Man of Steel

I

It's been a while since I've done a review on my blog but hey, it's never too late to start back up again.  Let me begin by saying that I give the movie an 8 out of 10 overall.  

Portraying Superman is difficult and I think the franchise has struggled for a while with this.  How can you have an unbeatable man, then create a BELIEVABLE situation where the hero really struggles?  The creators of this version of Superman tried to overcome this problem by providing a rich back story which they spent a good amount of time on.  In my opinion they were probably as successful as they could be with this and I liked the focus on the back story before Superman even gets to Earth.

I liked the beginning part of the movie (after the back story) very much.  Superman jumps from scene to scene, trying to stay under the radar but unable to overcome his urge to help people.  This part of the story is aided by flashbacks to Clark's childhood which I think effectively add to the back story.  The only part about this that I wasn't impressed with is that I didn't respect and care about the Kent's as much as I have in other incarnations of Superman.  Martha and Jonathan Kent are supposed to be a huge part of what/how/why Superman is and I just didn't feel their contribution much in this film.  I hate to say it, but I didn't really feel the loss when Jonathan Kent died and the scenes with Martha I couldn't help but feel annoyed with her for some reason.

They throw Lois and Clark together in a twisty sort of way that was surprising and refreshing.  I like the fact that Lois knew who Superman was even before Superman fully knew who he was himself.  Amy Adams made a great Lois Lane.  

The villain was powerful, believable, and unknown, keeping even big Superman fans interested and guessing at what exactly was going to happen.  Obviously we missed Lex (noticed the few nods to Lexcorp in the film) but I actually preferred that Lex was not the villain of this movie.  

The action was great even though some of the scenes were a little unbelievable (particularly very tall buildings toppling over like trees when in reality they would collapse downward).  I don't feel like the action was forced at all and the scenes flowed very naturally.

I know that we've already established that the council of Krypton are morons, but if their prisoners escape their planet's destruction, couldn't they have escaped the destruction somehow?  Anyway, just a little confused about that.

The biggest drawback in this movie (in my opinion) is that it wasn't funny.  I understand that this movie was not meant to be a comedy, but superhero movie fans have come to expect punny, cheesy moments as well as well-constructed wit but this movie lacked a lot of that.  There were really only a few moments where this was felt, and only briefly.  The best of these moments was the last two lines of the movie which were just great.

Overall I liked the movie and I would watch it again.  I will plan on buying it this Christmas as a stocking stuffer for myself.