Man of Steel film review

The origins of Superman are given firm foundations in this loving  portrayal of the early life of Superman/Kel-El/Clark Kent.  Certainly, by the end of the film I understood his upbringing and his heritage better than ever before - and these are instrumental is understanding his purpose.  Unfortunately I also felt exhausted and my ears were sore from listening to an hour of endless explosions.  The story is interesting, and has definite emotional journeys for several key characters, but the action sequences are many and frequent, and there is the sense that each needs to outdo the preceding ones.  They end up taking over an initially smart, mature telling of a familiar tale.

Henry Cavill does an outstanding job of carrying Superman's journey from lost boy to saviour of mankind.  He also carries the film, amongst a stellar cast, most of whom are given less to do than their calibre deserves.  Thus it is extra frustrating that the villain (General Zod) is given such a basic and boring interpretation by Michael Shannon.  Hid is the role the A-Listers ought to have been fighting over.  However, Shannon delivers a blandly serviceable baddie with a hunger for power and an appetite for destruction.  This would not rankle so much were it not for the fact that the script provides so much rich material for Shannon, which he chooses to ignore.  Zod has a long and interesting history with Superman's father, he is miraculously delivered from the destruction of his home planet and believes it his grand destiny to provide his race with a new home, his beliefs favour eugenics and socialism and he is ruthless in his means to achieve a greater good.  He is interesting, he believes he is doing good and he is personally invested in the missions he undertakes.  When Superman foils his plans, I craved an emotional response.  Does Zod crumble?  Cry?  Scream?  No, he calmly explains his motives then does continues on in bloodlust (but now without it making sense).  It was just such a wasted opportunity.  And when he is defeated once and for all (that's hardly a spoiler...it's pretty predictable) the means with which he is beaten are so ridiculously simple it mocks the complex methods that have gone before and failed.

So....yeah....I loved a lot of things about this film but the overdone action sequences killed it.  It is a strong foundation for the films that will follow, and I look forward to the sequels exploring the emotional depths of more than one character.

See this film at home, so you can control the volume and fast-forward the boring bits.  The good bits are really good - and so pretty!  It is a shame they go hand in hand with so much senseless violence.