an early age. But his life in the shadows is about to end when a terrible evil finds its way to Earth, one that doesn't intend to take prisoners. Not sure if he can trust the people of Earth, Clark must take a leap of faith and defend his home from Zod and his genocidal plans.
Not the movie I would have liked to review today, for fairly apparent reasons, but that review will come, and I think it would be a good idea to watch, and by extension, review Man of Steel, just to catch up, so here we go.

I really like the opening sequence of this film, taking place on Clark's homeworld of Krypton, and giving us a really cool glimpse at the state of affairs on the dying planet, there's a story there, one you can clearly see even from only about 20 minutes, and it's a really interesting world with politics and society and nuances, it's good stuff. The planet soon meets a grisly fate though, as does Russell Crowe's Jor El, at the hands of Zod. Despite dying in the first 20 minutes, Jor El makes several appearances in this film, and he's a very interesting character, more morally ambiguous than both Clark and Zod, and with just being really cool in the scenes he's in. Zod is more flat than Jor, while they try to give him motivation in his efforts to rebuild Krypton on Earth, he just comes across as an arsehole bad guy, I do however love a brief monologue he gives before the film's final clash, about his reason for existing. He's completely serviceable as a villain, and I don't really have any issues with him. In fact I don't have any real issues with any characters in this film. Lois Lane is a cool character, not being an idiot while also being an adventurous and at times foolish journalist, and I like the story of her trying to hunt down Clark Kent. Jonathan Kent is also a character that I like, probably the most grounded character in the film, I like how he sees Clark's powers as something that he should hide, thinking the world wasn't ready for a god, to be fair this idea has its merits, I'm sure a god being among us would probably cause some commotion. And while I know this is a different take on Johnathan Kent, my knowledge on the source material being kind of limited, I like this take on him, and he really adds to the character of Clark Kent, same as Jor El. Which brings us onto Clark Kent himself, who I do like in this film. I like that he has tried to live completely under the radar, but is driven to help people out of a sense of morality, it's a very likable trait for a character to have, and it is clear that he has lived a difficult life, until he finds a ship crashed in the Arctic, and dons the cape. Clark manages to be relatable, both in his troubled life, and in his own amazement at learning the true potential of his powers, be honest, if you one day learned you could fly, it would be a bit amazing to you too. The effort to make his superpowers as grounded as possible is admirable, but it's not The Dark Knight, sciency mumbo jumbo still can't really explain godly powers, no matter how sciency said mumbo jumbo is. This is, of course, a more serious and dark origins story for Superman, and for the most part, it does a good job with the characters, in my opinion, and the story moves along at a good pace and is interesting enough, what with the stuff about Krypton and the motivations of the characters.

But there is one issue I have with this film, and I know I'm not alone in this issue. like I said before, I really like the opening of this film, with great action, a fascinating world and story, and, as expected of a big Hollywood movie, beautiful special effects, and while it's a very explody sequence, nothing about it ever stood out as overkill, that can't be said for the rest of the film. first up, the effects in this film are top notch, throughout, practically never does it drop the ball from a technical standpoint, and in Zack Snyder fashion, this is a very loud, bright, action packed film. I can kind of see where the reasoning is, that being Superman and everyone he fights in this film are basically gods, so they would cause a lot of destruction when they clash, but even then, this is a little much. it's a bit of a spoiler, but near the end of the film, I remembered Godzilla Final Wars, and how the final battle of the film takes place in a wasteland, but that was Godzilla, a 300 foot tall, radioactive lizard, the fact that they're both gods is pretty irrelevant when you consider that Godzilla doesn't care how many civilian casualties there are, while Superman should be actively trying to at least keep it as low as possible, something he doesn't seem to do in this film. The action is insane in this film, it's huge, it's violent, and it is destructive. But it is definitely too destructive in my opinion, less could have been more in this film's action, and it's not like a morally ambiguous issue, where Zod's defeat was more important than civilian lives, just how completely fucked Metropolis is at the end of this film just kind of gets forgotten about, something that really goes against the idea of Superman being any kind of savior. I do only have 1 real issue with this film, but it's a big one, in every sense, and that is disappointing.

Man of Steel has a lot going for it, I like the characters, I like the story told by and through these characters. I like the special effects in the film also, and I do like the film's exploration of morality. but that kind of goes out of the window in the final act when all hell breaks loose and shit gets really destructive, an over the top level of action and destruction that brings a lot of the film's momentum to a halt. But I do very much like what I think works in this film, and for that reason, I still very much like this film, and would recommend it.