Man of Steel

Superman returned this summer to the big screen and I had the opportunity to see it this weekend. The good news is this movie certainly surpasses the previous disasters of superman 3 and 4 along with the most recent disaster Superman returns. Of course that's not saying much this those movies were pretty awful. Minor spoilers will follow on general plot points so if you want to know nothing before seeing the film stop reading now. Otherwise continue on to read my thoughts on the Man of Steel's return to the big screen.

Superman has never looked better flying through the air

I do think this was a successful reboot of the Superman franchise but the movie also has a few flaws that keep it from the upper echelon of superhero movies. Origin stories are hard to pull off since so much of the movie has to be spent introducing elements of the character and world. Thankfully with this reboot the film makers realized that Superman was a rather iconic character that I would surmise a majority of movie goers would have an idea of who the man was so while the story still involves a lot of back round on Superman's past its told in bits and pieces leaving the rest of the movie and plot to breath which was a smart decision.

The opening scenes involving the downfall of Krypton were beautiful and tragic and probably were some of my favorite parts of the movie. None of the scenes on Earth managed to match the beauty of Krypton even if the movie in general was as epic and grand as you would expect a Superman movie to be.

From there we bounce quickly around setting up some key scenes in Clark Kent's upbringing while bringing the equally iconic Lois Lane into the story and bringing General Zod forward in time to be an effective antagonist in the movie. In fact most of the actors were very effective in the movie with their roles including both father figures that played  into predictable outcomes we have seen before but done with enough added touches that they felt fresh and unique to this Superman experience. And while he may never approach Lex Luthor the choice of Zod was a good one here to connect Krypton's story the Clark and while never truly memorable there were moments were Zod was truly an intimidating force and worthy opponent for Superman first foray into battle a super villain with comparable powers.

 One of the qualms of the quick approach to story telling is that there isn't a whole lot of time to linger on some of these moments so the sense of impact feels lost because as soon as you start to feel something your quickly moving on to the next part of the movie which may very well have been unavoidable without making a very long movie or leaving out much time for Superman to be his true self.

The payoff  is that for the last hour or so we are treated to several battles involving Superman at his finest. His first battle against two Kryptons was really well done and the impact of all the moves was fun to watch. This really is the first movie that the fight scenes feel like they could come right from the comics of Superman since unlike say Batman who has relatively more cerebral fight scenes Superman tends to have more grand clashes involving tons of destruction and till now special effects just weren't at the proper level to convey these scenes. By the final battle it was starting to wear a little thin with how many times Superman crashed through a building but the final touch on the battle brought the idea of Superman protecting his humanity back full circle in a nice way and I thought set things up nicely for the future DC Universe wherever its headed next and at the end of the day that's probably the biggest thing this movie had to accomplish.

There were a few other flaws that did hamper certain parts of the movie. On a minor note some of the scenes involving the humans from the military or Daily Planet felt unnecessary and boring in comparison to other scenes and while its nice to be reminded of the human plight when you switch to seeing Superman and Zod destroying building after building it makes those scenes seem rather insignificant and silly. They easily could have been left out with no consequence. Perhaps the biggest flaw to the movie though was Lois Lane. First off while I think Amy Adams is a great actress she doesn't fit the image I have of Lois Lane. Now I don't mind that fact as much as the idea that we didn't get a lot of chemistry between Lois and Clark. There were a few nice scenes but their relationship just wasn't given a large enough time to develop in the movie leaving some of their final scenes to feel a little forced. Hopefully in the inevitable sequel more time can be spent on their relationship since it is a very important part of who Clark Kent is and given how much material had to be covered for the origin I can let this flaw pass in hopes that the sequel builds on the solid foundation made here.

Could these two iconic heroes finally grace the big screen at the same time in the future. Lets hope so!

So all in all this was a fun movie and anyone that is a fan of Superman or comic books in general  owes it to themselves to see it. While not perfect there is a lot to like about this new adaption including some fantastic fight scenes and a very comic book like feel to the atmosphere that is sure to please many fans. Lets hope this is just the beginning of a well thought out DC Universe set of movies that can compete with the juggernaut of the Avengers in the future. For now this was a good first step but there is a long way to go to truly honour these iconic characters. For now Ill take enjoyment on another solid late spring action flick and a fresh start for Superman that is faithful and enjoyable for audiences young and old alike.