Review - Man of Steel

Man of Steel - A new superman is born in the image of Henry Cavill. As the world comes under threat, Superman must act fast before a new Krypton is born, and the entire human race is wiped out for good.

Hey Everyone

Welcome my newest film review, today I'll be telling you my thoughts on the new superman movie 'Man of Steel' Directed by Zack Snyder and Produced by Christopher Nolan.

SPOILER ALERT: As I do before I begin all my reviews, I give a warning out that I am going to reveal some spoilers, so if you haven't seen 'Man of Steel' yet, then I suggest you go and see it quick, and then read this review afterwards.

The Film arrived in the UK and in the USA on the 14th of June 2013.

Before I'll begin this review, I have wonderful things to say about 'Man of Steel' and terrible things to say about 'Man of Steel'. After watching it, I thought it was a very decent film indeed. after the disappointment of the Brandon Routh movie, I think Superman fans will be pleasantly surprised with 'Man of Steel' to know that they finally have a decent Superman movie. the film has a lot depth and back story and has a lot of relation to the comic strips.

I for one am very pleased with the fact that 'Man of Steel' didn't try and go down the path of other superhero movies, it stayed true to the story of superman and told a pretty decent story, it wasn't fantastic but it was good enough to please the viewers.

The Story is about a young boy who learns that he has extraordinary powers and that he did not originate from this Earth. As a young man, he journeys to discover his true purpose in life, and to find out where he came from and what he was sent here to do.

As the past comes back to punish earth, the hero in Clark Kent / Kal El must emerge if he is to save the world from annihilation and become the symbol of hope for all of mankind.

Now I'll be honest as a storyline it was ok. I personally thought things took their course and were a bit slow.

I thought it was rather annoying that there was interchanges between scenes. you'd be in one place in the film and then something would happen which would result in a flashback, then your back to where you were in the film before the flashback took place. This occurs quite a few times in the film, and I thought it was unneccacry.

Certain effects were good, if you go an see this in 3D the effects are just amazing. They come alive and come true to the viewer watching on screen, which I think is one of the tremendous advantages of 3D, It helps covey a message which makes the film a bit more real, and it a bit more a visual experience. for example the tornado creation, I thought was incredibly impressive. It made a very heart felt scene feel real.



I thought the costumes, and the whole set up of the planet of Krypton was very convincing for the viewer to believe they were seeing another planet.

It was authentic and very impressive, the dark buildings gave off a harsh atmosphere. This is turn reflected the mood of the Krypton civilization as they are incapable of empathy destroying the human race, with no compassion.

However in contrast to that, a lot of the fight sequences particularly one that takes place between superman, two of the villains and the army. that fight sequence went on for far too long, so long in fact that It just lost my attention. I look back on that fight scene and I think 'you know what, this didn't need to be as long as it was' it was exaggerated and about 10% of that fight scene could of been cut down, and it still would been as exciting and heavy action packed.

All it is is just things going boom, planes and helicopters getting ripped apart, people screaming and Superman getting thrown around like he's a rag doll. It was pathetic. I was very disappointed with the fight scenes, they didn't need to be so long, it just dragged out the story with unnecessary violence.

Another thing I'll come to now is the villains. The Villains were dreadful, they were so weak. the whole back story with the villains was dreadful, I didn't mind them being in the film, and I didn't mind them interacting and being threatening because that what an action villain does he or she poses a threat.

But their sub plot was shit. and not only was their acting bad, they weren't very good actors. The sub plot of turning earth into a new Krypton, really didn't cut the mustard for me. especially as it started to stretch out with useless and unnecessary dialogue. I was just like 'shut up and get on with the story'.

I had no care. Michael Shannon as General Zod was so wooden it was beyond belief and his character of Zod doesn't know when to quit. he literally doesn't, and when superman finally snaps his neck and kills him I thought, 'Thank good for that' because I couldn't stand the character.




I'll stop talking about the villains, now and move on to performances 'Henry Cavill' as Superman and Clark Kent was amazing. I really liked what he did with the character, how he didn't try and copy what Brandon Routh did, gives him originality as an actor.

Russell Crowe who plays Jor-El was really good, Russell Crowe gets very little screen time as it is, he was probably only in the whole thing for about 25 minutes. but what I saw of him was good, he was probably the only professional actor in the whole of the cast so ultimately he's going to do a good job.

Amy Adams as Lois Lane was good, I admired her infusion towards the part and it's great to see her in a Superhero movie at last.

Zack Snyder's directing was immaculate, and clean cut. Christopher Nolan did an even better job as Producer / Co - Writer. People have to remember though 'Man of Steel' isn't a Christopher Nolan film, It's a Zack Snyder film, two people who interpret things in a very different way, and that becomes so clear when you watch it.

But I think if you have to some up 'Man of Steel' in two words it's the words 'Christopher Nolan' because without him. there would be no 'Man of Steel' there would be nothing memorable about 'Man of Steel'.

Overall I see a future for Henry Cavill as Superman, I know a second film is coming up (fingers crossed for a Superman trilogy) and the story and the characters will continue to progress now that it's started and they've done all the back story and starting things off bit. You can argue that this film is basically 'Superman Begins'.

I'm going to give 'Man of Steel' a 7/10

1 Gold Star to Henry Cavill
1 Gold Star to Russell Crowe

1 Platinum Star to Christopher Nolan

Thanks for reading this review

NEXT TIME - I review 'Date Night' a comedy starring Steve Carrell and Tina Fey.

That review will be posted on Monday the 17th of June 2013.