You Have to Decide What Kind of Man
you to grow up to be Want to Be...
Okay, before I even get into this, I'm admittedly a Superman Fanatic but I want to take my shot at pulling out the stinky eye for Man of Steel. The film reboots the Superman franchise following "Superman Returns" which effectively brought the original Superman franchise full circle. Man of Steel was available in 3D and 2D and honestly, I felt the 3D was unneeded except for a few specific scenes, but not enough to write home about. Man of Steel is brought to you by the same people who brought you the Dark Knight series so the bar is set pretty high, they did a wonderful job in promoting the film prior to it's release which is something you come to expect from Christopher Nolan and his team. It's a pretty start studded cast with Russel Crow staring as Jor-El, Keven Costner starting as Jonathan Kent, Laurence Fishburne as Perry White, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Micheal Shannon as General Zod, and British actor Henry Cavill dawning the cape as our new Superman. With the stars to ride the film to the moon and the muscle behind it to make it really go, the expectations are extremely high, even for a Superman fanatic like myself I have to say, those are pretty lofty goals. The problem is when the bar is set so high, it makes it easier to find faults in the film, because you're expecting it to be a flawless masterpiece. Somewhat of a victim of it's own circumstance similar to the Dark Knight Rises. But lets see how unbiased I can be, as we see just how high our new Man of Steel can fly in my review of "Man of Steel" And ...Here... WE... Go!
Let's get this out of the way, they went completely original with the whole story, aside from Jor-El sending Kal-El to earth the story is completely original. Which is nice to see for a franchise that has been lost in limbo for so long. Everything from Krypton, to Jor-El, to General Zod, to go even as far as the legendary Superman "S" and theme has been changed to update this film for a new audience. Only the names stayed the same. Smallville, Metropolise, Kent, Lois Lane, but their are plenty of new faces as well, to keep the story fresh and not just another play on the already created Superman universe. Even the name "Superman" only three times in the entire film is he refereed to as "Superman". Giving it all a more realistic and less comic booky feel to it. Now that I'm done being totally biased lets get on with the review and pull out my critical stinky eye.
The film begins on Krypton, now they spend a great deal of time here, in face with the world they painted they could probably do an entire prequel that takes place on Krypton. The first thing we see is Laura-El giving birth to the man we will come to know as our Superman. Not exactly what I particularly want to see at the onset of the film, but I suppose they want this film to go from the second he was born to where he became Superman. It's not for about fifteen minutes that we find out that Kal-El's is the first natural birth in centuries, because they ... Grow... there young sort of like the Matrix style, but more on that later. In this incarnation Krypton's planetary core is collapsing causing the end of Krypton, rather than their sun doing a supernova and blowing up the joint. Why is the core collapsing you ask? Because they are harvesting it... why? I dunno... What do they accomplish by harvesting the core? I dunno... what does this have to do with this extending the Kryptonian race? Nothing, because it infact causes it's demise. (here comes the stinky eye) The beginning moves fast and loose, so try to keep up. General Zod stages a coup to overthrow the counsel because you know... they harvested the core... to... I dunno. Good for Zod for putting an end to it though before it was too... oh wait never mind, Jor-El just said it was too late for everyone on the planet, everyone is already dead. So never mind...
General Zod wants Jor-El to join him in his coup, indicating that the two were one time friends. Apparently, even though Jor-El was just furious at the counsel for harvesting the core, he refuses to join General Zod... because... I dunno. We find out about this "Codex" something that will be explained or become more confusing as the film goes. The codex is what gives our little matrix babies their designed purpose in life. On Krypton, every child to be born has a specific purpose, and it is stored in the "Registry of Citizens" that is within this Codex. Strangely enough the Codex is a half skull with some strange markings on it.. because... why not? Looks cool enough, they needed a physical codex, so why not be a skull? It really doesnt matter, because the codex only exists for a short time before Jor-El destroys the damn as it vanishes into thin air, as he bonds it with our favorite Superbaby, more on this later. As they try to send away Kal-El to earth General Zod tries to stop the launch but is too late, as he battles with Jor-El who is now wearing some nifty armor. I forgot to mention the face that Krypton looks more like something out of Avitar rather than the ice world we came know from the original series. Which again, is nice to see... Also, like the originals every family has a family crest on their chest, only this is explained more clearly in this film than in past ones. As well as the cape and suite that are more something of their culture than a costume.
During the battle between General Zod and Jor-El, General Zod kills Jor-El in a rage of fury, and Zod orders to shoot down the ship that is carrying Kal-El, but before it can be done Zod's forces are overpowered and they are tried for treason. Something that really makes no sense at all since it would be a worse punishment to leave them on Krypton to die with everyone else than to send them to the Phantom Zone, since Krypton is destroyed moments after they are sent there. (More on that later) We follow Kal's ship to earth but before it crashes we find ourselves jumping forward in time to where Kal has grown into an adult. We'll get to see his childhood, and adolescent years though a series of flashbacks, not unlike his brother film "Batman Begins". Kal-El or Clark as well will start calling him, is working on a fishing boat, under the assumed name "Greenhorn" when they come across a oil rig on fire that is doomed to kill everyone inside it. That is, until out Man of Steel shows up to save the day, he rips the door off its hinges his body burning on fire with absolutely no damage whatsoever. Our bearded hero gets everyone off the oil rig and then as it collapses he jumps up and grabs the falling rig to protect the people from death. This is where the series of flashbacks start of how he has protected and saved the innocent people throughout his young and adolescent years. It's interesting enough stuff, how he was terrified of his abilities as a child, saved a school bus going down in a river, and finding out that he is not of this world. He replies "Can't I just keep pretending I'm your son?" There are more flashbacks that showcase his abilities but they are more for story telling purposes that we will get to later.
