Man of Steel - Thoughts

Superman is possibly the first superhero I was introduced to, and I recall watching my first ever Superman movie, the 1983 release Superman III, when I was a little kid on VHS. In the recent years I watched the 2006 release Superman Returns, but didn’t really enjoy it owing largely to a poor viewing experience, resulting from a badly scratched DVD.  When I heard of the 2013 release, Man of Steel, I wasn’t in a rush to see it, and thus gave it a miss in the theatres. In this reboot the earth is threatened by an alien race, and Clark Kent is forced to come out of living in the shadows, and save the world as Superman.

I don’t recall any rave reviews from my friends who saw the movie, and I remember mixed comments from critics. Many people were posting comments on Facebook about a lot of smashing, and stuff being thrown around. After my rather long 143-minute experience with the movie, I would like to remind audiences that we are indeed watching Superman, not a human being in a metal suit with a big ego, or a rich billionaire who has taken up the fight against crime. The magnitude of the action is nothing short of gargantuan, and it also explains the crazy 225 million dollar production budget.  The story unfolds brilliantly, with a good deal of Clark’s origin and Krypton’s past being explained. His human family, the values they instill, and his struggle to stay beneath the radar, is very nicely done. Lois Lane’s introduction to Clark’s existence, and the relationship that develops between them is also presented seamlessly. The entire backstory, plot, and character development is exposed to the audience in a calm and natural manner. The overall narrative process is brilliant, and director Zack Snyder’s work is very commendable. The reboot truly feels wholesome, not missing the mark on any particular requirement. It would be hard not to feel sufficiently satisfied after watching Man of Steel.

Irrespective of his limited filmography, Henry Cavil who plays Clark Kent does exceptionally well. Being an origin story, the character is a lot more complex, and there is a dark side prior to his ascension to the iconic Superman character that the world learns to accept. Something that stood out both in terms of narrative brilliance and character execution was the Superman character, who stands for all that is good and right, is a gentleman, can hold his peace, and most importantly embodies hope, that we can all look up to. Amy Adams plays Lois Lane, who I initially found unimpressive, but with the development of the plot, I felt was a perfect fit. In her case as well, it was how she evolved into the character and its requisites. On a trivial note, at some point I confused her with Jenna Fischer of The Office fame.

I watched Man of Steel on Bluray, on an India release disc. Picture quality was excellent as expected with Bluray, and the initial scenes in Kryton were stylized having a goldish beige tint. The special effects were awesome, but as much as I loved the presentation on Bluray and a big screen home theatre TV, I do believe that seeing this movie in the theatre would have been better; the scale of the action would have been superb.  Sound was competently presented by means of a DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track, played on my 5.1 speaker setup. It complemented the action sequences beautifully, the positional sound being very evident from the opening sequences in Krypton, with the air-ships whizzing around.

My Recommendation: Kick Ass (Nothing short of Super!)