'Man of Steel' - It's a bird, it's a plane, it's..yawn..Superman..again.
I really wanted to like 'Man of Steel' and for the most part I did, but when you have a character that is indestructible, can fly at the speed of sound and basically is immortal; you have the build the character with a couple of more dimensions than just massive explosions. 'Man of Steel' is all bluster, a rowdy film filled with massive destruction, the kind you become numb to a 1/4 of the way through the film. What it lacked was emotion; a sense of wonder, fun and romance.
Henry Cavill is probably the best Superman sine Christopher Reeves, he fills out the suit like Superman should; he looks heroic. That being said, he is a pretty bland actor with not much expression except when he is comically screaming to the heavens (spoiler alert) after snapping the neck of a foe. I am sure it wasn't meant to be funny. Amy Adams as Lois Lane is good as she always is and without much material to work with delivers a good performance. The problem, there is not much chemistry between Adams and Cavill and thus Superman and Lane. We don't feel the heat of the attraction and director Zach Snyder does not do enough to develop the relationship.
The supporting cast is filled with wonderful actors, who for the most part, are overshadowed by the explosions around them. Russell Crowe was excellent as Jor-El, the father of Kal-El, Superman. While Syyder spends far too much time filing the screen with explosive back story, not enough time is spent on developing the character of Jor-El (which could almost be it's own movie); instead Crowe is surrounded by constant destruction and a confusing sub plot of the genetic code of an entire race encoded to a skull and then somehow embedded into the baby Kal-El. Even after thinking about it, it was something that should have been left out.
Kevin Costner and Diane Lane were fine as Ma & Pa Kent as well; but as with every other character in this 'reboot', not enough time was invested into them. We never get a feeling for them other than a few moments where Synder purposely treats them with the dead dog scene; in other words, putting them in a position to ring up an emotion without that emotion coming because you are invested in the characters.
In the comics, since 1939, Superman had lived on and provided us with thrilling tales filled with wonder, humor and yes, romance. Why hasn't any film since the Christopher Reeves Superman been able to do that? Simply because they don't have time. Just watch 'Smallvile' on Netflix and you will understand what I mean. 'Smallville wasn't about the explosions, 'Smallville instead focused on the characters. And with a being that is immortal that is all you have to make it interesting.
In Synder's 'Man of Steel', the one moment that I was filed with awe occured when Superman learned to fly and broke the sound barrier. That was cool. Watching the total and complete destruction of Metropolis. Not cool at all; mind numbing in fact.
All that being said, it's a 2 1/2 star effort that I am sure will get much better with Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight series) producing. At the very least, it is a popcorn movie on a hot, steamy summer day!