Man Of Steel - Movie Review

(A Teenage Gorgebag's Review!)

 Who's in it?

Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Russell Crowe and Kevin Costner

What's it about?

Man of Steel chronicles Superman's origins, his birth, where his powers come from, and how he got to earth. It follows his quest to find out who he is, who his real parents are and where he is from. It also has him face off against General Zod, leader of the Kryptonian army and make a decision between his own people or the people he grew up around.

Any Good?

This film is produced (and co-written) by Christopher Nolan, or as you should know him, the man that made Batman actually cool again. It is also directed by Zack Snyder, who directed my second favourite hero film (after the godsend that was The Dark Knight), Watchmen. Being the (unashamed) huge geek that I am, you can imagine the enormous nerdgasms I had at the mention of these two working together.

R U SRS?!?!

Now I've never been into Superman in all honesty (Marvel > DC for me), but this movie has me wanting to rush to my favourite comic store and buy as many Superman comics as I can afford!! Nolan has done with the Man of Steel what he did with Batman, he made a huge icon in the nerdosphere human, relatable and overall attractive to me who always thought he was too overpowered to like.

Say that again?

Henry Cavill WAS Superman, everything from charisma to muscles to even his voice was perfect. But even though this film was about a superhero, there was a legend right behind him that matched his incredible acting. Kevin Costner played Jonathan Kent, Clarke's (human) father. He actually blew me away with his performance, the chemistry between himself and Dylan Sprayberry (teenage Clarke Kent) was incredible, it was as if they actually were father and son. Overall the acting in this movie was stellar in my eyes, from Russell Crowe's Jor-El moving from hammy-acted scientist to his excellent return as the guide for Clarke, Laurence Fishburne playing the well-meaning editor of the Daily Planet perfectly and even down to Cooper Timberline as 9 year old Clarke.

Oh, stop.

One thing I was delighted with is one of my favourite actors actually getting a role his deserves, Michael Shannon. I fell in love with him as an actor in Boardwalk Empire and as General Zod he showed that he deserves better roles than he is usually given. Another thing I loved was the pace of the film, watching the early trailers had me groaning because I'm not a big cinematography guy and it looked like these trailers were just pandering to those types. This pace made the action absolutely phenomenal, it had me following the action (as best I could with the fact I'm as blind as a bat at a distance), but where it held one part of the film to near perfection, it let another fall down. For me, the quick and seamless editing from current time Clarke/Superman to past Clarke really let a film of this magnitude down due to the 'wait, he's young again?' thoughts. Not to say those scenes were bad, they were the best in the film in my eyes.

Did someone say confusing time skips?

The effects really stood out in this film, the Kryptonian armor like a mix between Mass Effect 2's Collectors with the head of a District 9 Prawn. That leads me to talk about Superman's Kryptonite weakness. I always found that a rock beating the most powerful being around (excluding Marvel's Galactus of course) was ridiculous, but Man of Steel answered the 'WTF' question that was in my mind all my life perfectly. All in all the effects were mind-blowing, they even made Tony Stark's workshop look like something out of a SyFy channel film.

Right, Shepard was too good for us, instead lets kill Superman!!

Right, I've gushed and proved that I'm a total nerd for too long, I think I should just give you all a break. This is THE Superman film, most fans will adore this, and even me, an adamant anti-Superman person, loved it and have a new found interest in his lore. What you will love is the effects I mentioned above, the acting perfection and the final fight scene that was just, if not more, tense as the final fight scene in The Raid. It starts as a cliched action film but moves on to be something really special. I was warned against doing a long review but a film this Super (wink wink) needs a Super review, so I couldn't help it.

And for those that couldn't be bothered to read that (don't blame you, I wouldn't), my TL;DR is GO TO SEE THIS MOVIE!! It's everything a Superman movie should be with the dark Nolanverse mixed with a few cheesy lines. Again, GO TO SEE THIS, you'll thank me, the writers and director, and yourself for watching a movie on par with the legendary The Dark Knight.Rating:    


Signing off as this for fear of an elbow the likes of something from the top of the ropes in WWE, 

The (sigh..) Eldest Gorgebag