Man Of Steel

Look up in the sky
Is it a bird ?
Is it a plane ?
No.....its Zack Snyder trying to forget Sucker Punch

Even if i did not hate Sucker Punch, it was one of those movies you easliy forget. On the other hand, Zack Snyder did direct Watchmen and Dawn Of The Dead ( remake ), so this guy know how to make good movies. I suggest you check out the fabulous movie review of Sucker Punch by Stupid For Movies on youtube when they slaughter Sucker Punch, it´s simply a classic moment. I honestly never thought we would see Zack take on the legendary story of Superman. In most people´s minds, Christopher Reeve will always be Superman, and there is a good reason why his legacy lives on. The first 2 Superman movies are classics, where Christopher Reeve managed to find a way to make Superman feel more of a human, than an alien. When the third movie came out, the magic started to vanish. Not that mr Reeve was bad, but the quality of Superman did not shine through as it used to do. And the fourth one......hmmm.....let´s just forget this one. In 2006 we finally got a new Superman movie called Superman Returns. I actually enjoyed this comeback, maybe not great all the way, but at least a descent update on the classic story. And now, we have a new updated version, where we even have Kevin Costner as Jonathan Kent ? Now who whould have thought that was possible. Is the Man Of Steel a new start for Superman, or is this another reebot with no big surprises ?

The planet Krypton is in bad shape. Scientist Jor-El ( Russel Crowe ) is aware of the situation, especially since he just became a father, to a son named Kal-El. This boy is special, since this is the first natural born child on Krypton for many years. General Zod ( Michael Shannon ) tries to bring down the council, to rule Krypton. But Jor-El and his wife Lara Lor-Van ( Ayelet Zurer ) want to make sure their son will survive, and find a better world to live in. Kal-El is send away in a spacecraft, and General Zod fails to stop the spacecraft from going to Earth. General Zod kills Jor-El, in rage of his failure. But the council arrest General Zod, making sure he will never harm anyone again, and place him and his team in the Phantom Zone. Kal-El lands on Earth in a small Kansas Town. He is raised up by Jonathan Kent ( Kevin Costner ), and Martha Kent ( Diane Lane ), as they name him Kent. As Kent grow up, he learns to adjust his super powers with Earths atmosphere. Jonathan tries to learn Kent to not show the world how powerful he is. One day a tornado hits Kansas, and Jonathan does not survive. Kent ( Henry Cavill ) is told not to save his adoptive father, even if he wants to, Jonathan stops him. Moving on with his Life, Kent tries to find out where he comes from. In the spaceship he came with, Jonathan found found a metal object, marked with an S, formed almost as a key.  Kent takes this object to Arctic, where a space ship have been found underneath the ice. As he injects the key, a whole new world unlocks infront of Kent´s eyes. He meets his real father Jor-El as a hologram, who explains of where he comes from. A reporter Lois Lane ( Amy Adams ) is doing a report on the mystic spaceship, where she is injured by a strange alien lifeform. Kent manage to stop the alien from hurting Lois anymore, and stop her bleeding. Who is this man ? Lois begins to investigate about Kent, as she tries to get her Daily Planet editor chief Perry White ( Laurence Fishburne ) to publish her story. He does not agree, and feel this would not be belivable for the readers. Lois continue to investigate who Kent is, but suddenly the whole world is shocked. A spacecraft is heading towards Earth, and a message is sent out all over media from General Zod, he is looking for Kal-El. He threatens that if Kal-El does not surrender himself, Earth will face consequences. Kent is ready to surrender himself, but is the world ready to find out his true identity ?

There are parts of Man Of Steel i really enjoy. The more human aspect of the story, where Henry Cavill really finds a good balance on human emotions, as he tries to fit inside a world he is trying to understand. And guess what, Kevin Costner does a really good perfomance as Kent´s biological father. I had no high expectations on him, so im happy to say he did well. The planet Krypton is more detailed than before, not the ice planet we are used to see, this is more of a alien planet, with much more to experience than earlier Superman movies. And then we have the bad part. I love action scenes, as long as they look great and feel connected with the story. Unfortunately Zack Snyder shows once again what he is capable of doing, massive action scenes with as much power as possible. It works for some moments, but the longer these scenes go on, it´s easy to be fed up. Let´s get back for the positive moments again, Michael Shannon is actually a great evil character as Zod, maybe not as good as Terence Stamp in Superman 2, but still he does a pretty good job. Overall, Man Of Steel is a pretty good reboot of Superman, but this could have been much better. I know Zack Snyder is on board for a sequel, so i hope the fix the biggest mistakes until then, because this could be something if they get everything right. Henry Cavill may not be Christopher Reeve, but i have to say he might find a way to continue the legacy of Superman, he has both the look and the acting ability to pull this into the right direction. Now excuse me, i am putting my cape on, who knows, maybe someone needs help out there.

Rating: DDD