There is a particularly fun scene where he is working as a (what looks like) a dishwasher at a restaurant, where he asks an unruly customer to leave only to have the customer throw a beer in his face and give him a good shove...that leads to nothing but an irritated look from our soon to be Superman. The waitress who we assume is his one time girlfriend tells him that it's not worth it, and he leaves. Hours later when the unruly customer leaves he comes out to find his big rig truck twisted and contorted and twisted and hoisted up on two electric poles. This seems a tad petty by our Superman, but hey... can you really blame him? If I could do what he could... I'd probably do it too. We find him hitch hiking moments later because well, lets face it... if you had just done that... could you go back? There would be a lot of questions that need answering, the first of which being... why did he need to cause a black out for a petty move like that? He coulda just smashed it like a tin can rather than pull down poles and cause hundreds of people a power outage! This is however... totally ignored by the film, and its not the only time. Superman in this film, is particularly destructive, and its pretty much ignored for the most part....More on that later.
Through these series of flashbacks its shown that if Clark didn't have such a moral, and caring father Clark could have turned out to be the most dangerous and destructive being on the face of the planet. He could have killed the whole human race if he had an abusive father who never taught his son what it meant to be human. A father that taught him to make a choice about what kind of man he wanted to be. To stand proud in front of the human race or not, Kevin Costner was probably the best person they could have chosen for the role of Jonathan Kent. Lois Lane is played by Amy Adams and she is a vast improvement from Kate Bosworth from Superman Returns. Not that Bosworth did a poor job she just wasn't a good fit for the role. We find our selves in the Artic where both Lois Lane and our favorite alien from Krypton are both looking for an anomaly in a glacier. Clark finds it first leading Lois Lane straight to it. What we find turns out to be an ancient scout ship that Krypton had sent out trying to inhabit new worlds, because Kryptonians are in this film, like all aliens... they want to destroy all life on earth and take it over as their own. Luckily for all of us, they did not destroy the earth long ago, and turn earth into Krypton... More on that later. It's made pretty clear early in this film that Kryptonians not only General Zod are pretty much like all aliens they want to eradicate all life on earth to make the planet their own, with what they call a world engine. It would appear that only the house of 'El is good. The symbol of the house of 'El means 'Hope' and as we all know the symbol of the house of 'El is that big'ol Superman "S" on his chest.
Lois wants to publish her article about "aliens walking among us" but Perry White (Played briliantly by Laurence Fishburne) refuses to publish it out of fear of world wide panic. Lois finds a way to blast it all over the internet anyway...because she's Lois Lane and that's how she rolls. Mean while back on the scout ship Clark's "Command Key" (which all Kryptonians have) activates the guiding presence of Jor-El. This is of course the replacement of the fortress of solitude and the crystals that allow Superman to speak to Jor-El in the original films. Personally I enjoy the idea of the command keys and they continue to play an important role as the film goes. Through his time with Jor-El he finds out who he really is, and gets his Superman suit... from the ancient scout ship... which makes no sense at all, but he needed his Super suit so there ya go. Some great lines from Russel Crow as Jor-El show that he was the perfectly cast for the role. "What if a child dreamed of being something other than what society had intended? What if a child aspired to something greater?" "You will give the people of earth an ideal to strive towards, they will race behind you, they will stumble, they will fall, but in time... they will join you in the sun. In time, you will help them accomplish wonders." Marlon Brando would be proud.
Clark is now Superman, and while he is learning to push his limits he finds out that with great concentration... for now anyway... he has the ability of flight, which he is all to excited to find out. Which is great, because if you learned one day that you could fly... wouldnt you be excited? My only issue with this is, the film makers seemingly obsessive need for Superman to take off with the sound of a gunshot every time he takes off. That gets a tad old... We get one final flashback showing the death of Jonathan Kent, unlike the previous films, where Clark was unable to save his father from a heart attack despite all his amazing powers, we find out something far different. Clark, and Jonathan and Martha Kent are driving in a pickup truck, when a tornado shoots up outa no where... remember we are in Kansas... Tornado Alley... So this was a nice touch. Jonathan, tells Clark to get everyone to the overpass for protection, rather than use his powers in front of everyone. When Jonathan can not escape the tornado he waves Clark off signaling him not to save him. He grew up knowing he let his father die, because it was his father's belief that the world was not ready to see what he can do. It's because of this that Lois Lane suddenly drops her story, because she finds out just why Clark doesnt want his story told.
