Review: Man Of Steel

Superhero films seem to be all the rage right now, following the commercial success of The Avengers last year and Iron Man 3 earlier this year, it was time a DC Comic Book character stepped up to the plate and took on the Marvel giants we’ve grown to know so well.

The ‘Man of Steel’ movie poster

Man of Steel starts with a lengthy scene explaining the origin of Superman (who is referred to by this name only a handful of times in the film, which relies more heavily on his Kryptonian name of Cal-El). The scene is useful to those not familiar with the franchise, and a welcome refresher for those who are rusty. The special effects throughout this opening sequence set the pace for the rest of the film, which is special effects heavy throughout.

The film, predictably for a film of this new darker-side-to-the-hero genre we’ve seen director Christopher Nolan master in The Dark Knight, is heavy on the action sequences from start to finish. Though the choreography and level of detail in these scenes is remarkable, in times the scenes go on much longer than needed and begin to feel overused. The plot itself is not detailed enough to fill a 2 hour movie, so the lengthy action sequences do fill in some of the blanks, but in places at the cost of the attention of the audience.

Henry Cavill is gorgeous well suited to the role of Superman, and plays the role convincingly. The emotional scenes felt genuine and viewers who’ve seen him in his previous role in The Tudors could be fooled by his American accent. He and his co-star Amy Adams have believable enough chemistry and will be exciting to watch as this new series continues.

All in all, a film well worth seeing if you’re an action buff or a comic book fan. It feels like a more grown up Avengers, but is not quite as refined yet as A Dark Knight. You’d be hard pushed not to enjoy at least parts of it.

Man of Steel was released early last week.