Man of Steel

"You will give the people an ideal to strive towards."

Visionary Director Zack Snyder began his DC vision with this reboot of one of the most beloved characters in comic book history, Superman.

Many films have tried to capture the pure symbolism that Superman represents as well as showing him as one of the most powerful superheroes ever created and many of them failed to show us the true superman. There were a few that did, such as Superman 1 and 2 with Christopher Reeves and Superman Returns (if you count that film) but this version of Superman gave us the most human version of the character we have seen.

It focuses on his experiences with humans and how it influenced his journey to become Superman while dealing with survivors from his home world. Its a sort of poetic film that gives us a perfect Superman slowly developing into the hero we know and love and Snyder captures this brilliantly through his choice of narrative writing and cinematic imagery.

The film starts off brilliantly, showing us the full might of Krypton and the troubles that led to its inevitable destruction and the lengths that Kal El's father, Jor El (Russel Crowe), went to in order to preserve his son and the fate of Krypton. We are then sent on a Journey of memories of Kal's life on Earth, learning of his developing abilities and how to hide them from the world.

It sometimes seems all over the place in the first act as we see Kal's life unfold and there were some parts that felt irrelevant to the whole story, but it was a good decision to see his childhood and his early years and how it influenced his life. His human father, Jonathan Kent (Kevin Costner) taught him to hide his powers until the world was ready to see him for who he truly is and this writing decision enabled us to see his struggles growing up on, lets be honest here, an alien world that fears him and how he sympathised and wanted to do something with his abilities so badly.

I liked the idea that Snyder wanted to give us a more grounded and human version of Superman to show us that even the most powerful person is flawed and can learn, which is what Superman does. Snyder knew the task he had to do and he chose to go back to basics and rewrite the character to suit modern audiences and to tell a brand new story with the character that makes us connect with him more.

The film was a brilliant way of setting up what has been named "the Snyderverse", which was supposed to be a series of DC films that lead up to a big story, much like the MCU. Its main focus was on Superman, so it seemed logical to introduce the story with a Superman film that would lead on to the rest.

This film sets up the universe that the Snyderverse is set in as a dark and foreboding world that is in dire need of a symbol of hope and this is shown, not just through the narrative, but through the impressive cinematography that was used in the film. Snyder made the film dark (I mean literally, he made it dark) and made it more real world than what the MCU was so we, the audience, can connect with the film and understand what Snyder was getting at in the film.

The CGI was quite impressive, particularly on Krypton at the beginning where we are introduced to a new world and we see all these star ships and advanced cities alien terrain as well as an epic battle sequence. Snyder went all out in terms of creating authentic visual effects to give the audience the best experience watching this film.

You could feel the power the Kryptonians had as they fought Superman and you could feel the full might of Superman himself when he throws his punches or takes off into the skies. The effects were to make the film more powerful than what you were watching and to set the tone for the Snyderverse so that the film comes across as a serious and powerful story and Snyder does this by using all the effects at his disposal to create powerful characters.

General Zod (Michael Shannon) was probably my favourite part of the film, Shannon portrayed such a compelling villain who was desperate to save his people and made him a powerful military leader that shows the full might of Krypton.

It made him seem scary in the eyes of regular humans, which is what you want from a villain. You want to be scared of the villain so you can root for the hero and Snyder captures this perfectly through Shannons acting and how Zod was written, we can see his desperation and that gives him his power as he strives to save Krypton and destroy Earth.

We can see the dynamic between the two races through Zod and his followers, they are more war ready and battle torn while Superman is humble and is completely against his planets ideals. Superman can see the tyranny and failings of Krypton through Zod and this leads him to becoming the hero of Earth and denying Kryptons survival. This is the character development that Snyder wanted to show, he used General Zod as Krypton itself to force Superman to choose between where he comes from or where he grew up.

The film was about portraying Supermans humanity and showing that, underneath all his power and authority, he is just like the rest of us and I love how Snyder made it into a compelling and touching film. I loved at how the film was shot and made, every frame and shot was carefully thought out and it made it feel so much different to any DC film before it and I think that is because Snyder wanted to create the same magic that Christopher Nolans Dark Knight Trilogy made. He wanted to recreate that magic of a dark and foreboding film and integrate it with aliens and superheroes to make them seem more human than what we are used to.

I loved all the fight scenes that were in the film and how everything was made to look, it was like an action film in some scenes where the action was so intense that you dare not look away for fear you might miss something awesome. The only things that threw me off were, as I said before, the flashbacks at the beginning because some of them felt out of place and I would have liked to see more of Superman living among humans and learning from them rather than from his dad (well, adoptive dad).

The film also felt slow in the first act, there could have been a more serious situation involving either humans or Kryptonians, maybe humans after they discover who Kal is, then that would have helped lift the first act and engaged the audience and maybe developed Supermans character more.

Overall, I was happy with this film. We got to see a more human Superman than what we are used to and I liked it because it gave him a stake and a flaw, which is what makes every hero so interesting. You want to see what he will do under the right circumstances, which is what Snyder does in this film.

He gives the character a choice, either save Krypton or save Earth, and this shows us the real Superman and what he means to the world. Snyder captures the film beautifully and in full superhero style and sets the bar for his Snyderverse and hopes for DC films in general.

DC films have not been as successful as Marvel has been and the studios wanted to create something that could rival the MCU. It is just a shame that this was not meant to be as the Snyderverse went on, the films could have been better in terms of quality and writing, but this film is one of its finest because of how character driven it is. I loved seeing Superman develop into the hero he is meant to be and how he connects with humanity, and how humanity sees him as he fights for them.

After watching this, I was intrigued to see where it could lead , not knowing the disaster that would unfold, but I was happy that I got to see this when I did because I could enjoy it and be excited to what it may bring.

Superman is one of the biggest names in all of film and pop culture and Zack Snyder and Henry Cavill pay respect to the character by giving us the strongest Superman film to date, and I wouldn't be surprised if James Gunn's Superman film fails to live up to its legacy.