★★★★☆
I am now reviewing Christopher Nolan's take on Superman directed by Zack Snyder,Starring Henry Cavill, Russell Crowe,Michael Shannon,Antje Traue,Kevin Costner,Laurence Fishburne,Amy Adams,Richard Schiff,Aylelet Zurer,Henry Lennix and Christopher Meloni,Music composed and conducted by Hans Zimmer,Story by David.S.Goyer and Christopher Nolan, Screenplay by David.S.Goyer
An image from Superman returns above. The predecessor of Man of steel. Superman returns was like the Batman and Robin or Forever of the Superman franchise and then Man of steel is the Batman begins of the Superman franchise. The film's start is an utterly compelling sequence showing how the planet Krypton was destroyed and why Zod is our primary antagonist. We see that Krypton caused it's own destruction with Russell Crowe's troubled Jor-El trying to avert the disaster and Zod doing what he thinks is right. It seems Zod's view of right has been corrupted and that corruption seems to grow throughout the film. Jor-El after Zod's betrayal takes desperate measures and steals an important object that does become key to the finale. With Zod's forces clashing with the Kryptonian's army Jor-El goes to his child[Superman] and plans to send him away to Earth. Jor has hope in his son and the humans that Kal-El will be treated with respect and his son will be a god to the humans. As Jor cleverly hides the object he stole early in the ship he faces Zod and then in anger Zod kills Jor. Crowe's performance and the storyline at the moment are at top notch and high quality. With the ship heading to Earth and Zod's forces failing to stop the craft the Kryptonian government capture Zod. As Zod is sent to the Phantom Zone, a Krytonian prison Michael Shannon, the actor who plays Zod shows off his villainous skills, screaming in uncontrollable anger at the government and Jor's wife "You think your son is safe." "I will find him!!!!!"
Zod[above]
Jor's wife watches Krypton, her home die from environmental issues and shows us the possible effects of global warming and so on. The end of the planet is utterly heartbreaking and shows that Goyer can show emotions without making it melodramatic. As the craft lands on Earth we cut to Clark[Superman] all grown up working as a fisherman. Clark is now down on Earth working as a fisherman and an outcast. He makes a mistake and the other workers treat him like dirt. You see how it feels to be an outcast in a world that you don't understand. An oil rig has exploded near the boat Clark is working on and rebellious Clark goes into the Oil Rig alone. The look of the oil rig is very realistic and this scene shows similar emotion to the last scenes of Krypton being destroyed . Clark jumps in struggling to hold the crane and then it crashes down on him. Drifting in the water we see what life was like for young Clark in a flashback: You feel his pain,his strange abilities. He sees everything. It is his gift. It is his curse. As Clark struggles to control his powers we see that he is an outsider disrespected by his classmates. We see that he needs someone to comfort him and in the form of Diane Lane he is comforted by his adopted mother. My view of the film so far is brilliant. We cut to Clark looking outside the house and seeing the school bus. We switch to when he's a young boy sitting on the bus all on his own. As a young bully strikes with mild swearing we see a character I have never seen on the big screen before. Lana Lang. Lang is a secondary love interest to Lois Lane in the comics and shown as a young teenager, she's a defensive smart girl.
Then in an intense sequence we see the bus fall off a bridge. The children drowning. You feel their pain as the children are suffering.Then Clark jumps in. Lifting up the bus with all his might we see that young Clark despite the bullying, the hard times and suffering goes in there and saves his classmates and the bully. We cut to the Kent household as the bully and his mother talk with Clark's adopted parents about what happened and they are certainly shocked. The mother and son describe Clark's abilities as 'Olympian'. We see Kevin Costner as Jonathan Kent. Compared to Uncle Ben in the recent Marvel reboot The Amazing Spider-man this character is stronger, has more depth and doesn't say a load of nonsense. Jonathan knows that the world wasn't ready for Clark at that time and when he replies to Clark's answer "What do I do?Let them die!" He replies with "Maybe," I was shocked then. A middle aged man saying that his boy with great power could let innocent children die. He will take any step to not let the world know of his son's abilities. Then we see Clark at the bar drinking away and then we see Clark deal with another bully. We see the bully push Clark around and in a witty sequence we see them fight but Clark just stands there nothing hurting him. Even when the man throws hard glass mugs at him - well they bounce off.
