This review may take some time because it has been awhile since I've seen the movie. Once the DVD comes out, I'll make a more full review.
So the Man of Steel is the big Superman Reboot that we have all been waiting for. Gone are the days of Lex being annoying and coming up with lame real estate schemes, no more stalker Superman, no more Nuclear Man, no more Reeves, no more cheesiness. This is a brand new Superman.
We start off, of course, on Krypton. Where Jor-El is trying to convince the Council to abandon the dying Krypton. However, the council, and thus Krypton, have become too complacent. See, in MoS, the Krypton culture are mostly lab grown and everybody has their own role. Scientist, Soldier, Leader, etc. The problem with this is that Krypton grew complacent and just fell apart over the years. Their space program was abandoned and everybody just stayed on Krypton. So they shoot Jor down. it is around this time that Zod barges in with his forces, shoots and arrests the council and announces that he's taking over. And no, there is no "KNEEEEEEEEEEL!" Here. This is a much different, more complex Zod. He chats with Jor and wants his old friend to work with him to Fix Krypton. But Jor can tell that Zod's way is wrong and turns him down. Zod tells his forces to escort him out. Jor goes with them for a little while but then surprises them and takes down the guards and keeps on going, having another plan of his own.
This next part will forever certify Jor as a complete badass.
He rides around on a dragon while Zod's forces are waging war, dives into a massive pool, swims down to the bottom retrieves a thing called the Codex and comes back up. He meets up with Lara and they prepare to send baby Kal to Earth. "He'll be an outcast. They'll kill him." Lara says sadly.
"How?" Jor asks. "He'll be a god to them."
Of course then Zod bursts in and demands to know what the deal is with the child. Jor explains that baby Kal is the last hope for Krypton and is a natural birth, the first one on Krypton in centuries. See the lab grown children info above. Because of that, having children the natural way was against the law. Since Zod more or less follows the law, this is hearsay to him and he attacks Jor. They fight for a bit and Jor gets the advantage. Which does make sense to me. After all, Jor is fighting for the life of his son, is wearing a type of powered armor, and as a scientist it makes sense that Jor would branch out to rise above his station. Combine this with the fact that Zod is most likely underestimating him and it does make sense. While they are fighting it out, Lara preps the shuttle for launch and merges the codex, which contains all genes of Kryptonians within it, with baby Kal. As Jor is watching it start to take off though, Zod pops a knife out of his wrist and stabs Jor, killing him.
Zod goes outside and tells his men to open fire on it but is stopped by the Kryptonian Army and he and his soldiers are arrested.
They are sentenced to the Phantom Zone....but first, Zod has something to say to Lara.
Not long after this though, Krypton starts blowing up. Lara closes her eyes and faces the end alone.
The ship arrives at the Kent Farm and we jump forward into Clark's adult life when he is going through his manbeard phase.
He's helping out on a crab fishing boat as his current job. Which is a pretty good call considering how dangerous those are to people. See Deadliest Catch for more details.
After spending some time on the boat they get a distress call and come upon a burning oil rig. Knowing people are in danger, Clark does what he does best.
So, if anybody starts crying out that 'Superman doesn't save anybody' in this movie, just point to this. It'll shut them right up.
While Clark is in the water, he flashes back to when he was a kid in school and his powers went on the fritz. In particular, his x-ray vision and super hearing. Giving the poor kid some very nightmarish moments; seeing walking skeletons and floating, working internal organs, while hearing loud, unbearable noises coming from all directions. Depending on how strong it was at this point in time, Clark could possibly be hearing every sound for miles and all of it super loud. Understandably, Clark freaks and run out of the class and hides in a closet and locks the door. He also uses a bit of heat vision here and accidentally heats up the doorknob when the teacher tries to open it. During all of this, the other kids are talking shit about Clark to each other and of course the teacher never comments on this.
Martha is called in and sits down next to the door and talks to her son.
There are a few more flashback scenes I want to discuss before moving on. Now, you might say I'm doing this out of order, but I can't recall exactly when the scenes happen so I'm getting them out of the way now. Besides, my Blog my rules.
#1: Bus Flashback.
Kid!Clark is riding on the school bus when playground bully Pete Ross is giving him problems. Lana Lang tells him to knock it off but Pete tells her to butt out and continues giving Clark problems. Clark just ignores him and continues trying to mind his own business. This keeps up until the tire pops and the bus goes over the bridge. The children panic as the bus fills up with water. Clark leaps into action and runs out of the bus out the back and lifts it up out of the water onto the shore and then goes back to save Pete Ross. Pete of course tells his mom about this and she takes it up with Clark's parents. Jonathan convinces her that it didn't happen though to protect Clark's secret.
Clark and Jonathan talk and Jonathan tells him that he has to keep this part of himself a secret. "What was I supposed to do? Just let them die?" Clark asks.
Jonathan looks away, clearly not able to find the right answer to this question. "...Maybe." He says. AT FIRST! Now tons of people take this out of context but really listen to this. I shalt quote the novel here.
