Movie Review: Man of Steel

Man of Steel (2013)

A young itinerant worker is forced to confront his secret extrastellar origin when Earth is invaded by members of his own race.  Short synopsis of Man of Steeltaken from IMDb.com

Man of Steel...  I was not impressed.  In fact, in keeping with my short reviews of late, I'll keep this one tight and say that all the bad things I heard about Man of Steel were true.  Yes, I listened to the negative press on it, which you shouldn't do if you want to give a fair review, but I thought, "maybe they're off base, or maybe I will disagree."  I did not.

I can respect the filmmakers attempt to do something different with the Superman story, but this didn't do it for me.  For a "modern" Superman, I'd take Routh in Superman Returns.  If you thought that particular flick was bad, this one will either thrill you, or will prove just how far off Hollywood has gotten in recent days.  And don't get me started on the CGI video game-ish scenes.  Not to mention the numerous useless subplots.  It was like they were trying to do everything in one movie, and couldn't decide what worked best.  Even the old Superman II was better than this. 

Yes, even Christopher Reeve had some less-than-stellar time in the cape with approximately two and a third of his tries at being Superman.  But I'd watch any of his films before I'd waste my time with Man of Steel again. / Source: justicebulletin.com

To be fair (but why, you ask?), Man of Steel did have its moments.  But mind you, when I say moments, I mean MOMENTS.  And I can't even recall them just now.  Sorry.  Not worth even the free showing I saw on somebody else's dime.  If it tells you what I thought most clearly, take into account that I didn't even stick around to see how the film ended.  I had heard that Superman tears Zod's head off, and so when it got to that sort of thing and I was ready to go home anyway (long night, even if it was an easy one), I skipped it.  The "climactic" battle they'd just been having seemed so silly to me that the coup-de-grace didn't seem to add anything to the experience enough that I might stay and witness it. 

Overall, Man of Steel was a waste of my time.  Glad I didn't pay for it, and unless you think the Christopher Reeve iteration of the '80s (I'm talking first and pretty much the second film, and not the forgettable third and fourth ones) were complete rubbish and what we need is a real dark gritty Superman, I suggest you don't pay for it either.

The parting comment:

I'd have preferred to use "Everything wrong with Man of Steel - in Eight Minutes," but there was some crudity in it I decided to bypass.  But honestly, this is one of those movies that deserves its sins to be pointed out, in this reviewer's opinion.