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Man of Steel (2013), PG-13, 3 stars

Henry Cavill as Superman.
A reboot? Again? Well, Superman Returns was forgettable. So, how can you make another Superman movie more creative, original, and worthy of the script? Well, maybe, take David S. Goyer and Christopher Nolan, the geniuses of the Batman trilogy, to write the story and script. Even, though, the direction by Zach Snyder and innovative storytelling by Nolan and Goyer do not mesh together, this Superman movie is good despite some reservations.

The movie opens when Krypton is at war when Krypton's natural resources are being depleted. Jor-El (Russell Crowe) and his wife (Ayelet Zurer) have a son named Kal-El. Meanwhile, General Zod (Michael Shannon) and his followers deposed the military council of Krypton. While Jor-El infuses his cells in order to save the Kryptonian race in a codex and Krypton is getting destroyed, he and his wife sends his son in a spacecraft to Earth. General Zod and his followers are being captive and arrested after the attack.

No surprise that Kal-El lands in Smallville, Kansas and he is found by Martha and Jonathan Kent (Diane Lane and Kevin Costner). They name the baby, Clark. However, Clark is pretty responsive to his superpowers from Krypton, but, then, he gets confused because his father tells Clark the truth that the boy is an alien from another world. The boy is advised not to use his powers publicly. But, trouble ensues when he is in the midst of trouble in a bus accident? Try to figure out what happens.

When Clark becomes an adult (Henry Cavill), he goes from job to job with different aliases while saving people from time to time. Clark goes to the Arctic to examine a Kryptonian scout spaceship where he communicates with Jor-El in the form of a hologram. Lois Lane (Amy Adams), a journalist from the Daily Planet, is sent to write the story about the discovery, but, then, she suffers from an accident and is saved by Clark. Perry White (Laurence Fishburne) thinks that it is BS and rejects the story. So, Lois goes looking for Clark while General Zod is sending messages to Earth after he discovers the tracing signal from the ship. Uh oh, trouble is in the air!

Kevin Costner as Jonathan Kent consoling teenage Clark.
The movie is a well-crafted production boasted by action and visual wonder. However, the action sequences near the end of the movie are too prolonged. Despite the action being awesome and exciting, it seemed to me that Clark and General Zod did not care about the destruction and carnage that is surrounding them while fighting. It goes on and on and on.

Henry Cavill does a good job of being a presence in this movie despite some scenes where he was tonally unresponsive to another character's dialogue too well. The best scenes in the movie are during the younger years of Clark Kent where Martha and Jonathan are looking after him. I think that Kevin Costner gives a great performance as the father advising him not to use his powers and being isolated in society. The scenes between him and Clark are moving. Amy Adams is fine as Lois Lane, but somehow, the chemistry between Adams and Cavill seemed to be lackluster. It also bothered me as to why Superman predictably saves her every time she is danger.  Michael Shannon is pretty convincing as the maniacal villain. He showed that I was actually watching a villain from the comic books.

I am not a big fan of Zach Snyder's work, such as Watchmen, Sucker Punch, and 300. (Yes, I don't like 300.) This is the first movie from him I liked and I am surprised. Even though some of his lousy direction gets into a predictable medium of Nolan and Goyer's dark storytelling, his pacing keeps going. Hans Zimmer's score was really good, too. The movie is a little darker for a Superman movie, but no matter, this is a good, entertaining Superman movie. It is effortless and productively done well.

***

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