Review: Man of Steel

Good day all. As I mentioned last week, I decided to see Man of Steel, the latest “reboot” of the Superman franchise. I have to say I actually liked it. Now I’m not saying it was the best version ever, it wasn’t. There’s plenty in this movie that will drive the purists absolutely nuts when they see it. Now, as always, there will be spoilers. If you don’t like spoilers, leave now.

Still here? Don’t say you weren’t warned! Now, I didn’t go to my usual theater. This time I went to an AMC theater. This is where I was going to see World War Pitt Z last week when things changed. The theater had been renovated recently and they pulled out the older seats and replaced them with powered Barko loungers. They were quite comfortable once you figured out the controls. Of course, since these seats take up a lot more space, you pay more to see the movie. Oh well.

Now on to the movie. It starts out as expected on Krypton with mommy and daddy superman. Mom is in the process of giving birth to the future Superman. This segment was one I rather liked. It went into far greater detail of Krypton then any of the other movies and television series. The special effects were quite good and they brought in General Zod and his group of evil henchmen. However, they actually made Zod somewhat sympathetic.

Now, here is one of the first breaks from the traditional Superman. In every instance, Superman’s parents die together when Krypton goes KABOOM! Not this time. Jor El, Superman’s real father, is killed by Zod during his attempted coup. That’s one that is going to set off the purists. In any case, bad guy Zod is captured and he and his minions win an express ticket to the Phantom Zone. Meanwhile, Superbaby is ON HIS WAY!! Wheeee!

And here is where a few things go a little wonky. We find Superman as Clark, all grown up and working on a fishing trawler in Alaska? Huh? Then a cook in a diner and finally as part of a crew in the wilds of the frozen north. In comes Lois Lane, annoying reporter for the Daily Planet. Seems there is a

ship frozen in the ice. Everyone thinks it’s an old Russian sub.

Lois goes outside and see’s someone walking along the face of the ice cliff. She follows and finds an opening melted into the ice. As expected she heads on it. Deeper inside is Clark, melting the ice with his heat vision. He reaches the ship and starts exploring. There is some sort of sentry drone, but when Clark puts his thumb drive into the computer, it backs off and up pops Daddy!

They wonder off as Jor El explains the facts of life to Clark. In wonders Lois who starts taking pictures. The drone doesn’t think this is a good idea and destroys her camera and starts to destroy Lois. Clark runs back and trashes the drone and saves Lois. He takes her off the ship and then takes off IN the ship for other points.

Lois starts tracking him down and finds Clark’s Earth Mother. And then Clark arrives. Here is another datapoint to drive the purists bonkers. LOIS KNOWS WHO SUPERMAN IS!! THE HORROR! Interspersed with all this is the back story of Clark as a boy and how different he is. He saves a few people even though it puts his secret at risk. Clark’s Father says maybe he should have let them die. The back story continues and we see Clark’s father bite the big one. And here is another one to drive the purists nuts. As everyone knows, Jonathon Kent dies of a heart attack. A tragedy because, with all his powers, Clark couldn’t save him. Not this time.

This time we have a tornado and Jonathon and Clark start getting people under a bridge for protection. Jonathon saves a child and then goes back to save their dog. However, the tornado arrives. Clark is all set to save his Dad, but Jonathon shakes his head to keep him from showing his true self. GAAAH!

Meanwhile, Lois has decided to bury the story to protect Clark. (Must have learned how when covering up negative Obama stories) We have the “Superman learning about what he can do” scenes, but not him out saving the world. Then comes Zod!

It seems that when Krypton went KaBlooey. He and his minions were freed from the Zone. They pick up the distress signal from the ship Clark stole…recovered and come figure out that Jor El’s kid, Cal El is on Earth. Zod wants to turn Cal El into road kill and he also wants some tech Jor El hid so he can restore Krypton.

Zod and his happy crew of psychopaths show up and signal to the world that one of their people is on Earth and they want him. Needless to say, no one has a clue what he’s talking about. Zod, being Zod, threatens global destruction of Cal El isn’t turned over to him. Our friendly Federal Government figures out that Lois knows who this guy is that Zod wants and as you would expect, pick her up and threaten all sorts of things like charging her with treason.

Clark, now in his Superman duds without the read jockey shorts turns himself in. The military cuffs him and turns him over to Zod. Small problem. They also want Lois. No problem and off she goes. (Civil rights? Constitution? HAH!) Lois can’t breath the air so they giver her a really cool helmet. It’s the same problem for Zod and the others. They can’t handle Earth’s environment so they were armored suits. Since they aren’t being exposed to our world directly, they don’t develop superpowers. With the suits, they really don’t need them. (Eat your heart out Tony Stark)

Clark gives Lois his thumb drive which she figures out how to use. Up pops Super Dad who now speaks fluent English. He tells Lois how to stop Zod and then helps her escape. Not bad for an AI. Lois gets off the ship in a damaged escape pod. Superman, who has suffered a serious loss of super powers since he is being exposed to his natural environment, (Kryptonite? What’s that?) Superman regains some of his power and gets through the ship. The dad AI stays behind to cause trouble. Zod isolates the program and then argues with it followed up by a big push on the Delete key. Funny how Jor El didn’t make backup copies.

