Man of Steel: Good but Hardly The Dark Knight's Successor

Here I am again, back in Portland on a day off from my job at camp. I've had a pretty awesome day off, reuniting with a buddy from high school and reconnecting, but thats not what I'm here to talk about. I'm here to talk about one of the major movies of the summer: Man of Steel. I won't lie, I had very high hopes for Man of Steel. Zach Snyder as director, Christopher Nolan as producer. I was a fan of Snyder's Watchmen film and Nolan"s Dark Knight Trilogy so I figured that together, the two could finally make a quality Superman film. I would say that the two succeeded, but it's hardly a rousing success.

The hardest part of any Superman film is nailing the hero himself. Man of Steel does hit on many of Superman's great character points, like his struggle of identity and dealing with his powers at a very young age. In comparison to 2006's Superman Returns, Henry Cavill's Superman feels much more developed. Unfortunately, he still feels rather bland but Superman generally is a pretty generic hero and main character, the shining example of morality and heroism. Unlike Returns, the focus is really on the character of Superman. However, this means that many of the other characters are extremely bland. Amy Adams as Lois Lane is the worst offender since her character is the standard action reporter who doesn't do anything to really stand out. She's just sort of there because she has to be and at one point is involved in heavy military operations despite having no military training at all. It's a shame because Amy Adams is certainly a talented actress. Similarly, Russell Crowe's character seems rather underused as well. The rest of the cast fills out extremely standard roles and hardly stands out.

Guess I'm just here because the movie needs a love interest

Plotwise, the film does exactly what an origin movie should do, establish the character's origin, reasons for becoming the hero (blah blah blah). Unfortunately, the movie frequently struggles with pacing, accelerating quickly through the early scenes to get Kal-El into the blue tights as quickly as possible. That scene is particularly strange, seeing how quickly Kal-El accepts becoming humanity's savior despite the fact that humanity hadn't exactly been great to him up to that point. However, I can't really complain since my biggest issue with Returns was that there wasn't enough of Superman being Superman. There's much more action and some really awesome effects (lens flare for days). The fights really do feel like Superman fights and they're very satisfying to watch. General Zod was a much better choice for a opening villain than Lex Luthor was in Returns (i'd expect him in the inevitable sequel though).

In short, Man of Steel corrects a lot of what was wrong with Returns and finally delivers what we want; a good, entertaining Superman film. I don't think anyone should expect more than that. It's hardly a Superman equivalent to The Dark Knight and I don't think it should be judged as that. If anything, the Dark Knight Trilogy raised our standards for what a superhero movie should be. Man of Steel does what an origin story should do and I think that a sequel could be greatly improved (origin movies are generally weaker than their successors ex. Batman Begins v The Dark Knight or Sam Raimi's first Spider-Man vs Spider-Man 2). Overall, Man of Steel is entertaining and a solid movie, maybe not what everyone was expecting but I believe that the franchise is well set up for the future.

My Score: 4/5

P.S. My apologies for the brief review but I'm on a tight schedule...