MAN OF STEEL FILM REVIEW

Release Date: 14th June 2013

Age Certificate: 12

Running Time: 143 mins

Director: Zach Snyder

Writers: David Goyer and Christopher Nolan

Stars: Henry Cavill, Amy Adams and Michael Shannon 

Yes this film has explosions, yes this film has Russell Crow in and yes this film is badass. But is it any good. You’ll find out soon enough. 

This film is written by David Goyer, who has also helped write The Dark Knight franchise. Man of Steel is also produced by Christopher Nolan, who directed The Dark Knight franchise. So in theory this film should kind of be like The Dark Knight franchise, but is it? Well, to put it frankly no, no it isn’t. Man of Steel is directed by Zack Snyder, who has bought us 300 and Watchmen. What do those two films have in common? Great visuals. So nothing much has changed there, Man of Steel looks superb. Perhaps, the special effects are a little too over the top but it doesn’t spoil the experience.

I believe the team of Man of Steel has done a great job trying to reboot the franchise, especially in the costume department as he isn’t wearing his pants over his latex. The main part of what lets this film down is its story and common sense. For example how come the almightly Superman can’t breathe in the atmosphere of his original home planet but can yet breathe in space. These little things always annoy me, but I won’t dwell on it.

 

The action scenes are well shot with not too much shaky cam. I hate shaky cam. The only worry I had with the action scenes were that they did seem to go on for a tad too long. When you thought they were all over another fight started. If they wanted to the film could have been two hours long but by the time it had finished it was ticking on to be two and a half hours long.

The story has a few points. Krypton is dying so the only chance to keep their race going is for Russel Crow , Jor-El, to send his newly born baby, Kal-El (Superman) to a distant planet called Earth. General Zod is not happy about this. General Zod and Jor-El both have the same intentions but go around them differently. That intention is to carry on their race. When Kal-El settles in to his new planet he has tough time controlling his powers. So because of this he hasn’t had a smooth ride. During the time on Earth a woman starts to become suspicious of him, Lois Lane, played by the wonderful Amy Adams. I’m not going to too much else in that section otherwise I’ll give away too much information. However, when General Zod finds Kal-El’s new planet he threatens Earth. He says that it will be destroyed if this ‘alien’; Kal-EL does not surrender. From there on in all hell breaks loose. This sounds like just another superhero storyline, that’s because it is. And to be fair it does a pretty good job of being a superhero flick. 

 

I enjoyed Man of Steel; it had lots of explosions and a man in spandex, like any other Superman film. However, the only thing that stayed on my mind after leaving the cinema was how I was going to get rid of my banging headache.

7.5/10