“Man of Steel” might not have been the biggest success with
critics but that didn’t stop me from
The newest Superman movie premiered under the weight of
mediocre reviews. Many felt that it was all action and no substance, causing
the characters to be underdeveloped. I agree that some characters could have
used more development, but I felt that “Man of Steel” worked.
The film retells the story of the last son of Krypton and
how he discovers who he is and where he comes from. It does this with very
little camp, which separates it from earlier Superman films. The camp is
replaced by some very intense emotion.
The other thing that makes the film work is its clear focus
on the science fiction elements of Superman. Embracing the sci-fi allows the
movie to immerse itself into the Superman lore. It also opens the possibility
to include more of the unusual villains in future films.
Now, the things that didn’t work for me center around one
character — Lois Lane .
Lane is underdeveloped and her relationship with Superman
and Clark suffers because of that. Amy Adams did a fine job with the material
she had to work with, but she never seems that important. She’s just there to
be there and the relationship between Clark and Lois seems forced.
I’m glad Lois
Lane was included and happy that they’ve started
somewhat of a relationship. Yet, I wish it could’ve been a little deeper and
more interesting.
Other than that, I didn’t have huge problems with the movie,
just smaller ones.
Let’s start with the films CGI (computer-generated imagery),
it was rough in some places but two scenes stood out the most.
The first scene was the one where Superman fights giant tentacles
when trying to destroy one of Zod’s ships. The scene just looked like a cartoon
and the action didn’t really add anything to the overall scene.
The next one is the final showdown between Superman and Zod.
There were certain shots during this fight scene where I was very aware that I
was looking at a CGI image.
The final problem I had with the film was the script. Don’t
get me wrong, I really enjoyed the story, but I thought it could’ve been tighten
up in some places and some scenes could have benefited from a couple more
rewrites.
Summing it all up, I will say that “Man of Steel” is a good
time. The problems with the film are there but it didn’t distract me from enjoying
it.
B+