But by the time she drops it... it's too late, General Zod shows up and tells the world that "You are not alone" in an AMAZING scene where he tells the world that he wants Kal-El to surrender within 24 hours or the world will suffer the consequences. This brings Superman out of hiding, and he surrenders... To mankind... there's a difference. He surrender's to show that he is not an enemy to the world. The world's military has orders to turn Kal-El over to Zod, and Superman tells him that they have to do what they have to do. At first it appears that General Zod is peaceful with Kal-El telling him this is a cause for celebration... not conflict. Unfortunately for our man in the red cape he reject's the ship's "atmospherics" that are compatible to Kryptonians... not humans. Because, Kal-El spent a lifetime adapting to Earth and no time adapting to Krypton's it makes him weak, as he coughs up blood. We enter into a dream sequence where Kal-El finds out Zod's true intentions, to do what all aliens do... destroying earth and taking over. Superman says he can not be a part of it, much to the disappointment of General Zod. One of the ship's scientists takes some of Kal-El's blood to test it, and they find out that Jor-El bonded the Codex within his son's (Superman) individual's cells.
During this time, Lois Lane uses the 'El command key, to activate the Jor-El guidance as he helps her escape the ship, as well as tell her how to send General Zod and his forces back to the Phantom Zone. They use the 'El command key, to modify the ship's atmospherics to compatibility to human's, returning Superman's abilities to him. Jor-El tells Kal-El to strike the panel on the ship breaking it open. Superman asks Jor-El if what Zod was telling him was the truth about Krypton... which it was... but Jor-El knew it was one of the failings of his world, he wanted Kal to be the bridge between two worlds. Now hold on just a moment... It wasnt all that long ago that that Jor-El told the council needed to look to the stars and inhabit other worlds because Krypton's core was collapsing. So... essentially, Jor-El wanted to take over new worlds just as Zod does...*facepalm* Moving on. Jor-El shows him that Lois' escape pod had been damaged, and she needs to be saved... telling him that he can save her... "You can save her Kal... You can save all of them!" Superman strikes the Jesus pose that we all knew he would, because of the parallels between Superman and the religious figure Jesus Chirst, as the earth's savior. He takes off like a bullet (like he always does) flying through the sky in a scene not unlike the airplane scene in Superman Returns. It's done alot faster but I can see the parallels which is not in itself a bad thing because that was one of the best scene's in that film.
Superman saves Lois Lane and if you didn't think we were in high gear just yet, we are about to kick it into high gear. The second half of the film, is pretty much a roaring high gear eruption of fire and fury till the end... and that really doesn't quite say it. This is easily the most action packed Superman film of all time, just when you think they have hit the action into high gear you find out they are about to hit the NOS boosters and it just wont quit. Superman saves Lois Lane, but then flies off like a bullet because he can hear Zod and his crew threatening his mother. Superman flies through in a rage, causing a large amount of destruction along the way. No one seems to care, but they end up in down town Smallville where a major battle is about to take place, now you might think this is the party that leads to the party that will end the film, but no... this is only an appetizer and its about as big as an ending battle. Poor Smallville is all but destroyed, by Superman the villains and the U.S. Military. So... all the destruction can't be blamed on Superman, a large amount of the damage is actually caused by the Military, which isn't all that different from real life. We all know how much the U.S. Government will use any means necessary to win a battle, even if that means sacrificing a little town like Smallvillie.
So the Government FINALLY decides that the man in blue is not their enemy, and decides to use him to help fight the alien invasion. Which is actually pretty cool when you think about it, this film plays out like an alien invasion movie with Superman being the one to save the day. Zod and his insurgents release the "World Engine" to one end of the planet as the main ship lowers over Metropolis. The earth seems a lot smaller here because one machine works in tandem with the other on direct polar opposites of the planet, the World Engine being over the Indian Ocean. As the two ships work together a gravity field crushes everything around it, more and more, further and further as the longer the weapon is active. Crushing cars, people, and buildings as it goes, during this sequence of events we watch people die and buildings fall over, people getting stuck among the rubble of a building still alive. (totally impossible) Since the building are actually tipping over, and not to bring up the one thing no one ever wants to talk about... but if 9/11 showed us anything its that when building's go down, everyone within a certain radius is dead. If someone were to be in the radius and the building tumbles over on top of them, it's squasharoo time.
As this is happening, he find out through the U.S Military that they are now working with Superman to save the planet. In fact we get the only time in the film where they refer to him as Superman. "I'm on with the control tower Colonel Hardy's on the line and he's got Superman in tow. Superman? The Alien sir... that, that's what they're calling him... Superman." Working in tandem with the military now, Superman heads to the Indian Ocean to try to destroy the world engine while the Military readies the ship he arrived in with the command key to use like a bomb. Making the two Phantom Projectors collide with one another will create similar to a black hole and send them back to the Phantom Zone. This is pretty simplistic logic, for what they are trying to do, but just forget about the science of it, because there are no such things as "Phantom Projectors". Now this is where things start to get a bit out of hand, as Superman flys off to destroy the world Engine with it making earth more like Krypton it makes him weaker around it, already making his fight that much harder. He loses control and tumbles and falls back and forth coughing and getting all sick and junk, and then these testicle things come out of the World Engine. Which is entirely unneeded, this film is already by far the most action pact Superman film ever made, which is clearly what they were going for here. He fights the tentacles for a short period of time and then they just throw him down into the beam of the world engine, which they could have just done with him tumbling toward the world engine.
