Man of Steel

RATING: A-

I am not particularly a huge fan of Superman in general. I find it somewhat hard to find appeal in a guy who's literally invincible to everything (except Kryptonite) and thus can win every battle practically just by blinking. He's all *too* good, all *too* perfect. So much that he really comes off as boring. 

It seems, though, that Zack Snyder has been able to put together quite the entertaining film where Superman is actually challenged; where his backstory has more depth beyond the "I'm an alien from outer space" thing; and where the character himself is reinvented somewhat to give him a little more depth in general. 

In Man of Steel, we're given the usual backstory of Clark Kent/Kal-El crash-landing onto Earth, being raised by Jonathan and Martha Kent, and growing up to eventually become Superman. His first enemy is none other than General Zod, a former Kryptonian who just happened to be in the "Phantom Zone" with his cronies when Krypton exploded. Thus, he has come to terraform Earth and create a whole new Krypton. 

The film is pretty doggone well-done in most respects. The pacing, for a 140-minute movie, is brisk enough; the dialogue is surprisingly good and thought-provoking at times; the visuals are excellent; and the action sequences are brilliant, with the final battle between Superman and Zod being one of the better climactic battles of the last few years. Although Henry Cavill could've been better in the titular role, most of the rest of the cast (though some of the more talented ones have limited roles) is quite good; with names like Kevin Costner, Laurence Fishburne, and Russell Crowe on the list. Michael Shannon does well as General Zod too; even Amy Adams (whom normally annoys me to no end) does alright as Lois Lane. 

Of course, there are some things about this film that are head-scratchers. Even though Superman is actually fighting an enemy who is a match for him, he still has to fight against the Kryptonian atmosphere when dealing with the terraforming machines; and for some reason, even then he can escape if he just concentrates hard enough. Or something. And it's somewhat odd that Jonathan Kent would actually consider allowing a bus of children to die in order to keep Clark's secret; seems out of character for him (based on what I know about him, anyway). 

Man of Steel is still arguably the film that DC desperately needed to jumpstart itself, seeing as all it had going for it lately was Batman. Time will tell whether they will ever be able to reach the heights of Marvel again, but Man of Steel is a pretty doggone good start to the "DC Extended Universe" and has made Superman interesting again... at least for one movie, anyway.