I haven't put my thoughts to (electronic) paper in a while due to the fact that I haven't seen any movies that needed to be praised or, at the other end, put in it's place. Man of Steel is one of those movies, but which is it?
Enough with the superhero/comic book movies already. Is anyone else sick of these but me? Judging by the money these things make, I guess not. I don't see the fun in watching a movie where you know the outcome every time. Will Spiderman, Ironman, Superman, Wolveriene, Batman, etc, ever die or lose? No. And it's not just about the ending, even the journey for these movies is repetitive. Take a smarmy and sarcastic hero, add a hot chick, add villain, throw in some humor and a ton of CGI scenes and you got a hit! When people finally start to get sick of these movies they may do something as drastic as kill off a hero, but that is still a long ways away. Until then, I have to keep ignoring most comic book movies, even though I've always been a fan of the comic books.
With that being said, why is it then, that I actually enjoyed Man of Steel while most critics and viewers panned it? I've actually never appreciated the Superman character before. How much sympathy and interest is there for a man who is unbeatable and perfect in every way? I never cared for him, Batman was always my answer for the obligatory nerd question, "Superman or Batman?". Everything was in place for me to hate this movie but I didn't. Why not?
Man of Steel, directed by Zack Snyder, has heart, which is surprising, for a movie about a hero from outer-space. There is never a point where I thought Superman will lose, but I did feel the weight of his decisions and the destruction of the battles. The movie has flaws but I think they are overshadowed by the high quality production of the movie.
The script isn't the movies strong point. The dialog isn't witty, humorous or smart, it's all serious and straight forward. There are a few too many corny 80's movies type lines that made me cringe. The one thing the script does well, is breaking up the usually painful origin story portion of the movie. When you first meet Superman, he is an adult and trying to blend in as a human and although the audience knows who he is, the humans don't. You get bits and pieces of his childhood and his superhero progression as the movie unfolds but it never takes you out of the current story being told. This non-linear story telling isn't done so as a novelty but more so to keep the pace up and to add some heart when needed. It is a difficult task to have heart in a film when it is all action, but this method of story telling helps bring added heaviness to the otherwise story-less scenes.
The acting isn't really great either, but as mentioned above there isn't much acting to do. Most of the important acting is done by Kevin Costner, Dianne Lane and Russel Crowe who all do a really good job. However in this 2.5 hour run-time of a movie, they make up about .5 of it. The rest is all Henry Cavill (who is this guy), Michael Shannon and Amy Adams, and they are usually just yelling, or grunting or strangely coughing during action sequences. Although I like Shannon, he doesn't do anything spectacular here. With that said, I really did enjoy his character. General Zod is the heel of the film but he isn't just an annoying psychopath looking to take over the world, (cough Loki cough cough). He has some good reasons for his actions and it all works within the story and plot. Henry Cavill didn't impress me, except for how jacked he is. I'm in love with Amy Adams but she also doesn't go any extra miles with her character. Much of her character's plot is very contrived and only exists to push the story forward. I wish they could have saved her character for the sequel.
The direction and production is top notch. I like Zack Snyder's work and he is quickly becoming one of my favorite directors. I mentioned that there was a heart and weight to this film and I contribute that to Snyder. Filmed beautifully, the movie doesn't feel like a blockbuster when it isn't being one. The techniques, camerawork and music used during the flashbacks really take hold of your emotions and connect you to the characters. With that said, the action sequences are amazing in their own right. There are occurrences of silly or tedious fight scenes but over all, when a building falls, the devastation is felt and when a punch is thrown it is seen and heard like a building falling. I'm not one for an over heavy action movie but for whatever reason, it works here.
I hated The Avengers, never cared for the Iron Man's and refuse to watch another Spiderman movie ever again. These movies are pure fluff and are made for twelve year olds. Maybe this is why when I was a kid I was a Marvel fan. DC comics are taking the right steps with their Superhero movies, I hope Marvel can follow suit...even though I am the only one who thinks it's time they do.
A quick look at Critic's reviews of comic book movies.
Rottentomatoes score:
Amazing Spider-Man: 73%
The Avengers: 92%
Ironman 1,2,3: 93%, 73%, 78%
Thor 77%
Incredible Hulk 67%
Captain America 79%
Superman Returns 75%
Man Of Steel 56%
Ugh...
