Starring: Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Russell Crowe, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane
Director: Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen, Dawn of the Dead)
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
I had been looking forward to this movie for a long time. Of course the story of Superman is very intriguing for me and I am a fan of the original movies plus the TV show “Smallville” about Clark Kent as a high school student. So how was “Man of Steel”?
Find out->
Story: A young baby boy is sent to Earth from his home planet of Krypton by his parents as it is imploding. As an adult he has questions about his home and “super” abilities. He is put to the test by General Zod, also from Krypton, who hopes to turn Earth into another Krypton thus destroying human life as we know it.
The plot of “Man of Steel” (MOS) is quite simple (I guess we can expect that from a typical superhero movie) but I expected a little more coming from the director Zack Snyder (who made “300”) and co-writer Christopher Nolan (director of “The Dark Knight”). However, it is a very new angle on the story and we get to see Krypton as we’ve never seen before. MOS is certainly a cool update for the Superman movies and definitely much better than “Superman Returns” from 2006.
The lead is played by British actor Henry Cavill. I thought he did well as Superman and certainly was the most muscular Superman we’ve ever seen. Amy Adams plays reporter Lois Lane and also was good, but not outstanding. Russell Crowe has a significant role as Jor-El (Superman’s birth father) and was very fitting. Clark Kent’s parents on Earth are played by Kevin Costner and Diane Lane. The main villain, General Zod, is played by Michael Shannon, who I thought played a very good “bad guy” despite knowing little about him beforehand. Overall, an above-average cast and there were no major disappointments in that area.
The actions scenes were very well done and really tried to illustrate the speed of Superman and his enemies. Some of the fights were hard to keep up with but very exciting nonetheless. I should also mention that the musical score was done by Hans Zimmer, who is known for several action movies and once again delivers a powerful soundtrack to MOS. We don’t hear the original theme done by John Williams but there are indeed hints of it if you listen closely.
Overall, I really liked the movie. There is nothing extraordinary about the story but we do learn a few new things about the Superman character—or at least we see a new angle that I found interesting. If you are a fan of Superman or just superhero action movies in general, I’d give this movie a shot.
Score: 7/10
What did YOU think of “Man of Steel”?
Please share your thoughts in the Comments below!
Vocabulary for Study:
- intriguing
- to implode
- the lead
- villain
- above-average
- nonetheless
- musical score
- extraordinary
- to give (something) a shot
Study English with “Man of Steel” on Blu-Ray today!