This scene could have been worked better if they would have done something that maybe hit you personally, rather than another unneeded action scene, because believe me we aren't done yet. It would have been better. To make the tentacle fight all the more pointless, it takes all of his Superhuman ability to destroy the world engine standing in the beam, and we even get a nice little throw back to a Christopher Reeves scene as he looks up into the beam. He flies up into the beam crashing through the world engine destroying it as he stumbles through the air practically dead, falling to only God knows where. Zod leaves the main ship and goes back to the scout ship to secure the genesis chamber, and "Pay his respects to an old friend" and by pay his respects... he means telling Jor-El that he is going to harvest the codex from his son's corps and rebuild Krypton on top of his bones... Yup, that's how I would do it too. As Superman is fighting the world engine the government is trying to attack the main ship and is failing miserably, as the missals go crazy in the changed gravity field and blow up buildings, and some of the fighters even flip and flouder out of control and crash into buildings. So... Just want to throw this out there, Superman does cause a fair amount of damage but the U.S. Government and the alien craft does far more. After Superman destroys the World Engine he clings to life by reaching out toward the sun, where he gets his power from. Just as the Colonel Hardy tries to make the drop he is attacked by the Kryptonians, forcing him to crash the bomber into the alien craft to complete the plan. Zod's ship shows up out of no where, and nearly shoots down the bomber, but right before he shoots Superman flys in out of no where crashing through the ship throwing off the shot. Now... Here's another blip on the radar, Zod entered his command key into the scout ship, so just as it happened the first time he was aboard Zod's other craft his power should have been neutralized once aboard the ship... But... "Krypton had it's chance" I guess and Superman lazer vision's through the walls of the ship effectively destroying it as it crashes down amongst the buildings below. Why they couldn't crash the ship in a place that wouldnt have killed thousands of innocent people I dont know, this is a running theme through the end of this film.
The ship crashes, the black hole is created, Superman digs himself out of the rubble caused by the crash and swoops up to save Lois Lane who conveniently falls out of the back of the aircraft and is the only one aboard the aircraft who doesnt get sucked into the Phantom Zone. Superman swoops up and saves her pulling her out of the Black Hole, and saving her from crashing down into the rubble that used to be Metropolis as the alien craft and the bomber disappear. Now youre thinking, its over, look at all the devastation and destruction, there is no way there is more. But wait! There's more! Zod also survived the crash of the scout ship and he crawls out of the rubble, telling Superman that he has taken Krypton from him, so he is going to take each and everyone of the human's he's adopted from him! And now we are on to ROUND 4! Of rock'em sock'em robots! Oh... and Metropolis? You thought it was destroyed? Naaa... There are still plenty of buildings to destroy yet, let's just hope the city was smart enough to evacuate the city before thousands of more lives are lost...because we are about to have a knock down drag out between Zod and Superman, one that flies through the city, up into outer-space, where they destroy a "Wayne Enterprises" satellite for those of you easter egging at home. Only to crash down into a museum where I guess they didnt know the city was being destroyed as Zod targets a family with the intent to kill them with his heat vision. Saying he will never stop, that one of them must die. Now this is where things get a...little complicated... if things were not complicated enough during these destructive action scenes, things are about to get a little controversial. Just put it out point blank Superman kills Zod to save the family... Some people had a HUGE problem with this... I didn't. After he is forced to kill Zod, Superman falls to his knees screaming in emotional pain after having to kill another being. But, regardless of what he was forced to do, and his reasoning for doing it, many Superman fans were insanely upset that he killed Zod. Because Superman would never kill someone. Now this is up to you on whe%ther you are furious about this or not, it didn't bother me, but it was a very controversial point in the film... and a bit of a sour note to end on when you know full well that it's going to be pretty rough among fans.
NOW... we can finally take a breath because the action is over. In the final scene of the movie we get the introduction of Clark Kent at the daily planet. Lois Lane, seemingly the only one who knows his true identity (totally reversed from the original series) They hint that they love affair between the two will continue as Perry White "introduces" Clark to Lois for seemingly the first time, as she responds... "Welcome to the Planet" ...A nice little two way liner there... and there you have it folks "MAN OF STEEL"
Okay, before I even get into this, I'm admittedly a Superman Fanatic but I want to take my shot at pulling out the stinky eye for Man of Steel. The film reboots the Superman franchise following "Superman Returns" which effectively brought the original Superman franchise full circle. Man of Steel was available in 3D and 2D and honestly, I felt the 3D was unneeded except for a few specific scenes, but not enough to write home about. Man of Steel is brought to you by the same people who brought you the Dark Knight series so the bar is set pretty high, they did a wonderful job in promoting the film prior to it's release which is something you come to expect from Christopher Nolan and his team. It's a pretty start studded cast with Russel Crow staring as Jor-El, Keven Costner starting as Jonathan Kent, Laurence Fishburne as Perry White, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Micheal Shannon as General Zod, and British actor Henry Cavill dawning the cape as our new Superman. With the stars to ride the film to the moon and the muscle behind it to make it really go, the expectations are extremely high, even for a Superman fanatic like myself I have to say, those are pretty lofty goals. The problem is when the bar is set so high, it makes it easier to find faults in the film, because you're expecting it to be a flawless masterpiece. Somewhat of a victim of it's own circumstance similar to the Dark Knight Rises. But lets see how unbiased I can be, as we see just how high our new Man of Steel can fly in my review of "Man of Steel" And ...Here... WE... Go!
