Movie Reviews: Superman Man of Steel

Man of Steel is showing at Edwards Cinema Stadium in West Covina and Vineland Drive-In Theater in Industry. 

One-sentence plot: A young boy learns that he has extraordinary powers and is not of this Earth.

Rotten Tomatoes viewer score: 84
Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 60

Reviews:

"If you like your summer-movie explosions huge, "Man of Steel" delivers. But it seems as if it might have delivered even more than a glorious noise." Arizona Republic Full Review

"[Cavill is] a superb choice for someone who needs to convincingly convey innate modesty, occasional confusion and eventual strength." Los Angeles Times Full Review

From Athens Patch: 

http://athens.patch.com/articles/man-of-steel-trailer-and-review

Superman is in fine form in director Zack Snyder's Man of Steel, a more serious take on the Last Son of Krypton than we've seen before. The cast is top-notch, the writing crisp (for the most part) and the direction solid and sometimes even inspired. And if the final action setpieces are a bit chaotic, well, what do you expect from a fistfight at supersonic speeds?

Snyder is working in this film from a story by Christopher Nolan, who also produced, and screenwriter David S. Goyer -- the director and writer, respectively, of the Dark Knight trilogy. It's unsurprising, therefore, that Snyder (who himself has serious superhero cred as the director of the brilliant Watchmen) gives us a darker, more serious Superman than we've seen in the past. In between the explosions --which are many and frequent -- this is a movie with stuff on its mind.

The movie opens with the obligatory retelling of the Superman origin myth: Jor-El, brilliant scientist on the doomed planet Krypton, sends his only son blah, blah, blah. At this point, the story is so ingrained in the popular culture that I believe we are born with a genetic memory of it encoded in our DNA. Man of Steel does give us a much more complete version of Krypton than we've seen before, complete with laser-blasting spaceships and saddle-bred dragons. One could nitpick and ask why anyone would ride a dragon when spaceships are available, but that seems petty when the visuals are so stunning.

Russell Crowe makes for a more active Jor-El than Marlon Brando did in 1978's Superman, and the extended opening on Krypton handles the exposition necessary in an origin story without getting too bogged down. Krypton is dying, the victim of an ever-worsening environmental catastrophe. Jor-El and the planet's military leader, General Zod (a frighteningly effective Michael Shannon), are the only two who realize the truth. While Jor-El seeks a peaceful solution to the planet's impending demise, Zod attempts a military coup.

Jor-El launches his only son, Kal-El, into space -- along with a repository of Kryptonian history and genetic information. Zod's coup fails, and he and his minions are sentenced to the Phantom Zone, a kind of alternate-dimension penitentiary. And of course, Krypton explodes.

Cut to Earth, 33 years later. Kal-El is now Clark Kent (Henry Cavill), a mysterious loner who drifts around the world taking odd jobs, keeping a low profile. Clark just wants to be left alone, but when disaster strikes, he feels compelled to help the victims -- which usually results in the display of his super powers and the need to disappear again. In deftly placed flashbacks, we learn why Clark keeps a low profile -- his adoptive parents, Jonathan and Martha Kent (note-perfect performances by Kevin Costner and Diane Lane) teach him in his youth that the world is not ready to accept him.

But a tenacious reporter named Lois Lane (Amy Adams) has gotten wind of Clark's deeds, and she's tracked this mysterious savior down. And wouldn't you know it, so has General Zod, now freed from the Phantom Zone. Zod, it seems, wants to remake Earth in the image of Krypton and regenerate the Kryptonian race using the genetic profiles Jor-El sent along with Clark. As for the people already living on this planet -- well, Zod considers them expendable.

All of this sets up the movie's second half, which basically consists of unrelenting action sequences. Most of these -- particularly a face-off between Clark and Zod's henchmen on the streets of sleepy Smallville, Kansas -- are fantastically realized. When the fight moves to Metropolis, the action can get a bit too frenetic to follow at times, and you may wonder if Snyder is wise to evoke 9/11 imagery quite so pointedly.

But there are enough visual signposts to keep the audience oriented and involved most of the time. And the payoff to all the apocalyptic action, satisfyingly, involves just two people and a wrenching decision faced by Clark. It's a surprisingly intimate end to the mass destruction, and it grounds the action in character.

A word about Henry Cavill, the British actor with the unenviable burden of filling the big red boots worn by the great Christopher Reeve. Cavill doesn't quite take the crown away from the late actor; Reeve's interpretation was definitive, and that's that. But Cavill (whose American accent, thank goodness, is flawless) does surprisingly well in a role so thoroughly embodied by a previous actor.

While Cavill's Clark (and in this flick, he's only ever called Clark or Kal; this early on, Lois hasn't coined the name "Superman" yet) doesn't have the sly, self-deprecating charm Reeve brought to the role, he does have a gravitas that the character wears surprisingly well. His interpretation of Superman highlights the character's loneliness and sense of alienation, without surrendendering to mopey navel-gazing. There's also a real sweetness in his interactions with Adams' Lois, and it'll be interesting to see these two develop their relationship in the inevitable sequels.

And sequels there will assuredly be. Darker and more serious than the Reeve films, but without the emo angst that ultimately scuttled 2006's otherwise-admirable Superman Returns, Man of Steel is a Superman worthy to carry the venerable franchise's torch for the forseeable future.