Starring: Henry Cavill, Amy Adams and Michael Shannon
Directed by: Zack Snyder
Rated: PG 13
Running time: 2 hrs 23 mins
Warner Brothers
Our Score: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Warner Brothers has brought Superman back with the “Man of Steel” and it is better than ever. This movie will definitely revitalize the franchise. They obviously think so being that they already have “Man of Steel 2” in the works.
The movie starts out on Krypton with the birth of Kal-El. His father Jor-El (Russell Crowe) warns the planets elders of the destruction of their world which General Zod (Michael Shannon) interferes with. They did a great job showing more of life on Krypton and its technology. General Zod tried to convince Jor-El to join him but of course Jor-El refuses which leads to a good confrontation and build up.
Kal-El is sent to Earth to survive and give hope to the human race. We are now seeing a mature Kal-El aka Clark Kent living on earth trying to just blend in. Of course he gets pulled into doing some heroics which eventually leads him to look back on his life and the meaning of his existence. The way the mix the story of the young Clark Kent to the man he is in the film is very well done that it did not matter that we knew what was going to happen. Kevin Costner did an excellent job as Jonathan Kent even he didn’t have much screen time. It was just enough and not too much but did lay the ground work for Clark’s upbringing.
Lois Lane (Amy Adams) gets word of a mysterious person who saved people and follows the trail that will eventually lead to the Man Of Steel. I feel that their relationship was quick and didn’t build on it much and could have used more time. Now let’s get to Michael Shannon as General Zod. He did an amazing job and was very scary. You can reason with and see why he is so angry. After all he just wants to preserve the Kryptonian way of life.
Last but not least let’s talk about Henry Cavill as the Man of Steel. He has a very good strong presence about him and showed some good emotion as a being from another planet just trying to blend in with the world. Throughout the movie he is called Clark Kent or Kal-El. They did not call him Superman except for once in the movie.
The fights scenes were great and definitely worthy of the Man of Steel. They were fast, strong, and powerful. The special effects were great and smooth. I was able to see it in 3D and felt that it didn’t add anything to the movie but it didn’t take away from it either. At the end of the movie after the final confrontation my mouth just dropped and didn’t believe what I saw. This is a must see and I do not believe that the Superman fans will be disappointed.