*Clears throat dramatically.*
"I just wanted to help." He(Clark)said defensively.
"I know you did." His dad said. "But we talked about this. You have to keep this side of yourself a secret."
"Was I supposed to let them die?"
His father hesitated. His face wrestling with conflicting emotions. (Emphasis mine, Jonathan is clearly hesitating here.)
"Maybe."
Clark stared at him in surprise. He couldn't mean that, could he?
"There's more at stake here than our lives." Jonathan said, trying to explain. "Or the lives of those around us. When the world finds out what you can do, it's going to change everything. Our beliefs, our notions of what it means to be human. Everything." He shook his head solemnly. "You saw how Pete's mom reacted. She was scared, Clark."
"Why?"
"People are scared of what they don't understand Clark."
Now note my bolded points. Jonathan is hesitating here before he answers. He does NOT know the correct thing to say here. Clark is a kid right now and nobody in the world has any experience with supers yet. This is scary to the world. If he showed his powers openly, the government could swoop in and abduct him and lock Clark up as a test subject or even try to kill him. Keep in mind, we don't know when he got bulletproof skin in this version so he could be very vulnerable right now. Clark is a vulnerable kid and Jonathan and Martha know that right now is not the right time to reveal himself.
Following this, Jonathan takes Clark with him into the barn and shows him the ship he came in and explains the truth to him. In a nice nod to Secret Origin, Clark breaks down and just wants to be his son. Jonathan tears up and hugs him. "You are my son."
#2: Bully Flashback.
The next flashback has Kid!Clark in his dad's car just minding his own business when a couple of sicko football jocks who look like they are all in high school, whereas Clark is still a kid right now, start yelling and banging on the side of the car and force it open and drag Clark out and push him around and start threatening him and try to pick a fight all while surrounded by a cheering crowd of sicko friends.
Okay, seriously? You are in a freaking public area, you are not being subtle at all, and you are assaulting a little kid. By all fucking rights, these shits should have had the police called on them or one of the adults in the area should have walked over and knocked the ringleader's teeth out. Or both. But nope! Remember, it's a rule in fiction that bullies get off scott free.
After they wander off to go beat up on more little children, Pete Ross helps up Clark and then leaves as Jonathan comforts Clark. The usual "Don't bust them up, won't prove anything." Yadda, yadda, yadda.
Next.
#3: Tornado Flashback. I'm sure you've heard of this one.
Okay, first of all, they should have hid in a ditch. Hiding under an overpass during a tornado is a death sentence.
Next, Clark should have gone back for the dog. Jonathan is a good guy, but he's also an older man. Clark, even without using his powers, could have made it over there much faster than Jonathan and pulled that door open without blinking an eye, pulled the dog out and ran back over to them, dog in tow. If anybody asked, he could chalk it up to panic/adrenaline or something like that. Hey, that made a woman strong enough to lift a tractor. It's a valid excuse.
Buuut, it is what it is and Mr.Kent dies protecting his son's secret.
I don't like this scene. I think it should have been fixed up a bit.
Anyway, let's check in again with Adult!Clark.
He's working at a bar now on his trip north and is helping clean tables and such when a trucker walks in and starts giving everybody trouble. After getting rather drunk, the trucker starts visibly sexually harassing and grabbing at the waitress and of course, nobody lifts a finger. Clark steps in and tells him to back off. The trucker picks a fight and tries to shove Clark down but shoves himself backwards. Clark's boss fires him. Because a repeat customer/potential rapist is more important to the bar than a badass security guard and the safety of his waitress. She tells Clark the douche isn't worth it anyway and Clark walks out and the trucker continues taunting and throwing things at Clark.
Clark gets back at him though.
And hey, it's better then letting an asshole drunk like him back behind the wheel of a vehicle of any kind, especially with how icy the roads were.
Clark hitchhikes around until he ends up with Lois Lane as her bag carrier. Lois is heading up north as well to investigate what the military believes to be a spaceship.
While Lois banters with the military, Clark walks of to find the ship, using his heat vision to clear away the ice. Lois spots him and follows after Clark, entering into the alien ship. However she is spotted by a robot guard and it zaps her with a freaking laser beam. Krypton tech is built to last man, I mean, this thing was down there for how long? That's pretty impressive. Anyhoo, Clark saves her and fights with the robot and breaks it apart. But with Lois badly hurt, Clark is forced to use his heat vision to cauterize her wound.
Yeah, Lois is having a bad day.
After saving her, Clark drops her off somewhere to be picked up by the military and flies off in the ship.
Around this point, Clark meets AI Jor-El, who shows up to talk to him as a hologram. The best part? He's not a complete dick, unlike another Jor-El AI.
Jor fills Kal in on Krypton, it's past, how it fell apart, and Zod and tells Clark that since he is the first natural birth and contains the Codex within him, he can be the one to bridge the path between the two races and reveals Clark's Superman Uniform and of course, it's time.
OH HELL YES!
