Man of Steel
2/4
Starring: Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Russell Crowe, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne
Rated PG-13 for Intense Sequences of Sci-Fi Violence, Action and Destruction, and for Some Language
The biggest movie of the year is also the biggest disappointment. It's not terrible by any means, and won't come near my bottom ten list, but for a movie that's loaded with talent from top to bottom, it's a pretty big letdown.
Planet Krypton is dying. The people of the planet have exhausted its resources to the point where its destruction is imminent. General Zod (Shannon) tries to throw a coup to save the Kryptonians (kind of pointless since it's already falling apart). Jor-El (Crowe) steals the one thing that could reseed the Krypton race and sends it away with his newborn son, Kal-El. Zod's coup fails, and he and his cohorts are sent to the Phantom Zone, while Kal-El is sent to Earth. Kal-El, who is raised by Jonathan (Costner) and Martha (Lane) Kent to become Clark Kent (Cavill as an adult), must find out who he is and what he is destined for. Meanwhile, Zod and his cohorts have been freed when Krypton is destroyed, are searching for the little tyke.
That last paragraph is badly written. I admit that. It's fully of short, unimaginative and clunky sentences. But the truth is that "Man of Steel" is so broad and diluted that it has zero depth of any kind. There are no characters. They're human props designed to propel the plot along. The movie is a two-and-a-half hour long trailer.
It's hard to discuss the performances because the actors have so little to do. With a stronger script, this could have been amazing. I mean look at the cast! Four Oscar nominees and two winners. And the lead is an up-and-coming star (he had a recurring role in ShoTime series "The Tudors," which I haven't seen. Considering that it stars Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, maybe it's time I gave it a shot).
"Man of Steel" is directed by Zack Snyder, who became a wonder boy to comic book geeks and action junkies when he made the adrenaline cocktail "300" and the intelligent action movie of the classic (but overrated) "Watchmen." Sadly, his work here is lackluster as well. There's no sense of style or artistry here that was evident in his previous films. Snyder became famous for playing with speed in his action sequences (slo-motion then speeding up), but the action scenes are played fairly straight here. There's also little humor, although that keeps with every post-Nolan action movie out there these days. The exception is a small politically satirical scene at the end which, in addition to not being particularly funny, comes so close to being a PSA that it's almost insulting.
Warner Brothers is hoping to make a killing with this movie. Reports have said that the studio won't be satisfied unless it hits the billion dollar mark. It's not going to happen. In an attempt to reach every single person on the planet, they've diluted it to the point where it's only going to get a "meh" from everyone. It's going to dominate the box office for a while, that's for sure. But once the comic book geeks get their fix, it's not going to have much sustaining power.
Starring: Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Russell Crowe, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne
Rated PG-13 for Intense Sequences of Sci-Fi Violence, Action and Destruction, and for Some Language
The biggest movie of the year is also the biggest disappointment. It's not terrible by any means, and won't come near my bottom ten list, but for a movie that's loaded with talent from top to bottom, it's a pretty big letdown.
Planet Krypton is dying. The people of the planet have exhausted its resources to the point where its destruction is imminent. General Zod (Shannon) tries to throw a coup to save the Kryptonians (kind of pointless since it's already falling apart). Jor-El (Crowe) steals the one thing that could reseed the Krypton race and sends it away with his newborn son, Kal-El. Zod's coup fails, and he and his cohorts are sent to the Phantom Zone, while Kal-El is sent to Earth. Kal-El, who is raised by Jonathan (Costner) and Martha (Lane) Kent to become Clark Kent (Cavill as an adult), must find out who he is and what he is destined for. Meanwhile, Zod and his cohorts have been freed when Krypton is destroyed, are searching for the little tyke.
That last paragraph is badly written. I admit that. It's fully of short, unimaginative and clunky sentences. But the truth is that "Man of Steel" is so broad and diluted that it has zero depth of any kind. There are no characters. They're human props designed to propel the plot along. The movie is a two-and-a-half hour long trailer.
It's hard to discuss the performances because the actors have so little to do. With a stronger script, this could have been amazing. I mean look at the cast! Four Oscar nominees and two winners. And the lead is an up-and-coming star (he had a recurring role in ShoTime series "The Tudors," which I haven't seen. Considering that it stars Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, maybe it's time I gave it a shot).
"Man of Steel" is directed by Zack Snyder, who became a wonder boy to comic book geeks and action junkies when he made the adrenaline cocktail "300" and the intelligent action movie of the classic (but overrated) "Watchmen." Sadly, his work here is lackluster as well. There's no sense of style or artistry here that was evident in his previous films. Snyder became famous for playing with speed in his action sequences (slo-motion then speeding up), but the action scenes are played fairly straight here. There's also little humor, although that keeps with every post-Nolan action movie out there these days. The exception is a small politically satirical scene at the end which, in addition to not being particularly funny, comes so close to being a PSA that it's almost insulting.
Warner Brothers is hoping to make a killing with this movie. Reports have said that the studio won't be satisfied unless it hits the billion dollar mark. It's not going to happen. In an attempt to reach every single person on the planet, they've diluted it to the point where it's only going to get a "meh" from everyone. It's going to dominate the box office for a while, that's for sure. But once the comic book geeks get their fix, it's not going to have much sustaining power.
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