Let's get this out of the way, they went completely original with the whole story, aside from Jor-El sending Kal-El to earth the story is completely original. Which is nice to see for a franchise that has been lost in limbo for so long. Everything from Krypton, to Jor-El, to General Zod, to go even as far as the legendary Superman "S" and theme has been changed to update this film for a new audience. Only the names stayed the same. Smallville, Metropolise, Kent, Lois Lane, but their are plenty of new faces as well, to keep the story fresh and not just another play on the already created Superman universe. Even the name "Superman" only three times in the entire film is he refereed to as "Superman". Giving it all a more realistic and less comic booky feel to it. Now that I'm done being totally biased lets get on with the review and pull out my critical stinky eye.
The film begins on Krypton, now they spend a great deal of time here, in face with the world they painted they could probably do an entire prequel that takes place on Krypton. The first thing we see is Laura-El giving birth to the man we will come to know as our Superman. Not exactly what I particularly want to see at the onset of the film, but I suppose they want this film to go from the second he was born to where he became Superman. It's not for about fifteen minutes that we find out that Kal-El's is the first natural birth in centuries, because they ... Grow... there young sort of like the Matrix style, but more on that later. In this incarnation Krypton's planetary core is collapsing causing the end of Krypton, rather than their sun doing a supernova and blowing up the joint. Why is the core collapsing you ask? Because they are harvesting it... why? I dunno... What do they accomplish by harvesting the core? I dunno... what does this have to do with this extending the Kryptonian race? Nothing, because it infact causes it's demise. (here comes the stinky eye) The beginning moves fast and loose, so try to keep up. General Zod stages a coup to overthrow the counsel because you know... they harvested the core... to... I dunno. Good for Zod for putting an end to it though before it was too... oh wait never mind, Jor-El just said it was too late for everyone on the planet, everyone is already dead. So never mind...
General Zod wants Jor-El to join him in his coup, indicating that the two were one time friends. Apparently, even though Jor-El was just furious at the counsel for harvesting the core, he refuses to join General Zod... because... I dunno. We find out about this "Codex" something that will be explained or become more confusing as the film goes. The codex is what gives our little matrix babies their designed purpose in life. On Krypton, every child to be born has a specific purpose, and it is stored in the "Registry of Citizens" that is within this Codex. Strangely enough the Codex is a half skull with some strange markings on it.. because... why not? Looks cool enough, they needed a physical codex, so why not be a skull? It really doesnt matter, because the codex only exists for a short time before Jor-El destroys the damn as it vanishes into thin air, as he bonds it with our favorite Superbaby, more on this later. As they try to send away Kal-El to earth General Zod tries to stop the launch but is too late, as he battles with Jor-El who is now wearing some nifty armor. I forgot to mention the face that Krypton looks more like something out of Avitar rather than the ice world we came know from the original series. Which again, is nice to see... Also, like the originals every family has a family crest on their chest, only this is explained more clearly in this film than in past ones. As well as the cape and suite that are more something of their culture than a costume.
During the battle between General Zod and Jor-El, General Zod kills Jor-El in a rage of fury, and Zod orders to shoot down the ship that is carrying Kal-El, but before it can be done Zod's forces are overpowered and they are tried for treason. Something that really makes no sense at all since it would be a worse punishment to leave them on Krypton to die with everyone else than to send them to the Phantom Zone, since Krypton is destroyed moments after they are sent there. (More on that later) We follow Kal's ship to earth but before it crashes we find ourselves jumping forward in time to where Kal has grown into an adult. We'll get to see his childhood, and adolescent years though a series of flashbacks, not unlike his brother film "Batman Begins". Kal-El or Clark as well will start calling him, is working on a fishing boat, under the assumed name "Greenhorn" when they come across a oil rig on fire that is doomed to kill everyone inside it. That is, until out Man of Steel shows up to save the day, he rips the door off its hinges his body burning on fire with absolutely no damage whatsoever. Our bearded hero gets everyone off the oil rig and then as it collapses he jumps up and grabs the falling rig to protect the people from death. This is where the series of flashbacks start of how he has protected and saved the innocent people throughout his young and adolescent years. It's interesting enough stuff, how he was terrified of his abilities as a child, saved a school bus going down in a river, and finding out that he is not of this world. He replies "Can't I just keep pretending I'm your son?" There are more flashbacks that showcase his abilities but they are more for story telling purposes that we will get to later.
