Geekisms!

Plot Summary:

A young boy learns that he has extraordinary powers and is not of this Earth. As a young man, he journeys to discover where he came from and what he was sent here to do. But the hero in him must emerge if he is to save the world from annihilation and become the symbol of hope for all mankind. 

My Review:

WOW!!

My initial thoughts when I saw the trailers was that this would be a drama/story telling kind of movie with not as much emphasis on the action, just like they did with the Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises. I have never been so wrong in my entire life! Yes there is some focus on drama and story telling but then there is the action and trust me, it's like nothing you've ever seen in a live action movie. Its just like those DC Animated movies based on Superman in terms of the scale of destruction and power displayed, only made to look like it's happening in real life, not a cartoon. My constantly reoccurring thought was "If they turn this into a Justice League story line, how is Batman supposed to make an impact in this universe?"

The whole movie doesn't follow a linear story path but oscillates between past and present, telling the story of how the son of Krypton came to be the man of steel. We also get to see a lot more of Krypton that previously shown in any other movie. I guess when you get star power like Russel Crowe to play Jor El (Superman's dad), you've got to make the most of his presence and boy does he deliver the goods. But he's not the only one though, Henry Cavill does the very convincing portrayal of an alien trying to come to terms with how very different he is from everyone else and what he should do with all this power. And Zod!! I think his was the most impressive portrayal in the whole movie, Micheal Shannon just killed it. You can see his passion and emotional turmoil as he has to perform his duties to preserve Krypton, no matter the consequences. Amy Adams was a tad unconvincing as Lois Lane but I guess we can forgive this because it didn't really affect the overall outcome.

The story does take a slightly different path from what is established as canon in the comics but it works out well and anyone who isn't an avid comic book fan will be able to jump right in. However, I'd very much like to see what will be done in the sequel based some of the choices made here, most especially with regards to his identity and how he will hide it. The musical score? Well, what do you expect? It's Hans Zimmer, of course it will be epic, blending perfectly with the mood of the story which is kind of brooding and serious, unlike the jaunty score of movies past.

Man of Steel is a well put together package. Zack Snyder, Christopher Nolan and David Goyer have put together what is indisputably the best Superhero movie released till date. Josh Whedon did a great work with  the Avengers but this is on a whole different level. It's a good thing Iron Man 3 came out when it did because  if it came out later, it would have gotten far worse ratings. A new standard has been set for super hero movies and I'm beginning to wonder if the Marvel cinematic universe will be able to meet up.

My Rating:

9.5/10