Colonel Hardy and Emil Hamilton[Above]
We cut to the Arctic seeing the first appearance of Enchanted Amy Adam's Lois Lane. Adams is in strong form feisty fiery and perfectly witty. She pushes her way through situations and she does have one key similarity with Clark:She never gives up in what she believes,she never listens to what other people think of her.There is something under the ice and the army composed of Lois Lane,Colonel Hardy and Dr.Emil Hamilton want to find it. As Feisty Lois assembles her gear we see Clark posing as one of the crew and then Lois spots him. As Clark goes inside and finds a massive Kryptonain ship crashed inside the ice. As Clark talks to a hologram of the dead Jor-El. Jor-El explains Clark's origin. Lois sneaks inside the ship and gets hurt sneaking around inside the craft. An unnamed robot attacks her and caring Clark after discovering his origins tends Lois's wound and then he disappears. In a brief but amazing sequence we see Emil and Hardy shocked at the sight of well the alien craft rising from the ice and then Lois becomes even more curious with Clark. She at the minute doesn't know that Clark is her saver and that he is an alien. Lois sends this to the Daily Planet and shows Perry White her article.
Laurence Fishburne who portrays Perry White is a perfectly grumpy jerk. He's stubborn,grumpy and absolutely jerky. He refuses to publish the article because of the level of stupidness. Would you believe that a young man was actually an alien and also publish it in a newspaper. Firstly you'd wouldn't believe it and you would believe it to be a scam,a publicity stunt. Lois doesn't give up on her story. We see Lois hunt down her disappearing hero, asking many people who knew Clark at work and so including the old school bully on the bus. Then she goes to the Kent Farm. Lois goes to the small lonely grave of Jonathan Kent and then Clark appears. Explained in the flashback Clark's abilities/gifts were the reason why his father died. A savage tornado comes that day and the family evacuate the passengers from the stopped traffic getting them to safety. Jonathan stays behind saving the rest of the passengers including the dog and then gets killed in the tornado not allowing Clark to use his powers to save him. The sequence is emotional and when the tornado happened Clark was very rebellious and didn't care for the people who looked after him even if they weren't his parents. The message is if you're adopted or if you're looked after by your uncle, auntie, grandad then for the rest of your life they are the people who make you who you are. They've taught you the lessons, the rights, the wrongs, what to do. Even if they're not your real parents they're still the people who care for you.
The Tornado above with Henry Cavill and Kevin Costner[above]
We cut to the Daily Planet and Lois has a change of heart. She sees Clark's reasons and motivations to why he hides his identity to why he doesn't use his powers and she drops the article. Clark returns to the farm to see his 'mother' and he decides to stay. Then things get a whole lot more complicated. The emotions are high and at the minute the film is not just doing well in the action department but the story department too. Clark is watching football, government satellites are doing the usual and then Zod comes to earth. In a threatening message showing off Zod's sublime villainy we see that Zod has been looking for Clark for a long long time. He threatens the world into handing over Clark and Clark has to make a decision: Hand himself over or watch the world burn.As Clark goes to church he's asking himself questions . The world is in panic. Lois is getting hunted by the FBI.We see what happens when she gets involved with stuff like that. Clark talks to the pastor wondering what to do and then the pastor replies softly "I'd take a leap of faith"Even though a small character I found the pastor a little stereotypical but he's nothing controversial or offensive.
Clark goes and hands himself over. The army standing and looking prepared to fire and Clark just calmly floats down to the ground. As Zod's ship comes down Clark is forced to go down meeting Foara( Zod's wife). Then the flaws of the film come through. Why is Lois on the ship?She is forced to come on yet she is no use to Zod and so on. But before we get to that Clark or Kal meets Zod for the first time. Michael Shannon is still dark throughout the entire film,villainous and willing to do anything for the dead planet of Krypton. David.S.Goyer writer of the film tries to make Zod a sympathetic villain like James Vanderbilt in the Amazing Spider man with Curt Connors. Goyer does it better. Connors wasn't a strong villain it felt like something to just throw in there to keep the movie going while it has run out of ideas while Zod is a driving force for the film a departure from the usual generic villain. As Clark goes up and for the first time in the film franchise Zod doesn't weaken Kal with Kryptonite. The air is his weakness. Kal is not used to the air of Krypton so is partially weakened and Zod meets him in his dreams. Unlike in Batman Begins where Scarecrow was just no use to the story and just used to make Henri Ducard stronger[I would recommend watching Batman Begins for details] we see that the villain's plan is stronger and even the henchmen do their part. Zod has a plan to bring Krypton to Earth and in a nightmarish sequence in Kal's dream where Kal gets sucked into a field of skulls. Now things have got a lot more complicated.
