Man of Steel
Synopsis:
With the imminent destruction of Krypton, their home planet, Jor-El (Russell Crowe) and his wife seek to preserve their race by sending their infant son to Earth. The child's spacecraft lands at the farm of Jonathan (Kevin Costner) and Martha (Diane Lane) Kent, who name him Clark and raise him as their own son. Though his extraordinary abilities have led to the adult Clark (Henry Cavill) living on the fringe of society, he finds he must become a hero to save those he loves from a dire threat.
Movie Review:
"Man of Steel" is a reboot of the popular comic book hero of Superman and the first movie of the DC Cinematic Universe. This movie has some flaws but it is entertaining with a lot of great action sequences. The biggest complement I can give about this movie is that the look of the film is beautiful and full of picturesque imagery because Zach Snyder is a great visual director who can take a comic book and adapt it to the big screen with precision and creativity. Kevin Costner who plays Jonathan Kent, the adopted father of Clark, teaches him how to be a hero and how to keep his powers a secret; I absolutely love their scenes together—they are so powerful and full of emotion. Rusell Crowe who plays Clark's biological father, Joel El wants him to use his powers to help people. Russel Crowe is one of the best parts about this movie and his performance is outstanding. Henry Cavill portrays Clark Kent/Superman and plays him well showing his transformation over time from a quiet misfit from another planet with extraordinary abilities to a confident superhero. At times Cavill is slightly dramatic and goes a little overboard with his shouting and yelling in most of the action scenes. Most of the supporting cast is good like Michael Shannon as Zod who is the main villain of the movie and he plays him really well as he makes you understand why he wants to take control of earth. Diane Lane who plays Martha Kent always gives her all to a role and we see her professionalism shine through in the emotional scenes. Laurence Fishburne is really good as Perry Wright the famous editor of the Daily Planet. He has some great scenes with Lois Lane played by Amy Adams (who Superman saves about ten times in the movie). Most of the action is exciting and fast paced. There are a few problems with this movie: it kind of slows down towards the second half of the film, and there are a lot of sub plots that never get resolved, and there are some long, boring fight scenes at the end that felt like an unending video game. But most of the positives outweigh the negatives and I still enjoyed this movie for what it is—a different take on Superman; one that is fun but emotional. Zack Snyder asked us a question, 'what happens if Superman existed in the real world and how will people react to an actual alien living among them?' I think Zack Snyder pulled it off with the making of "Man of Steel". It has some imperfections but it is a great original story of an alien raised as a human and transforming into Superman. I am giving "Man of Steel" a 4 out of 5 stars.
Director: Zack Snyder
Cast: Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne, and Russell Crowe
Runtime: 143 mniutes