Man of Steel

This blog will be reviewing movies. First one I’m going to do is Man of Steel as I watched it on Wednesday. I’ll tell you what I think, you can agree or disagree, I’m not an expert but I do have some opinions which I’ll attempt to write in an amusing and coherent manner....

The most interesting thing I thought I knew prior to watching this movie was the Kryptonite was invented mainly as a means for the, then radio, actor Bud Collyer to take time off as Superman was presumably ill due to all that bad green stuff. Now I know that an “S” isn’t in fact an “S”. Instead it stands for hope. Possibly this is a bit corny. I really hoped when going to see the movie that Russell Crowe wouldn’t be doing an accent, however I was assured that what he used in Man of Steel was meant to be an English one. So to me, an “S” remains an “S”.

You could tell for parts of the movie that Goyer and Snyder were really trying to sell Superman, sorry Man of Steel, as a new entity. The much elaborated back story of his own planet and some resolution of some of the daddy issues that had been much too prevalent in the preceding Superman films gave this movie a more updated feel. Superman still doesn’t like to talk though. For this reason it was hard to effectively analyse Henry (Henners from now on) Cavells acting properly, for the five lines he spoke, he did well. The skulls part was interesting and, I thought, a good depiction to people watching that General Zod was the bad guy and if anyone had any doubt at this point, planned to kill humans. Henners looked pretty sad when drowning in these skulls, even though he knew this wasn’t reality and presumably couldn’t feel guilty about an event possibly happening sometime in the future. Just saying, anger might have been a better emotion to choose, you know like when you let your dad die in a hurricane Henners.

Two more problems, I’ll cover them briefly. First, the writers meeting went like this – We want Henners and his mum to live, but his dad to die, how do we do this with meaning? Have him saving the dog from a car in a hurricane? Yeah possibly, but wouldn’t Henners save him? Nah, we’ll write that bit after lunch, maybe his dad will just look determined and Henners will understand?

Second (two sub sections). Very smart civilisation, why did they stop exploring? Sure, rest on your laurels and enjoy your cavernous expanse of a burnt out planet, but surely someone was suggesting pissing about on flying dragon creatures and making babies underwater wasn't all they should be doing? Also, did no-one there think for a second maybe we should cover everyone is random black goo and transport up off the planet really fast in unfortunately-shaped capsules? Nah, probably just do that for the prisoners. Make sure the ship they are on has the resources for them to be able to convert it into a multi-purpose vehicle for space exploration though...

There are a few more but those were my main concerns. In case you are thinking right now, this review isn't going well, I did actually quite like the movie. Here’s why.

Henners was very hench, always nice to see a hench superman (looking at you Dean Cain). Appropriate. I felt a lot of the updates worked, Louis Lane was less annoying than in previous movies and Fishburne made a good Perry White, although a bit of cursing wouldn't have gone astray. As a side note in case of alien attack I will not wait for my boss to tell me to leave the building. Sorry boss, but I will be gone. The Henners relationship with his parents gave more connection to the character and I enjoyed his early days in Smallville and his struggles to control and not to unleash his powers. The actions scenes didn't grossly take over the film and fight scenes were appropriately large-scale.

Highlights – Henners bod. Special effects (except when he leaps across the burning oil rig). Family values. Camera angles. Russell Crowes beard.

Low-lights – Story line in parts. Russell Crowes accent.

Verdict – 6.5/10