Zod, while with Superman, tells him just what he has planned. He is going to terraform Earth into a new Krypton. Superman of course is not in favor of wiping out the human race. Zod chases down Clark into Smallville and tries to find the tech he wants so he can restore Krypton. He finds the pod Clark arrived in, but it doesn’t have what he wants. He kicks a pickup into Clark’s house and roughs up him mom a bit.

Of to Smallville to discuse matters with Superman. Meanwhile in comes the military with orders to kill them all and lot God sort them out. They start a strafing attack with A-10’s which have almost not effect other then to annoy Zod and the others. They promptly trash Smallville and wreck take out the A-10’s. The soldiers put up a fight but they can’t get through the armor. (Why does this surprise anyone?) The commander is reduced to fighting one of Zod’s people with a knife. Very honorable but useless. The Hellfire missile the surviving A-10 launches is far more effective, stunning Zod’s deputy.

Back to the ship they go and release the “World Engine!” It lands in the Indian ocean. Zod’s ship hovers of Metropolis. On comes the World Engine and massive energy pulses start destroying the city. The terraforming has begun!

Superman finally gets on the good side of the generals and he’s off to try and wreck the World Engine. Lois, using the information Jor El gave her, takes Clark’s baby pod and with the help of the heroic commander, turns it into a thing that will flip Zod and his cronies back ito the Phantom Zone.

And now the next major “NOOOOO!!” for the purists. Metropolis is the battlkeground between Zod and Superman. Zod has figured out about the powers thing and is now a match for superman. What happens next is what drives the purists nuts.

Usually when Superman fights a villain in a city, there is just a small amount of damage. Nothing some duct tape, SuperGlue and a little paint can’t fix. Not this time. Between Zod and Superman, along with the World Engine, it like repeated tactical nukes going off. Buildings falling and thousands of people getting slaughtered.

Meanwhile, Lois, a scientist and the colonel who led the attack in Smallville are flying a transport with Clark’s ship in it. Lois is trying to get the thumb drive to seat properly. As expected, the Zod’s people attack and tear the plane up. The scientist figures out how to seat the thumb drive. (He shifts the lock or something) and the device is armed.

While all this is going on. Superman is trying to wreck the World Engine. Since the area around it is being turned into Krypton II, he’s having some issues. That and the damn thing is fighting him. He is unable to get to it. He finally whacks it, and in Metropolis, Zods second in command slaughters everyone and heads into the cockpit. He faces her with contempt as the transport hits Zod’s ship and transports it back to the Phantom Zone. Lois, of course, falls out the back of the plane without a chute. Superman, of course, arrives and saves her.

While all this is going on, Zod shows up with the other ship from earlier in the movie. He tells Superman he can’t destroy it since it will be the end of any chance of a new Krypton. Superman trashes it. He and Zod go at it with the climatic scene being Zod in a headlock, trying tp use his heat vision on a family trying to get away. And here is were we have the final “NOOO!!!” from the purists. Superman snaps Zod’s neck, killing him.

All is well now. Or is it?

In the next scene, we have the General who was dealing with all this driving along when a drone crashes in front of his car. His driver slams on the brakes, and they get out. Superman arrives and the general tears into him about the cost of the drone he just destroyed. Superman says that it’s a waste of time trying to find where he hides out, and that he is a loyal American. The General’s driver, a female captain, smiles and Superman flies away. The general asks her what’s so funny. “Nothing sir. I just think he’s hot.”

Next, we have Clark walking into the Daily planet in his patented Clark Kent disguise. he’s now starting a job there and Perry White introduces him around. Lois looks up and of course, she knows who he is. She smiles and says “Nice to meet you.”

And that’s pretty much it.

Now, as I said at the start, I liked the movie. I didn’t love it. It was acceptable, say three out of five stars. From what I’ve heard, it’s either people hate it or they think it’s ok. One thing I absolutely detested was the director’s use of the “ShakyCam” style of photography. They use this to make it look like the action was filmed by a hand held camera. Unfortunately, far to many directors insist on using this and Zack Snyder, the director of this movie, really overused it. I literally had to turn away to avoid motion sickness. He was using it in scenes that it flat out didn’t call for it. I really wanted to take that camera and shove it up his ass, just to make it stop.

Directors who use the shakycam method are lazy. I can only see using that technique if the scene involves an action sequence WITH an actor playing a cameraman. Even then, a real cameraman will do all he can to avoid “ShakyCam Syndrome” so he doesn’t mess up his shot. Ugh.

So, do I recommend this movie? Sort of. It’s a good matinee movie. It will do well on Netflix or Showtime. I wouldn’t bother with it on DVD or Pay Per View. So there you have it.

Thatisall

~The Angry, (and slightly nauseous), Webmaster~

(1 votes, average: 1.00 out of 5)

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