Movie Review: Man of Steel

Stars: 3 out of 5

Pros: Opening half, acting

Cons: Too much emphasis on effects instead of characters

The Bottom Line:

The flashy effects

Rob this movie of its heart

Left ambivalent

"Nice Suit, Son."

I have always loved the character of Superman, so when I found out about Man of Steel, I began to get excited to see it.  I had hoped it would be the start of a great new movie franchise around this character.  Unfortunately, the result didn't live up to my hopes.

The movie opens on Krypton.  It is a planet doomed to die thanks to the way it has been abused by its citizens.  In the midst of this, Jor-El (Russell Crowe) sends his son to Earth.  And General Zod (Michael Shannon) tries to lead a revolt only to be sentenced to the Phantom Zone.

Fast forward 33 years, and we begin to follow Clark Kent (Henry Cavill) as he wanders from one job to another.  When he is on an army base in the frozen north, he encounters Lois Lane (Amy Adams), a reporter who is there to cover a weird something that has been found in the ice.  But as Clark begins to discover who he really is, his past from Krypton catches up to him.  What will that mean for the citizens of Earth?

I had heard before going to see the movie that the problem was the lack of character development.  Unfortunately, that critic got it right.  We never truly get to know any of these characters, something that makes it hard to care in the climatic battle.  In fact, by the time it came, I was bored and ready for the movie to be over.

Now I'm not going to fault the actors.  They all did a great job with the material they had.  In fact, I was a little worried going into the film that Amy Adams wouldn't work for me as Lois Lane, but she did great.  (Don't know why I doubted; she's a great actress.)  There wasn't a false note in the bunch.

The problem is the movie emphasizes special effects over anything and everything else.  We rush to get to any scene where the effects can be used, and then we slow down to enjoy them.  And let me tell you, the fights?  Long and repetitive.  There's enough property destruction to fill several movies, and I avoid property destruction movies.  But that's not what I was going to the film to see.  I wanted more with the characters.

And really, if I don't care for anyone in the film, the stakes can be raised to the sky, and I won't care.  Oh wait, they were.  And I didn't.

For a movie to be this focused on special effects, you'd expect them to be awesome, right?  I hate to break it to you, but there were a few times I could tell they were special effects.  Most of the time they were great, but they certainly weren't perfect.

While I am mainly ragging on the film, that's because it leaves you with the second half.  The first half, which introduces the characters and gives us Clark's origin story is actually interesting.  If they had kept that pace and developed the characters more, I would have enjoyed the entire thing.  Ironic since I something complain about how formulaic the origin story can be.

Man of Steel is another case of effects over character, and that never ends well.  Unfortunately, that happens again here.  Hopefully, they will remember to give us good characters if there is a sequel.