Man of Steel Review

First let me say that I liked the movie, partly because it succeeded in disconnecting from 75 years of Superman on TV and film which even when it was pretty good wasn't that good and when it was bad was real bad. I can remember as a little kid watching the black and white television version and thinking that Superman was pudgy and not very tough. And even though the late 70s movie version was popular, Superman just wasn't a modern enough super hero. Not in the Marvel comic book sense. Not in the new Batman movie sense.

Man of Steel changed all that and pulled off a pretty good movie. Starting with Russell Crowe playing Jor-El at the end of planet Krypton's existence, to the young self-conscious Clark, to the tough but lovable and beautiful Lois Lane (Amy Adams). 

Criticism 1: Give a guy a new special effects toy and watch out. The special effects are impressive but how many times can you watch Superman and his enemies crash into buildings, cars, roads, and objet d'art. After the tenth 500 mph flying crash with special-effected demolition you get the point. There were no fewer than 25 flying wrestling matches that destroyed everything in their path.

Criticism 2: Does every action movie these days have to end three times? Superman beats the bad guys once, then they build a Gravitron and he causes that to fail, then mid-kiss with Lois, when you think we're coming to a close, General Zod shows up for a one-on one building destroying duel. It's just too long.

While I'm on General Zod, Man of Steel gets credit for establishing a bad guy with a believable motive. General Zod was great.

Taken as a whole and even given some minor annoyances Man of Steel is worth seeing. Superman (Henry Cavill) was likable, naive without being annoying, and well acted. Lois Lane was beautiful and charming . . . but I said that already.
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