Rating of
2/4
"Man Of Steel" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 05/21/15
A super-powered alien who crash landed on Earth as a child endangers the Earth when the military ruler of his planet arrives on a war ship demanding his return. Man Of Steel is a kind of cover version of Superman II (in a similar way that Into Darkness was a cover version of Wrath Of Khan) which is an idea that actually had a lot of potential. The original film has dated quite badly and a remake done in the right way could've been great; it had strong plot ideas, a sense of humour and a brilliantly camp and disdainful central performance from Terence Stamp as Zod. Man Of Steel however, has none of those things. Although the plot takes the Superman origin story in a refreshing new direction, the plot just replaces the humanity of the character with a hotch potch of cliched sci-fi mumbo jumbo pillaged from virtually every major movie of that genre released over the last 30 years. Add to that Zack Snyder's bull in a china shop direction which uses every single plot development as an excuse for yet another overblown, unnecessary action set piece and this results in a film that has no wit, subtlety or sophistication whatsoever. In its favour, Henry Cavill has the look and charisma to carry off the part and it's nowhere near as boring as the yawnfest that was Superman Returns, but the film it reminded me of most was Hancock. Despite some interesting ideas and character moments in the early stages of the story, they are soon abandoned for an endless cacophony of CGI that envelops Cavill like a swarm of obnoxiously loud and angry bees.
