Probably the best thing about Man of Steel was the fight scenes. The only characters that recieved decent development through the movie were Zod, and well... Superman. Lois was your base go-getter "I wear a flak jacket" reporter that instantly fell in love with the man in the red and blue. Perry White was lacking his normal trademark "Great Ceasar's ghost!", but Laurence Fishburne did a good job. Jimmy Olsen wasn't even in the film. The military guys were cool, if not a little refreshing on the way they handled trust with Supes. Jor-El was pretty good, but they could've explored a little with him and a possible Brainiac for future movies. It was nice though to see Jor-El kicking some ass.
This doesn't mean that the acting or casting choices were bad, just maybe the pacing of the movie. almost 3 hours of movie, and they still had a hard time squeezing everything in. Instead of just showing us Superboy, we get flashbacks that seemed to show up throughout the movie. Kevin Costner really did an amazing job as Pa Kent. I think he and the writing really did a superb job to show how he raised Clark to be a good person. Ma Kent did an alright job, and I hope to see her have more of a hand in future movies with being Clark's guiding light, but she didn't seem to carry the same torch as Clark's father.
The only real detractor for the film however came with a scene where Lois and Superman kissed. Yeah if you've ever heard of Superman, this isn't a spoiler. It just felt so forced and I didn't see any reason to necessitate it other than Lois was just overwhelmed at how awesome Supes was. I mean he did just save her from death(again), and I could see it just being the heat of the moment. It just took me out of the movie, but only briefly before we got one of the best fight scenes in a movie I've probably ever seen. Seriously, this movie just raised the bar for Super-powered fighting. Faora who was Zod's second in command proved to me that a Flash movie could be possible.
So why did this movie get bad reviews from some "top" critics? I'm not exactly sure, but I have a feeling they were expecting a Man For All Seasons Superman, and not a Red Son or All-Star Superman. I repeat this movie did not have Christopher Reeves in it, it's not your father's Superman. And that's okay. There are plenty of ways you can re-interpret a character. This Superman has the same amount of heart and cheerfulness that all the rest have. He just knows when to get his hands dirty, because sometimes you have to. He's okay with doing it because no one else should have to when he can do it for them. He carries your burdens, and that's what makes a Superman super.
I would give it a solid 7/10, but I don't really like to give out grades because that makes my opinion of it solid. I don't want to convey my thoughts of this movie onto you. If you like Superman, then go see it. Make up your own mind.
Now for Superman UNCHAINED. While it probably is the best Superman book that DC is currently publishing since Grant Morrison's departure from Action Comics. It's not that good. It has potential and I'm curious as to where Scott Snyder is going to go with this idea that the bomb dropped on Nagasaki wasn't a bomb, but another super-being. An alternate Earth Superman from the 30's would be a neat idea, but I doubt it. Superman's inner-monologues were kind of annoying, but yet again this is a first issue, and if they continue with them they possibly could form to be something better. I'm holding out hope for this book, and with Superman/Batman coming out at the end of this month Superman might be readable again. Don't screw this up DC.Suggested Listening: The Man of Steel OST, really great and powerful music that lended to the movie very well. I got tingles during some scenes because of it.
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