Man of Steel!!!!

Man of Steel.

Superhero or sci-fi film?, the age old daily debate I have with people when it comes to the "Superman" re-boot Man of Steel directed by Mr Zack Snyder. 

Starting off with the birth of Kal-El you see his father Jor-El (Russell Crowe) and his mother Lara Lor-Van (Ayelet Zurer) holding him for the first time. As Jor-El talks to the elders of Krypton General Zod (Michael Shannon) bursts in kills some elders and promises to take back Krypton from them and save the race. As all out chaos ensues and Jor-El takes the codex skull used for all new life on Krypton, Zod follows and asks for the codex from him. Already placing the codex into their sons blood cells they send him on a pod to Earth to be kept safe and away from Zod. With Zod and his crew being captured and sentenced to an ice pod and sent into the phantom zone Kal-El is safe to travel to Earth for a new life.

As the white foamy water crashes up against the side of the boat we see a tall dark haired, bearded man bringing in and sending out some fishing nets and cages. The next thing we see is an oil rig on fire and with Clark also on fire and holding up a huge metal rig to save his colleagues it shows us his superhuman powers for the first time. Travelling from town to town he works different jobs and sometimes leaves on bad terms, ending up in an Arctic place at a military exploration base be finds a Kryptonian ship and learns about his home world and creation.

Soon enough Clark's world is invaded by a now free general Zod who threatens the people of Earth and asks for Kal-El /Clark to reveal and hand himself over. Clark now has a decision to make about what to do, reveal himself and be declared an Alien and stand up to the criticism and save Earth or stay quiet like he always has done. With flashbacks of his life with his Earth parents Jonathan Kent (Kevin Costner) and Martha Kent (Diane Lane) we learn about how Clark kept his powers a secret and how his adopted father told him about his true existence on Earth.

Lois Lane (Amy Adams) is also in search of Clark and wanting to know about where he came from and also how she can possibly help tell his story. Of course their is the imminent threat of Zod and his gang of rebels who threaten to take over Earth and destroy it along with Clark, what will happen?

The film is of course packed full of action and fighting scenes which try to show off all of his superpowers, strength, laser eyes and of course flight are all shown. A small criticism is that the fight scenes can be a little too everywhere at times and if not watched quickly it can be seen as one massive blur on screen. I honestly think the correct amount of action was used and kept it to a minimum and was only used when necessary.

The actors portray their characters really well, Cavill as Clark/Kal-El is just scary as he looks like he was born for the role and he brings a vulnerable and conflicted side out of the character. Shannon as Zod is a nice touch as he brings a very militarised and stern character out and he sticks with it with tenacity. I have to say I'm unsure about Amy Adams as Lois but in this film she is shown to be a strong intelligent woman which is a change from her previous ditzy version on the Supe's TV show. The blossoming close relationship between the two is not explored too much which is a shame, add in a few close intimate moments between the two and it'd be a perfect film.

Some things I really liked is the origins of Superman's "S" symbol on his chest, deciding to say it is a symbol for the house of El which means hope is clever. And that every other Kryptonian's like Zod have all different chest symbols to represent the house they belong to on Krypton. Even starting on Krypton this is the first film to tackle that historical Superman event of his world being destroyed.

Of course the film had alot of hype mainly because the Dark Knight super team of David S Goyer, Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan worked on the film and of course Zack Snyder was at the helm directing. With Batman being such a massive hit this film had alot to live up to and needed to be something special which to me it really is.

To me this is not a superhero film it is more of a sci-fi film about an alien sent to Earth which is how the film should be viewed. Yes the film is dark and is nothing as bright as the comic books but it is a modern remake and the start of a Superman franchise that we have all been waiting for, "welcome to the planet".

9/10.