Movie Review: Man of Steel

From the same director that filmed 300, an action bonanza that at the end of the day had little of anything else, comes the Superman movie that people have been waiting on for the past decade, because Batman topped the priority chart and every Superman movie they make is a fail.

The day before I went to see this movie, the 2006 film Superman Returns was on TV. I watched a little of it, remembering how much of a disappointment that movie was, and hoping that this wasn’t a bad omen to what I was going to be watching tomorrow.

For the most part, good job, Zack Snyder. The first hour of this movie went over the backstory but did so in flashbacks rather than in live action, something I appreciated because if I had to watch Superman as a child for an extended period of time, I think I would have gotten bored pretty quick. Sometimes introducing the backstory in these superhero movies can be very slow and uneventful, but I think this movie did a good job at keeping it moving at a steady pace.

The acting was pretty well done in this movie. Henry Cavill, who was one of the main stars in one of the worst movies I ever saw (Immortals) redeemed himself in this. A soft-spoken guy persona came across very well and I found his character to be convincing. For not having any serious movie roles prior to this, he did a great job. Props to him.

The action scenes were pretty good for the most part, too. At the end of this movie though, I found myself wanting more. The major fight scene at the end, where the movie gets real, caused some problems for me, which I’ll discuss in the spoiler’s edition.

There also was very little humor in this movie. Something that I think people loved about The Avengers was the humor. It wasn’t a comedy but whenever the audience was getting uptight and really serious, a joke would be sprung that would get the audience laughing. This movie was all seriousness, all business. This was not a laughing matter. I agree this movie shouldn’t have been a laughing matter, because apparently making a Superman movie for Warner Bros is as difficult as Tiger Woods winning a major these days. Nonetheless, I know I would have liked some humor in there.

Once again, if you’re new to my blog,  I’ve always ranked movies on a scale of 0-100 (I don’t know why, I just always have). Here’s the grading scale.

 90-100  It’s a great movie and definitely one worth buying. (Iron Man 3)

80-89   It was a pretty good movie and definitely one worth seeing, but it doesn’t quite scratch my top ten percentile. (Star Trek Into Darkness, Now You See Me)

70-79   It’s okay but I’ve seen better. It has its moments, but it has its flaws, too. (Oblivion)

60-69   It’s got plenty wrong with it but I still got enjoyment out of this one.

50-59   This movie isn’t intolerable but it’s not blowing my mind either. I’m trying really hard to get some sort of enjoyment out of this. (The Hobbit, After Earth)

40-49   This movie is just mediocre. It’s not doing anything other than the bare minimal, so morbidly boring that sometimes I’m actually angry I watched this.

30-39   Definitely worse than mediocre, the 30’s ironically define the 1930’s, full of depression, lack of accomplishments, poverty and just so dumb. (The Contract)

20-29   What did I just watch? Cliches, stupidity, nothingness, did I mention stupidity? Just…wow.

0-19      Watching this movie resulted in one or more of the following: seizure, loss of brain cells, falling asleep/unconsciousness, feel you wasted your time/day, accomplished nothing for you, left the movie knowing less about it then you did going into it, constantly asking yourself why you came to see this movie, or near-death experience. In short, staring at a wall was just as entertaining as watching this movie. This movie deserved a sticker or a label that said, “WARNING: EXTREME AMOUNT OF SUCKAGE.”

My score for Man of Steel: 87.

This wasn’t as good as Star Trek Into Darkness, but isn’t too far behind. Overall, a good product by Zack Snyder. Finally, Warner Bros is making some progress. Oh, and thank you for not putting Lex Luthor in this. Seriously, you put a great actor in Kevin Spacey in the last one and made him look like an idiot. It’s about time filmmakers came up with a new story.

*SPOILER ALERT* IF YOU DON’T WANT THE MOVIE SPOILED, STOP READING!!!

*SPOILER’S EDITION*

At the end of the movie, there’s a huge fight scene in which all of New York City is turned to rubble. Hundreds of buildings fall over, with destruction and action scenes that Michael Bay would approve of. After Superman defeats General Zod and goes back home to his mom, she asks him what he’s going to do now. He says he’s going to get a job, which is when he goes to work at the Daily Planet. But wait…New York City was just totaled. How did they build the whole city in 5 minutes? They never tell you it’s a flash ahead and while it obviously has to be, I think a better transition would have been nice. Superman also gets tossed around like a rag doll in this movie but his suit never tears, even after going through an electric pulsar ray that is able to break through the earth’s crust all the way to the other side, which if you google “diameter of earth”, is 7,918 miles. You would think a force that strong would make a tear, but apparently he’s wearing nukeproof clothing.

That’s something I’ve always had a problem with in regards to Superman. He’s seriously indestructible. You could drop the United States nuclear payload on Superman and he’d be like, “I got this.” I just think that is ridiculous. What’s the point of making a superhero like that when you’re basically making him out to be God, totally indestructible and impervious to anything?(unless it’s a rare diamond from your own planet, which was destroyed, meaning there’s little to none in existence and no one can find it, unless of course you’re Lex Luthor) What’s the point of any battle when there’s no possibility that your hero can lose? Seriously, if someone told me Superman was a superhero created by a 7-year-old and I didn’t know who created him, I’d probably believe that guy. Tell me you can’t picture a 7-year-old talking about a drawing he just made:

“Look Dad, look what I drew today.”

“That’s nice, son. Who is it?”

“He’s a superhero I made up. He can fly and shoot lasers out of his eyes and no one can hurt him. He’s unbeatable!”

Let’s be honest people. Dad probably had to tell him to add the kryptonite part to the story.