There is a particularly fun scene where he is working as a (what looks like) a dishwasher at a restaurant, where he asks an unruly customer to leave only to have the customer throw a beer in his face and give him a good shove...that leads to nothing but an irritated look from our soon to be Superman. The waitress who we assume is his one time girlfriend tells him that it's not worth it, and he leaves. Hours later when the unruly customer leaves he comes out to find his big rig truck twisted and contorted and twisted and hoisted up on two electric poles. This seems a tad petty by our Superman, but hey... can you really blame him? If I could do what he could... I'd probably do it too. We find him hitch hiking moments later because well, lets face it... if you had just done that... could you go back? There would be a lot of questions that need answering, the first of which being... why did he need to cause a black out for a petty move like that? He coulda just smashed it like a tin can rather than pull down poles and cause hundreds of people a power outage! This is however... totally ignored by the film, and its not the only time. Superman in this film, is particularly destructive, and its pretty much ignored for the most part....More on that later.
Through these series of flashbacks its shown that if Clark didn't have such a moral, and caring father Clark could have turned out to be the most dangerous and destructive being on the face of the planet. He could have killed the whole human race if he had an abusive father who never taught his son what it meant to be human. A father that taught him to make a choice about what kind of man he wanted to be. To stand proud in front of the human race or not, Kevin Costner was probably the best person they could have chosen for the role of Jonathan Kent. Lois Lane is played by Amy Adams and she is a vast improvement from Kate Bosworth from Superman Returns. Not that Bosworth did a poor job she just wasn't a good fit for the role. We find our selves in the Artic where both Lois Lane and our favorite alien from Krypton are both looking for an anomaly in a glacier. Clark finds it first leading Lois Lane straight to it. What we find turns out to be an ancient scout ship that Krypton had sent out trying to inhabit new worlds, because Kryptonians are in this film, like all aliens... they want to destroy all life on earth and take it over as their own. Luckily for all of us, they did not destroy the earth long ago, and turn earth into Krypton... More on that later. It's made pretty clear early in this film that Kryptonians not only General Zod are pretty much like all aliens they want to eradicate all life on earth to make the planet their own, with what they call a world engine. It would appear that only the house of 'El is good. The symbol of the house of 'El means 'Hope' and as we all know the symbol of the house of 'El is that big'ol Superman "S" on his chest.
Lois wants to publish her article about "aliens walking among us" but Perry White (Played briliantly by Laurence Fishburne) refuses to publish it out of fear of world wide panic. Lois finds a way to blast it all over the internet anyway...because she's Lois Lane and that's how she rolls. Mean while back on the scout ship Clark's "Command Key" (which all Kryptonians have) activates the guiding presence of Jor-El. This is of course the replacement of the fortress of solitude and the crystals that allow Superman to speak to Jor-El in the original films. Personally I enjoy the idea of the command keys and they continue to play an important role as the film goes. Through his time with Jor-El he finds out who he really is, and gets his Superman suit... from the ancient scout ship... which makes no sense at all, but he needed his Super suit so there ya go. Some great lines from Russel Crow as Jor-El show that he was the perfectly cast for the role. "What if a child dreamed of being something other than what society had intended? What if a child aspired to something greater?" "You will give the people of earth an ideal to strive towards, they will race behind you, they will stumble, they will fall, but in time... they will join you in the sun. In time, you will help them accomplish wonders." Marlon Brando would be proud.
Clark is now Superman, and while he is learning to push his limits he finds out that with great concentration... for now anyway... he has the ability of flight, which he is all to excited to find out. Which is great, because if you learned one day that you could fly... wouldnt you be excited? My only issue with this is, the film makers seemingly obsessive need for Superman to take off with the sound of a gunshot every time he takes off. That gets a tad old... We get one final flashback showing the death of Jonathan Kent, unlike the previous films, where Clark was unable to save his father from a heart attack despite all his amazing powers, we find out something far different. Clark, and Jonathan and Martha Kent are driving in a pickup truck, when a tornado shoots up outa no where... remember we are in Kansas... Tornado Alley... So this was a nice touch. Jonathan, tells Clark to get everyone to the overpass for protection, rather than use his powers in front of everyone. When Jonathan can not escape the tornado he waves Clark off signaling him not to save him. He grew up knowing he let his father die, because it was his father's belief that the world was not ready to see what he can do. It's because of this that Lois Lane suddenly drops her story, because she finds out just why Clark doesnt want his story told.
But by the time she drops it... it's too late, General Zod shows up and tells the world that "You are not alone" in an AMAZING scene where he tells the world that he wants Kal-El to surrender within 24 hours or the world will suffer the consequences. This brings Superman out of hiding, and he surrenders... To mankind... there's a difference. He surrender's to show that he is not an enemy to the world. The world's military has orders to turn Kal-El over to Zod, and Superman tells him that they have to do what they have to do. At first it appears that General Zod is peaceful with Kal-El telling him this is a cause for celebration... not conflict. Unfortunately for our man in the red cape he reject's the ship's "atmospherics" that are compatible to Kryptonians... not humans. Because, Kal-El spent a lifetime adapting to Earth and no time adapting to Krypton's it makes him weak, as he coughs up blood. We enter into a dream sequence where Kal-El finds out Zod's true intentions, to do what all aliens do... destroying earth and taking over. Superman says he can not be a part of it, much to the disappointment of General Zod. One of the ship's scientists takes some of Kal-El's blood to test it, and they find out that Jor-El bonded the Codex within his son's (Superman) individual's cells.
