Movie Review: Man of Steel

For over a week now the reactions to Man of Steel (MoS) appear to run hot.  People either love it or hate it.  Doesn’t seem there is much of a middle ground.  For that same time frame I have worked very hard at avoiding spoilers (not 100% successful but pretty close).

Today the need to avoid spoilers has ended (at least for me).  I promise to do my best to avoid any spoilers here so as to spare those that are still trying to get to see the movie unspoiled.

I can totally understand why the reactions are either love or hate.  This is not the Superman movie that you would expect if you only base that expectation on prior Superman movies and comics.  But to me that is not a bad thing.  Even going with the title of Man of Steel and not referring to him as Superman in the promos.  This distanced the movie from it’s predecessors.  Do I agree with all the choices made for the movie? No, but does anybody ever agree 100% with all the decisions made about any movie? I doubt even a director would say they do when we all know there are constraints on what they can do either financially or technically or even just because of time.

After the movie, over iced teas in the warm summer sun, my friend and I discussed why we both thoroughly enjoyed the movie, besides a very handsome leading man.  There were aspects of this movie that would not have worked 10, 20 or 30 years ago, but that today made this the Superman movie for the modern day.  Aspects of the character that I can’t recall ever having been addressed that made perfect sense when we were discussing how they were handled in MoS.

Yes, the movie has violence, destruction, collateral damage, all things that the viewer may not be used to when it comes to Superman (or at least not on the scale of MoS).  But if you consider the world we live in today, the violence that we are exposed to on a daily basis in tv shows, movies and worse yet… the daily news, would anybody think anything but how lame of a “Superman” movie were he was not dealing with these on an epic scale?

As for the casting of the movie, in my book it was pure genius.

Russell Crowe as Jor-El… he was the best Jor-El I can remember.  I would see this movie again just for his portrayal (if I weren’t going to see it for any of a million other things that I loved)

Henry Cavill as Clark Kent / Kal-El… how have I not been aware of this actor? Talented, handsome and did I mention TALENTED?  After the movie as we were discussing our reactions we both were on our phones googling who he was and wow… he has been in things I have loved (and now will be re-watching just to see his performance)

Amy Adams as Lois Lane – sassy, cute, talented and a perfect counterbalance to the testosterone of a predominantly male cast. She sold the role, the inquisitiveness intelligence of a reporter blended with compassion and humanity.

Michael Shannon as General Zod –  Most definitely a fantastic casting, he comes across not just as a villain but as a ‘man’ doing what he believes is right. Any good villain has to have a motivation other than just doing ‘evil’, he (or she) must have a motivation, and as one writer has told me, they usually are doing things not because they are inherently bad or evil but because they believe what they are doing is justified, is right, even necessary.  And in General Zod we get just that kind of villain and Shannon sells the viewer on Zod’s conviction that what he is doing is necessary.

Diane Lane as Martha Kent
Harry Lennix as General Swanwick
Christopher Meloni as Colonel Nathan Hardy
Kevin Costner as Jonathan Kent
Laurence Fishburne as Perry White (my favorite Perry White ever!)

There are so many more but the more I tell about the casting and why I think they were the right actor for the specific role the harder it is not to say something that could be a spoiler. But none of these would have been great in their roles had not Zack Snyder (Director), David S. Goyer (screenplay and story) and  Christopher Nolan (Story) done a phenomenal job putting everything together. And then there is the music, never one to disappiont on that score (excuse the pun) Hans Zimmer delivers a wonderful soundtrack to help raise raise the movie to another level.

Would I see this movie again? With out a doubt!
Would I recommend this movie to a friend? Definitely

Best advice to anybody going to see Man of Steel… go in expecting to be entertained, don’t expect it to be any specific “kind” of Superman, or to tell the story you would expect the way you would expect it to be told.  Just go have fun! Actually let’s correct that comment, this applies to any movie, especially any based on a comic book character or characters.  Now go have fun!