Review of Man of Steel (2013) by Jamie J — 25 Mar 2016

Sometimes less really is more, that is certainly the case for Man of Steel, from the director of Watchmen and 300. I think you can see where this is going.

With the sequel Batman v Superman hitting screens right now I figured why not give Man of Steel a punt, and see what was just so divisive about it. Right off the bat you can tell it's a Zack Snyder film, the oft retold origins of Kal-El on Krypton look like they were ripped straight out of his previous effort Sucker Punch (a film that personally I really rather enjoyed) with a massive over use of cgi and a general lack of subtlety.

Sadly though after the action moves to earth and a brief moment of quiet while young Clark Kent goes through puberty the volume and action ramp up again and any thoughts of subtle nuances go out of the window.

For the most part it is a visually stunning film, utterly gorgeous effects though are let down by awful uses of cgi in fight scenes, of which there are a lot. It feels like cgi blobs lashing out at cgi blobs, and everything moves at such a lightning pace, with explosions left right and centre making it nearly impossible to follow. If only Snyder had dialled things back a bit, there really is a good story underneath there, but I feel Snyder lacks the skill or subtlety to really pull it off. And instead resorts to the tried and tested Michael Bay philosophy of blowing things up. I've never found such a contrast in sound either, all scenes with dialogue are dialled down to such a degree you have to turn the volume up, them BOOM!! Cue huge explosions, in case you fell asleep.

Man of Steel really isn't a bad film at all, contrary to most opinions, but it makes such hard work out of the simplest of things. Making it really hard to love. A shame really.