Man of Steel
Dir: Zack Snyder
2013
***
The original 1978 Superman film is my favourite film of all time. It's the film that made me into the film obsessive I am today. I'm not just a fan of the film though, I am a collector of Superman comics and the TV series. To look at the 1978 films and the 3 sequels in a critical and technical way is pretty tough for me to do, that old lady called nostalgia will always tell me those films are brilliant no matter how good or bad they really are. Superman Returns however was awful. It was time for a change and I welcomed a new beginning and quite looked forward to one, after many a misfire, it was well over due. They took various ideas from contemporary Superman graphic novels but without using one directly which I thought was a great idea. The casting was pretty much spot on, Henry Cavill did well and I thought Russell Crowe and Kevin Costner were brilliant as the two fathers. I expected more from Michael Shannon if I'm being honest but I'm afraid I don't really see anything special about Amy Adams. She, I'm afraid to say, was totally wrong for the part. I also didn't like this version of Lois Lane, they got it totally wrong in every way in my opinion and I found her (and the fact she'd just pop up out of nowhere, sometimes even though she was 50 miles away in the last scene) annoying. I was also surprised by the inclusion of all the spaceships. Fights and spaceships. That and the fact that Superman kills wasn't really a true depiction of Superman for me. Maybe it works in some of the (alternative) comics but I thought it was too much for a mainstream feature version. Maybe they had to to develop the story, I have faith in DC but I do have my doubts too. Apart from those few points I found no fault with it other than it, it just didn't quite feel like Superman. For me, the absence of Clark Kent suggested to me that they lost their way somewhat with the character. Clark Kent is integral to the character, Clark Kent is the disguise but it is also at the heart of who he is. The blink and you'll miss it Lex Luther reference was exciting, so hopefully the real return of Superman can now begin.