During this time, Lois Lane uses the 'El command key, to activate the Jor-El guidance as he helps her escape the ship, as well as tell her how to send General Zod and his forces back to the Phantom Zone. They use the 'El command key, to modify the ship's atmospherics to compatibility to human's, returning Superman's abilities to him. Jor-El tells Kal-El to strike the panel on the ship breaking it open. Superman asks Jor-El if what Zod was telling him was the truth about Krypton... which it was... but Jor-El knew it was one of the failings of his world, he wanted Kal to be the bridge between two worlds. Now hold on just a moment... It wasnt all that long ago that that Jor-El told the council needed to look to the stars and inhabit other worlds because Krypton's core was collapsing. So... essentially, Jor-El wanted to take over new worlds just as Zod does...*facepalm* Moving on. Jor-El shows him that Lois' escape pod had been damaged, and she needs to be saved... telling him that he can save her... "You can save her Kal... You can save all of them!" Superman strikes the Jesus pose that we all knew he would, because of the parallels between Superman and the religious figure Jesus Chirst, as the earth's savior. He takes off like a bullet (like he always does) flying through the sky in a scene not unlike the airplane scene in Superman Returns. It's done alot faster but I can see the parallels which is not in itself a bad thing because that was one of the best scene's in that film.
Superman saves Lois Lane and if you didn't think we were in high gear just yet, we are about to kick it into high gear. The second half of the film, is pretty much a roaring high gear eruption of fire and fury till the end... and that really doesn't quite say it. This is easily the most action packed Superman film of all time, just when you think they have hit the action into high gear you find out they are about to hit the NOS boosters and it just wont quit. Superman saves Lois Lane, but then flies off like a bullet because he can hear Zod and his crew threatening his mother. Superman flies through in a rage, causing a large amount of destruction along the way. No one seems to care, but they end up in down town Smallville where a major battle is about to take place, now you might think this is the party that leads to the party that will end the film, but no... this is only an appetizer and its about as big as an ending battle. Poor Smallville is all but destroyed, by Superman the villains and the U.S. Military. So... all the destruction can't be blamed on Superman, a large amount of the damage is actually caused by the Military, which isn't all that different from real life. We all know how much the U.S. Government will use any means necessary to win a battle, even if that means sacrificing a little town like Smallvillie.
So the Government FINALLY decides that the man in blue is not their enemy, and decides to use him to help fight the alien invasion. Which is actually pretty cool when you think about it, this film plays out like an alien invasion movie with Superman being the one to save the day. Zod and his insurgents release the "World Engine" to one end of the planet as the main ship lowers over Metropolis. The earth seems a lot smaller here because one machine works in tandem with the other on direct polar opposites of the planet, the World Engine being over the Indian Ocean. As the two ships work together a gravity field crushes everything around it, more and more, further and further as the longer the weapon is active. Crushing cars, people, and buildings as it goes, during this sequence of events we watch people die and buildings fall over, people getting stuck among the rubble of a building still alive. (totally impossible) Since the building are actually tipping over, and not to bring up the one thing no one ever wants to talk about... but if 9/11 showed us anything its that when building's go down, everyone within a certain radius is dead. If someone were to be in the radius and the building tumbles over on top of them, it's squasharoo time.
As this is happening, he find out through the U.S Military that they are now working with Superman to save the planet. In fact we get the only time in the film where they refer to him as Superman. "I'm on with the control tower Colonel Hardy's on the line and he's got Superman in tow. Superman? The Alien sir... that, that's what they're calling him... Superman." Working in tandem with the military now, Superman heads to the Indian Ocean to try to destroy the world engine while the Military readies the ship he arrived in with the command key to use like a bomb. Making the two Phantom Projectors collide with one another will create similar to a black hole and send them back to the Phantom Zone. This is pretty simplistic logic, for what they are trying to do, but just forget about the science of it, because there are no such things as "Phantom Projectors". Now this is where things start to get a bit out of hand, as Superman flys off to destroy the world Engine with it making earth more like Krypton it makes him weaker around it, already making his fight that much harder. He loses control and tumbles and falls back and forth coughing and getting all sick and junk, and then these testicle things come out of the World Engine. Which is entirely unneeded, this film is already by far the most action pact Superman film ever made, which is clearly what they were going for here. He fights the tentacles for a short period of time and then they just throw him down into the beam of the world engine, which they could have just done with him tumbling toward the world engine.
