[xrr rating=4.25/5]
What’s faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and WAY more destructive than a category 5 hurricane with an F5 tornado in the middle of it? That’s right, Superman.
“Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Superman!….. And he’s the most destructive superhero to ever roam this planet!
We’ll talk about his destructive tendencies a little bit later on in this article. But for now, I’m to give you the MATTY-fied movie review of the new blockbuster superfilm, “Man of Steel”.
“Man of Steel” tells the story of the origins of Superman and how he became the protector of Earth. But before you go thinking that this film is a re-boot of the original movie starring Christopher Reeve, let me tell you that it isn’t… Well, not exactly.
The movie tells of how Kal-el, (Superman) son of Jor-el came to this planet. You see, Superman is not of this Earth, and unless you’ve been living in a boot for your entire life, you should know that he comes from the planet Krypton. Krypton is falling to pieces because of both civil war and the fact that it is ready to implode in on itself. Jor-el (well acted by Russell Crowe) and his wife, Faora-Ul (Antje Traue) decide that they want their boy to live. They place him in a life pod and ship him off to a distant planet… That planet is Earth.
Down here on Earth Kal-el grows up under the name Clark Kent. He’s brought up on a farm in Kansas by his new parents, Mr. and Mrs. Kent. (I forget their first names, but they are a lovely couple.) His parents are played by Kevin Costner and Diane Lane. (Costner is the dad and Lane is the mom, just in case you couldn’t figure that one out.)
Clark realizes at a young age that he is not like the other children. And I just realized that I’m writing a book report, and not a movie review, so I’m going to just tell you what I thought of this film now. (I think we all pretty much know the story of Superman anyway.)
Did Matty W. Kelley, professional movie reviewer, enjoy this movie? You bet your kryptonite cape I did! I thought it was a fantastic film, with some very minor flaws.
What I especially liked about this is that it begins with telling the story of Krypton. Being the sci-fi geek that I am, I thoroughly enjoy watching where and how the director will go with the “goings on” of a far off planet.
Helming the directing duties for this film is Zack Snyder. (300, Watchmen, Sucker Punch) I loved that Snyder took us to Superman’s home planet and told us about the problems that forced Superman to Earth. I also liked that he told us so much more about Superman’s parents, Jor-el and Faora-Ul. This is stuff that I did not know. Sure, I am a sci-fi geek, but I’m not a comic book geek. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.) Finding out about Superman’s lineage was interesting to me. I also liked all the special effects that were used in this film, especially on Krypton.
I also thought the casting was done quite well. I didn’t want to have a bonafide actor play the hero in this film. I wanted a fresh face. I thought that casting Henry Cavill as Superman was a great call. I fancy myself a pretty astute entertainment savant, but honestly, who the hell is this guy? I haven’t seen him in anything. And I liked the fact that I didn’t know him. He was good, but not “Super”.
You know what? It took me a bit to like the casting of Lois Lane, but Amy Adams surprised me. She is a nice young actress, but she really isn’t my cup of tea. To be truthful here, I think her best role to date was as Giselle in ”Enchanted”… (Yeah, ok I’m a loser, but I really liked that movie!) She was good in this film. Good, but not “Super”.
The best casting in this film was for Superman’s nemisis, General Zod. Zod was play by a great actor named Michael Shannon. Now, he is a pretty well known actor, but (in my opinion) he hasn’t reached “upper eschelon” status yet. He deserves to be in the conversation with other big name actors. He’s been in “Revolutionary Road”, “Premium Rush” and one of my favorite films this year, “Mud”. Oh, and he was extremely evil as General Zod in this film… He was “Super”.
Now, let’s get to some of the minor flaws of this movie.
I never though I’d say this since I am such a HUGE fan of special effects, but I honestly thought there wasTOO MUCH action in this film. (And that’s coming from a guy who totally loves the “Transformers” franchise.) Seriously, at one point of the film I turned to my buddy (an amateur movie reviewer) and said, “Dude, has this fight been going on for like, an hour?” And honestly, it had. Now don’t get me wrong, I loved it, but at some point I needed some dialogue just to calm me down from all the mayhem that was going on around Metropolis.
Another flaw? General Zod comes to Earth to take Superman off their hands, but Superman won’t leave. Well, after all the destruction those two maniacs caused, I think Earthlings would have begged Zod to take him away… I’m not kidding you, in the end Superman saves Metropolis, but in the process he most likely killed 1,000,000 innocent lives, and caused over 500 trillion dollars in city infrastructure damage… I mean, he RUINED Metropolis! HE TOTALLED IT! Personally, I would’ve kicked him off the planet myself. What a pain in the ass he was… And then at the end he turns around to the people and says “You’re welcome.” Is he out of his mind? (Alright, maybe he didn’t say “You’re welcome”, but it sure felt that way.)
One more thing… okay, I am going to ruin the movie for you right now. Superman kills General Zod by simply breaking his neck. THAT’S ALL HE HAD TO DO WAS BREAK HIS NECK! But NOOOO, he had to destroy an entire city and all its inhabitants first. He was a menace I tell ya!
Anyway, Me and my hetero life mate/writing partner, Billy Daley, over at “A Seat Apart Productions” are in the process of writing the sequel to this film… But in our film the real heroes are the iron workers, construction men, planetorial beautificationists, (landscapers) mason workers, funeral home directors and gravediggers that have work as a team to put this city back together. We’re going to call it “MAN OF STEEL II: Get The Hell Off My Planet You Crazy Lunatic!”
Okay, I’m all calmed down now… So, once again, did I like this film? You bet I did! I just went off for a minute on some of the flaws of the film… but so what, it’s a freekin’ comic book turned into a movie for cripes sakes! All it really had do is entertain me…
And did it?
ABSOLUTELY.
Matty W. Kelley, “A Seat Apart Productions”, reporting.
Fun Fact: Henry Cavill has been runner-up to Daniel Craig for the role of James Bond in “007”, Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne in “Batman”, and Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen in “Twilight”. It’s good to see him get a shot a big leading role.
Fun Matty Fact: I’ve been runner-up to Cyrano De Bergerac in “Big Nose”, Joseph Merrick in “The Elephant Man”, and America Ferrera in “Ugly Betty”… You know what? I ain’t too upset about losing out on those roles….. ”I AM NOT AN ANIMAL!”