Jun 21 2013
The GeekJock Reel Movie Review– Man Of Steel
Man of Steel (2013– 143 mins) Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon
“No Guns, No Killing…” Who said that? I will get to that later. For now we will talk about one of my favorite movies in the last couple of years. Yup, I don’t want to spoil it but I loved “Man of Steel”. Oh, but don’t worry haters out there, I have some problems with it as well. I will attempt to review this movie as completely spoiler free as possible. I won’t reveal anything major or anything that will hurt your enjoyment of the movie or anything that you couldn’t have seen in any of the trailers. I will also let you know some thoughts of mine on the future of the franchise and the Justice League itself.
So “Man of Steel” (Or MoS from here on out) is the re-boot we have been waiting 30 years for. Yeah, yeah I know “but GeekJock you HATE re-boots. Yup that’s correct, but sometimes to get to a better future of DC movies you have to deal with a re-boot or origin story or two.
So just like in the 70’s original, MoS starts with us on Krypton. We get to meet his parents and see the way the Kryptonian government works. We also see how ruthless and psycho General Zod (Shannon brilliantly and as creepy as ever) is and how he is hell bent on taking over Krypton (more or less) to keep it the way it should be (according to him). Naturally the apocalypse happens and Krypton is destroyed, but not before our golden boy is sent packing for Earth.
As the history of one of the best super heroes our world has ever seen goes, he is found as a baby in Kansas and raised by the Kents. However, the good part of this movie is that they don’t bore us with Smallville the movie (not that the show was bad but we don’t need 2 hours of him growing up). Instead we get bits and pieces of it through flash-backs. But don’t worry they are real good and provide very meaningful points interwoven with current story.
In the past incarnations, Superman was a golden boy. The truth, justice and the American way sort of guy. Here, he’s a nice guy alien refugee seeking a home on our planet. He doesn’t quite know his place or where he fits in. And so since Zod has a score to settle with our boy Supes, he comes to Earth to take out our golden boy. I won’t ruin how he got her or what he’s up to but that’s the gist of it.
The movie is basically 2 halfs, the growing and learning about Kal-El (Superman) and the showdown with Zod. It’s action packed with well written dialogue, a good plot and a metric ton of Easter Eggs. The effects don’t look campy or cheesy and Cavill is an amazing Superman. It’s good for people of all ages and I don’t think it’s too intense for children. If your kids could get through Iron Man 3 without budging (IM3 gets a bit intense at parts) then they will be fine here as it’s a bit less intense. I only counted 1 bitch or ass, and I hardly audible sh!t being said.
Now the things people will complain about first and my thoughts… First, it’s a bit darker then we are used to in a Super man flick. We are used to the man in blue and red to be surrounded by some jokes and a very light hearted if not campy air about it. What happens with the nay-sayers and why they want this, is because they simply want more of the original 2 movies (the only REAL good ones ever made before this one). Me? I don’t care about the air. I am 100% fine with this being more of a serious tone. I actually really enjoyed it. I expected it to be brooding, whiny and a bit preachy (every damn movie these days, even blockbusters have entirely too much flipping preaching in it). Yes, it’s a bit brooding but thank God it’s not whiny nor preachy.
Next what I will complain about. I have only 2 things to really complain about. First, with all the fighting of Zod and his minions, there is entirely too much of them and Supes being thrown about and him doing the throwing into buildings and explosions and putting people, HUMANS, into harms way. Super man is a boyscout. He is the #1 super hero who will NEVER allow a human to be hurt let alone killed on his watch. He would not even go so far as to toss things to cause so much damage himself and take that chance. Sure they make it a point to show us him saving people, but it never gets to that point where we think he will NOT ALLOW anyone to be hurt. That’s the thing we got right away with Christopher Reeves’ Superman. That’s the thing we get in the animated series of movies and in the comics. I want to see this more out of Cavill’s Supes.
The other thing I disliked a little is the fighting. It’s fun to watch and all but the damage and the invulnerables beating the crap out of each other starts to reach ridiculous proportions. It almost becomes laughable at the damage the city has taken. Sure it’s a minor willing suspension of disbelief but eh it annoyed me.
Oh a minor SPOILER ALERT of one other thing that annoyed me with the whole plausibility of the fighting. And this is only the geek in me talking [so skip to end of this paragraph if you don’t want to have anything at all spoiled]. So they make SUCH a big deal about Clark/Supes having to adapt to the environment and the extra powers and having to work so hard over years to hone them all. And they even make a big deal about the other Kryptonians not being able to take it too easily to breathe our air. Well I call shenanigans that Zod is able so damn quickly to adapt and use everything that he’s a rival to Supes’ ability in every way. NO DAMN WAY. But I guess they needed it to cause the fight needs to happen. SO meh I’ll just complain a bit but it’s fine.
The last thing that annoyed me…. How in the world can you have Zod and him NOT say “KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!”
And finally, remember that question I raised earlier? Who said “No guns, No killing”? Nope it wasn’t any Superman, it was in fact, BATMAN during “The Dark Knight Rises”. You simply cannot let the Dark Knight show you up on the care and safety of humans!
Verdict–> This is a great movie. It’s over 2 hours but doesn’t even remotely feel that way. I loved every second of it. And every one of the people I saw the movie with in the theater clapped when it was over. (Pretty amazing). Go see it in the theater, the 3-d isn’t gimmicky but might not be necessary either. It’s just that good.
My Predictions and thoughts on the future of DC… (Minor spoilers potentially on the Superman 2 plots that I think are coming).
1. Superman 2– With one glaring Easter-egg being the Lex-Corp oil truck I am suspecting the next one to center around Lex being the bad guy. However, the worst thing is this very well could mean Kryptonite usage. And if there is one thing that drives every hater, semi-liker and fanboy’s like me crazy it’s Kryptonite. Yeah, I get it, it’s his ONLY weakness, and yes they really kinda used it already in this movie with the ship etc, so I shouldn’t be surprised but man I just don’t want it to be a cheezy usage. And Lex usually means cheesy usage. BUT with the comic Lex and the latest animated movie Lex’s are kinda bad ass, so they could go into that direction. We can just wait and see. What we DO know is they are trying like hell to push this out quick. They want it out possibly in 2014! Unfortunately this might mean a shitty plot and worse movie, but I am hoping!
2. Justice League- The latest of rumors has this one coming out in 2015. So WB wants. So it would seem that they might do this without a horde of origin movies for the likes of Flash, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, Cyborg, and whoever they might add to it. The early buzz around the DC and movie geeks is they kinda like this. It’s less waiting and they think they might get a better story if we don;t have to slog through all those origins and teaming up in one movie. Me? my gut says there is no stinking way they can pull it off and this movie won’t even make it to the screen and if they do it will suck. But my heart! My hear really and truly wants this movie to KICK the Avengers ass! Don’t let me down WB!
3. Easter Eggs–> You can do a search and find a ton of them out there but there is a few I didn’t read about anywhere and I am gonna touch on them briefly. Again Potential spoilers in here
— In the scene in which Clark is in the ship the first time and learning of the history they show a computer illustration which shows a pod leaving Krypton which looks nothing like Clark’s in MoS. In fact it looks exactly like the spiky ball pod that he came to earth in, in the original Superman the Movie. A nice homage…
— The other one I want to bring up is the whole fight in smallville with the chick Kryptonian and the other huge lug. It’s a direct homage to the other 2 Kryptonians from Superman 2, in which Ursa and Non fought along side Zod to try and take out Kal-El. A subtle but very cool homage.