This scene could have been worked better if they would have done something that maybe hit you personally, rather than another unneeded action scene, because believe me we aren't done yet. It would have been better. To make the tentacle fight all the more pointless, it takes all of his Superhuman ability to destroy the world engine standing in the beam, and we even get a nice little throw back to a Christopher Reeves scene as he looks up into the beam. He flies up into the beam crashing through the world engine destroying it as he stumbles through the air practically dead, falling to only God knows where. Zod leaves the main ship and goes back to the scout ship to secure the genesis chamber, and "Pay his respects to an old friend" and by pay his respects... he means telling Jor-El that he is going to harvest the codex from his son's corps and rebuild Krypton on top of his bones... Yup, that's how I would do it too. As Superman is fighting the world engine the government is trying to attack the main ship and is failing miserably, as the missals go crazy in the changed gravity field and blow up buildings, and some of the fighters even flip and flouder out of control and crash into buildings. So... Just want to throw this out there, Superman does cause a fair amount of damage but the U.S. Government and the alien craft does far more. After Superman destroys the World Engine he clings to life by reaching out toward the sun, where he gets his power from. Just as the Colonel Hardy tries to make the drop he is attacked by the Kryptonians, forcing him to crash the bomber into the alien craft to complete the plan. Zod's ship shows up out of no where, and nearly shoots down the bomber, but right before he shoots Superman flys in out of no where crashing through the ship throwing off the shot. Now... Here's another blip on the radar, Zod entered his command key into the scout ship, so just as it happened the first time he was aboard Zod's other craft his power should have been neutralized once aboard the ship... But... "Krypton had it's chance" I guess and Superman lazer vision's through the walls of the ship effectively destroying it as it crashes down amongst the buildings below. Why they couldn't crash the ship in a place that wouldnt have killed thousands of innocent people I dont know, this is a running theme through the end of this film.
The ship crashes, the black hole is created, Superman digs himself out of the rubble caused by the crash and swoops up to save Lois Lane who conveniently falls out of the back of the aircraft and is the only one aboard the aircraft who doesnt get sucked into the Phantom Zone. Superman swoops up and saves her pulling her out of the Black Hole, and saving her from crashing down into the rubble that used to be Metropolis as the alien craft and the bomber disappear. Now youre thinking, its over, look at all the devastation and destruction, there is no way there is more. But wait! There's more! Zod also survived the crash of the scout ship and he crawls out of the rubble, telling Superman that he has taken Krypton from him, so he is going to take each and everyone of the human's he's adopted from him! And now we are on to ROUND 4! Of rock'em sock'em robots! Oh... and Metropolis? You thought it was destroyed? Naaa... There are still plenty of buildings to destroy yet, let's just hope the city was smart enough to evacuate the city before thousands of more lives are lost...because we are about to have a knock down drag out between Zod and Superman, one that flies through the city, up into outer-space, where they destroy a "Wayne Enterprises" satellite for those of you easter egging at home. Only to crash down into a museum where I guess they didnt know the city was being destroyed as Zod targets a family with the intent to kill them with his heat vision. Saying he will never stop, that one of them must die. Now this is where things get a...little complicated... if things were not complicated enough during these destructive action scenes, things are about to get a little controversial. Just put it out point blank Superman kills Zod to save the family... Some people had a HUGE problem with this... I didn't. After he is forced to kill Zod, Superman falls to his knees screaming in emotional pain after having to kill another being. But, regardless of what he was forced to do, and his reasoning for doing it, many Superman fans were insanely upset that he killed Zod. Because Superman would never kill someone. Now this is up to you on whe%ther you are furious about this or not, it didn't bother me, but it was a very controversial point in the film... and a bit of a sour note to end on when you know full well that it's going to be pretty rough among fans.
NOW... we can finally take a breath because the action is over. In the final scene of the movie we get the introduction of Clark Kent at the daily planet. Lois Lane, seemingly the only one who knows his true identity (totally reversed from the original series) They hint that they love affair between the two will continue as Perry White "introduces" Clark to Lois for seemingly the first time, as she responds... "Welcome to the Planet" ...A nice little two way liner there... and there you have it folks "MAN OF STEEL"
Amount of Destruction Caused by the Alien Invasion: 60%
Amount of Destruction Caused by the U.S. Government: 40%
Amount of Destruction Caused by Superman: 10%
Final Thoughts:
Can there be such a thing as too much action, in an action film? This is the question I find myself asking after critically watching this film. After Clark Kent discovers he is Superman, it is literally almost action scene after action scene after action scene. And most of the time battle scenes. You dont really have a chance to catch your breath, and by the time the action is finally over... you are almost relieved. That's not a good thing, they could have easily toned down the devastation and destruction and it would still have been the most action packed Superman film of all time. The level of destruction in Metropolis was devastating, it practically flattened the whole city. Now while you can't really blame this on Superman, because the bulk of the death and destruction was caused by the alien invasion and the U.S. Military it's still WAAAAY too much death and destruction for one film. Marvel's The Avengers had an alien invasion...and a Hulk... who smashes things... and didnt have this level of destruction. The acting was superb, the casting was excellent for every role, it couldnt have been better, but the biggest problem with the film isnt the few "I dont know" moments, the biggest problem was there was TOO MUCH action, TOO MUCH destruction, TOO MUCH death. For the few that Superman managed to save thousands more died. Now, this was something promised earlier in the film when Fiora tells Superman that "For every human he saves they will kill a million more" but you wouldn't expect them to follow through with that! Not to mention pay no attention to it what so ever. They were swinging for the fences here and they swung a little too hard, which is unfortunate cuz they really did have something really special here if they would have pulled back on the throttle just a little.
3.5 outa 5
(I really wanted to score it higher, I saw the film in theaters four times, but there is no ignoring the obvious. This was a good film that had the potential to be great, but was ultimately flawed in a way no one thought was possible... Too much action...)
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