Man of Steel – Movie Review | The Best Superman Movie?
With Zack Snyder’s director cut of Justice
League coming out Thursday, let’s talk about
the film that started it all: “Man of Steel.”
Let’s get into the review!
Welcome back to my channel!
This is Let’s B Reel with Brad.
I talk about movies, tv shows and do all sorts
of fun and exciting videos on the channel.
If this is your first time here, hit that
subscribe button and drop a like on this video,
as it would be gladly appreciated.
“Man of Steel.”
is directed by Zach Snyder, the first film
in the DC Extended Universe.
It stars Henry Cavill as Superman, Amy Adams,
Russell Crowe, Diana Lane, Michael Shannon,
and Kevin Costner.
I hadn’t watched this film since I watched
it on DVD when I was 15 years old.
Now that I have watched it for the second
time in HD, I thought this was a mediocre
movie.
This film has been very divisive with fans
alike, with some people even calling it a
masterpiece or being one of the best superhero
movies ever, but for me, I’m not so sure about
that.
So let’s first dive into the positives starting
with the performances.
Henry Cavill is excellent as Superman.
He is the
can fulfill everything that we love and cherish
about Superman.
He has the charm, likeability, and strong
masculinity to him that shines on the screen.
Michael Shannon plays General Zod, and he
is also great in the movie.
Michael Shannon is simply a wonderful actor
who is very good at playing a villainous character.
Everyone else is good in the film.
The story is decent, being our first Superman
origin story since the original film.
They changed its structure, which I thought
was a great choice that felt very fresh and
different.
I also enjoyed the darker tone this film presents
that features a very controversial dark ending
that I thought was awesome and very surprising,
but I welcomed it with open arms.
This movie isn’t really about hope and what
someone could do to make a better world like
in the previous Superman films.
It is about destruction, terror, and showing
the harm that something out of this world
can do, which I find a very dark and exciting
theme.
Now let’s get into the negatives starting
with the action.
Now, as much as the action itself is incredible
having the very best action in a Superman
film.
This is a significant upgrade from those original
films because as much as they are great, they
definitely lacked in the action department.
But the most significant difference is at
least with the first two films, those films
focused more on their story than the action.
The last hour of this movie is non-stop fighting
throughout.
It is very entertaining in many sections of
it, but this could have been so much shorter,
feeling like it went on forever.
Halfway through, I became utterly bored of
Superman and Zod’s henchmen throwing each
other into buildings every other second.
The studio executives were probably like,
“Hey, I know the fans want tons of action
even if it affects the story, so let’s see
how much destruction we can cause.
Sounds good?”
The subsequent criticism is the visual effects.
This movie has some fantastic visual effects,
especially with many of the action scenes
and Superman flying, but many sections of
this movie show that the CGI doesn’t look
all that great.
“The Avengers” came out a year before and
had way better effects with a slightly smaller
budget, so I think there is no excuse for
this movie.
Also, the product placement was terrible with
all these different brands showing up with
even a fight landing in an iHop, for crying
out loud.
I also don’t really enjoy this film’s cinematography
as it is a very bleak and dark movie.
But the problem is, it isn’t visually attractive.
I think “Batman v Superman” looks a lot better,
which was a significant improvement Snyder
took into that film.
My last negative is the writing.
As much as I think this is a decent origin
story, with the first half being an excellent
superhero movie that I really loved.
If the story aspects went on for much longer
and took more time developing Zod to bring
it all together for a big action fight, then
I’m all for it.
But the film takes away the story, and I just
didn’t care for it.
I know many people will not care about this
criticism because all they want to see is
superman fighting and smashing buildings for
a whole hour, then kudos to you.
For me, I just didn’t care for it.
Overall, this movie is a mediocre movie that
I think will please many superman/superhero
fans.
It has all the right ingredients to tell an
origin story, with Henry Cavil being fantastic
as Superman.
I enjoy the action being over the top and
crazy, but not in service of taking from the
story.
There were many things I enjoyed more on the
second watch, but also a lot more glaring
criticisms along with it.
This is an okay watch at best.
I am giving “Man of Steel” a five out of ten.
So have you seen “Man of Steel” and if you
have, what do you think of the film?
And where does it rank in your DCEU rankings?
Tomorrow I will be reviewing the sequel with
“Batman v Superman,” so be sure to check it
out!
As always, I will see you all in the following
video!