We see Lois get thrown in prison with a special device that Kal got in the chamber earlier in the film. She plugs it into the ship and sees the hologram of Jor. Russel Crowe isn't underused and he certainly has his part to play. As Lois shoots down to Earth inside a pod and Zod is angered by Kal's protection of the humans. Clark goes struggling to save Lois. The pod is heading towards Earth at breakneck speed and we see it land with Kal just about saving it. Now about the romance. It's forced but as the film goes on you feel like they are a couple it's just that the film doesn't spend too much time on the romantic aspect . Some critics have accused Lois of not being the glam reporter as they expected. I think different. Adams gives a different approach to the character, headstrong and fiery and there's a sense of realism. Everything isn't perfect being a reporter. She's being accused of being mad because of this disappearing man but she still believes what she saw and who she saw. That's one of the positives of Goyer's screenplay even if it's not perfect. Kal saves Lois and we see a large fight straight in the middle of Smallville. Foara vs Superman vs the Army. And is it awesome. Finally we see Superman punch and batter and him getting hurt. Foara is an equally strong villain
As Foara throws planes, destroys trucks we see a exhilarating fight. Now some critics say there is a CGI overload. I have to agree. There is a little bit too much CGI. It does hurt your eyes but you still see what's going on, the characters having an epic struggle. It is breathtaking yet a little too much. Henry Cavill's casting caused a lot of controversy but I have to say his performance was the best one yet apart from Christopher Reeve. Now some people compare this to the 1978 original. I have one thing to say: They are both two very different movies. I prefer this one because it's modern day and relatable but I still find the 1978 one a classic. Different villains, different motives, different personalities. The're both two extremely enjoyable movies. I don't blame them for not liking Man of Steel it's just that the're both enjoyable and both extremely different from each other. Cavill shows emotion, anger, tears, he is the Robert Downey Jr of the Superman franchise: The perfect choice for Superman in modern day. Of course Foara has a weakness and she does get her butt kicked by colonel Hardy and missiles but Foara can kick butt, a lot of butt. She's not stereotypical. She's awesome the best female character I've seen in the DC universe. As Foara is weakened we see that Kal has to make choices: a difficult choice none of us would have the ability to make.
Now don't be expecting a Dark Knight be expecting an Avenger scale movie. We see Nolan's abilities that one very convoluted character can become realistic without losing the aliens, the ships or the laser eyes. Until now I've considered Superman a cliche: Strong, invincible not a care, always defeating the villains but this has showed another side to Superman. He has powers, he's invincible but he still has problems but that doesn't mean the movie has to be dark and depressing. He's a symbol of hope. Superman was created in the 1930's the depression era. He is a symbol of hope either then or now. A world engine is sent down to Earth and the epic emotional finale begins. The world is now in fear. Kal now called Superman by a army personnel. Now about the humor. It isn't big on humor but it still has those small moments. It doesn't rely on humor as Iron man 3. It balanced tones and did it right. Well now the finale is exhilarating. As Kal battles the world engine, buildings falling, people dying. Everything is falling apart. Kal struggles to fight the world engine and the army struggling against Zod's forces. We see a little line that Foara says earlier and that Hardy repeats "Death is a reward,"he was right. Everybody plays their part. Even Emil helps. Lois is sucked inside the world engine Kal saving her and destroying the machine. Then Zod goes nuts. I mean nuts. Super nuts. The battle is emotional yet is breathtaking. Zod is still the last of his race. And the score brings everything to life. I would recommend listening to it If you love music by Hans Zimmer on a device or Youtube because it shows off what is going on. At the last intense sequence I saw the most intense and heartbreaking thing: Superman snaps Zod's neck.
We see why Superman screams because Zod was the last of his race,He had no choice and he didn't want to do it. And the ending is awesome. Martha Kent asks "What will you do while you're not saving the world" Clark gets a job at the daily Planet. I like the clever ending because it's true to the comics, it's clever and it's realistic but I have one problem with it. As Clark walks in with his glasses and Lois comes to greet the new recruit we obviously know that she knows that it's Superman. That's the annoying part.
Man of Steel deserves 5 stars because it's enjoyable fun yet action packed and teaches us something important if you look past the CGI and the violence. Man of Steel has it's flaws but it's still enjoyable. Batman Begins taught us that anyone can be Batman,Spider man[2002] taught us that -comes great power comes great responsibility and Man of Steel teaches us that if you're different and you're not popular you can still do great things and should never give up and do the right thing no matter how far people push you.
Superman 1,2,3 and 4 are on DVD now