Took my better half and kid to watch Man of Steel last night. My expectations were pretty high for this movie considering Zack Snyder did such a great job on 300 and Watchmen...well, to me at least. I've already read some 'less-than-enthusiastic' aka negative comments about the movie from some of those who caught the premier showing a day earlier but I'm not about to let some 'rotten eggs' spoil my session last night. Ain't no spoilers here I think, just some general and brief thoughts on the new Supes flick...so feel free to continue reading my short rant.
Now back to Man of Steel. Henry Cavill didn't disappoint. So were the rest of the lead ensemble i.e. Russell Crowe, Kevin Costner, Michael Shannon, Amy Adams etc. They were so full of emotions that I sometimes forget that it's a superhero movie playing on the big screen. Seriously, Snyder's 'realistic' take of Supes aka similar that of the TDK trilogy (Chris Nolan's the producer here by the way people!) gave the impression that THIS is how the whole Superman saga were to take place if it does in fact exist in real life.
Some people were saying that the movie was rather slow in pace and we had to wait quite a while before we finally get to see a fully-spandex superhero making his appearance. But I kinda appreciate Zack Snyder's approach of slowly building up the character and how he finally gets to discover his roots and all. This was how Batman Begins was, remember? Slow build up on Bruce Wayne's journey towards discovering who he really was destined to be. Clark's journey towards discovering his true self is no different from Bruce's journey and from a fan's point of view, you'd appreciate that. I think it was a crucial element of the movie, to have let the audience into the mind of a confused and angst-ridden-yet-suppressed individual who turned out that he had a bigger role in the world of man.
Michael Shannon was convincingly ruthless as Zod. Amy Adams is surely a better Lois Lane than 'what's-her-face' in 'Returns. Russell Crowe gave a sterling performance as Jor-El. I personally feel that these three actually stole the show quite a bit from Henry Cavill at times.I love the fact that Jor-El's character was somehow 'revived' as a guide ala Jarvis from the Iron Man movie for Clark/Supes to direct his inquiries to. Thank you Zack Snyder for giving us a view of what Krypton's terrains and structures looked like (we never get to see those in any of the previous Supes movies ever!) before it exploded into smithereens. I just find it funny that the word 'Superman' wasn't really uttered until the final few scenes of the movies and how the 'S' wasn't really an 'S'. Small gripe really.
My final thoughts on the film...
This is DEFINITELY the best Superman flick out there thus far. While I love Christopher Reeve's movies, this one is one helluva re-boot and I can't wait to see what the sequels might bring to the franchise. This is worth a second or third sitting in the cinemas. Am definitely gonna get this on blu-ray when it comes out later this year.
So what's next you ask? I've just pre-ordered the Hot Toys' 1/6 MMS200 Superman from my toy-pusher this morning. That head sculpt is a dead ringer for Henry Cavill!
The thing is...the proto figure does look a bit bulkier than how he's supposed to look like in the film. Not to worry though, knowing Hot Toys, they are bound to tweak and make further refinements to the proto figures until they are satisfied that they have a winner in their hands before releasing it to collectors. This one's coming out in Q1, 2014 so rest assured....plenty more time to go till then folks. I've already contributed to the barrage of criticisms on Hot Toys' facebook page about the need to tone/slim down the body of the action figure here.
Jor-El is up next but what I really want to see (and hopefully pre-order) is General Zod. So come on Hot Toys, show us Zod!
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