MOVIE REVIEW - Man Of Steel

What could be a record setting movie, Man Of Steel is out this weekend.  Yes, its a Superman reboot. These are hard to review, because 95 percent who are going to see this movie, decided a year ago that they already love it.

MOS, is an extremely high-budget action flick, brought to us by many of the same producers who rebooted The Batman Dark Night series that was such a huge success.   This has that same type of feel.  MOS goes back and takes us to the beginning of the story.  The origins of "Superman" how he ended up on Earth as a baby, who finds him, what are the ramifications of him on this planet and on his native planet (Krypton), and it's people who have survived the destruction of that planet.  It does a great job of placing a complete fantasy premise effectively into today's world.

This actual story is very well written and very skillfully introduces all the characters you know and remember from the comic book and various TV shows and movies past.  The story is actually very meticulous in attempting to cover all of its bases, and retell a legendary story and at the same time make it feel very new.   High points on writing, character development, and wonderful dialogue.  This boasts a huge cast too, with Russel Crowe, Kevin Costner, Amy Adams, Laurence Fishburne, Diane Lane and what a huge career break for Henry Cavill who is Superman.  There is also a great supporting cast that makes this very legit. So much of this is very likable.

This movie though checks in at 2 hours and 25 minutes, and from my chair wears out its welcome after a while.  Make no mistake, there is no shortage of really slick special effects in this movie and certainly no shortage of action scenes.  But therein maybe some of the problem.   Many of these hot action scenes are so long, and so drawn out that it borders on sensory fatigue.  Some of these scenes reminded me of Transformers, where many were burned out on the same thing happening over and over again in the same scene.   Movie makers certainly do not want to be accused of short changing you on action, and they don't here.  

But a ton of this of very loud and herky-jerky and sometimes some of the fight sequences are hard to follow.  And some of this is so over the top, that there could be some eye rolling even in a superhero sense.  This has a real video game feel to it, and it just keeps coming after you over and over.  And that for many will be the real draw, and some the real turn-off.  But they are betting the video game generation will rule the day, and they will. This is a good example of a movie that falls in love with what they can do, as opposed on maybe what they should do.

Man Of Steel.   Overall, this is entertaining, well written, and is set up for future sequels.  The big cast shines brightly, but in the end, the action makes this the ADD of movies.