Meanwhile, we catch up with Lois and she has made her report and presented it to Perry, but he refuses to run it due to thinking the story is insane, so Lois goes to an internet blogger guy and tells him to run it.
Afterwords, she goes to do some investigating and asks around, follows stories and rumors and follows Clark's trail all the way back to Smallville and to the Kent House. Clark meets Lois and they talk about him and his powers and why he hides himself. Clark points this out to Lois: “My father believed that if the world found out who I really was, they’d reject me out of fear. He was convinced that the world wasn’t ready. What do you think?”
Lois asks him what would happen if she told people about him and Clark just says that he'll disappear again. However Lois makes the observation that the only way for him to truly disappear is to stop helping people and Clark can't do that. After the two get to know each other a bit, she heads back home and tells Perry that she's dropping the story and that her leads didn't pan out.
I like this new Lois. I mean, she's supposed to be smart right? So it makes sense that she would be able to figure out who Clark really is, unlike Classic Lois who is always fooled by glasses.
Afterwords, Clark meets up with his mother and exclaims how happy he is about finally meeting his birth father.
Things take a darker turn though as Zod and his crew have found their way to Earth due to the ship sending out a signal when Clark turned it on and Zod has a message for Earth.
Clark talks to Martha about this and then goes to church to think about it. While talking with the priest, we get symbolism of a stained glass window of Jesus behind him.
You might think this is egregious, but then, I've seen Smallville, sooo...what else you got for me?
Meanwhile, the blogger guy blabs that Lois Lane was his source so the army arrests Lois.
Not long after, Clark turns himself into the military. How you may ask? Alright, check this. When Superman turns himself in to the military, he does so by floating in mid-air at the edge of a military-base, patiently waiting for the soldiers to arrive. As the General notes, he's making the statement that he's more powerful than they are and he's surrendering on his terms, not theirs. Superman acknowledges this and gives his single condition, that he wants Lois to be set free.
That is Superman.
And this is a hilarious interrogation.
Nope, no smiles or jokes in THIS Movie. No siree bob!
Clark stands with Lois with the military behind the two of them as Zod's ship touches down and we are introduced to the hotness that is Faora Hu-Ul, the Tigress of Zod.
The army guy that tells her off? That's Colonel Hardy, our reigning badass normal for this movie. Legend has it that if you put him in the same room as Batman, the universe would implode from the badassery. The reason that Lois is brought on board is twofold.
1: To use her as a backup bargaining chip
2: To psionically probe her mind for information about Earth and Clark and what she knows about him. Lois mentions this.
Once getting on the ship though, things go bad for Clark due to his body being used to Earth's atmosphere and not Krypton's. This causes his body to go into rejections and vomit up blood and collapse. Lois is alright due to the helmet Faora puts on her. In a moment of cleverness though, Superman slips Lois the activation key from his ship that has the Jor-El AI in it just as they are getting on the ship. Since Lois doesn't know the significance of it, the Kryptonians don't know about it when they scan her mind.
Zod also chats with Clark and fills him on what Zod and his crew got up to after getting out of the zone: Finding the debris of Krypton, finding the deserted and dead Kryptonian outposts, and having to re-work the inside of the ship with their own hands to make it workable. Zod informs Clark that they are going to use their machines to terraform Earth into a new Krypton, wiping out the human race and using the codex to re-populate Krypton on it's remains.
Back in reality, Superman wakes up on a table and discovers that his powers are gone due to the Kryptonian Atmosphere. A Kryptonian scientist, Jax-Ur, takes a sample of Clark's blood.
Inside her cell, Lois finds a spot where she can place the key and the Holo-El pops up and starts taking over the ship. He gets Lois out and she finds herself a blaster and, tag-teaming with Holo-El, is able to not only throw down with but also shoot down a few of the soldiers. Military Brat FTW.
Holo-El also changes the atmosphere so Clark's powers can work and he breaks free.
Lois finds her way to an escape pod and ejects herself but it starts messing up and clearly isn't going to make it. Fortunately, Superman is on his way.
On Earth, Zod, Fora and Nam-Ek go to interrogate Martha about the ship and the codex and Foara throws her around a bit. When she tells them to go screw, decides to just kill her.
And Superman makes the save again.
Superman is then confronted by Faora and Nam-Ek.
And so the battle for Smallville begins.
With her helmet busted, Faora starts going into sensory overload, but not before giving Clark a death glare for the ages and delivering a chilling line: "You will not win. For every human you save, we will kill a million more."
with her senses going haywire, a missile hit is able to knock her out but Nam-Ek smacks Supes with a train car and carries Faora off before he can stop them.
With round 1 over, Zod and his team recoup on the ship
Jax-Ur gives Zod the news: The Codex was in Clark's bloodstream. Thus, once he's dead, they can harvest the codex. With this news, Zod gives the signal to begin terraforming while he goes to the Fortress Ship where he intends to use its Growth Codex and embryos to create a new Kryptonian race.
Superman makes a plan with the military: He gives them the Phantom Drive from his ship and the key to activate it. Superman will fly to the Indian Ocean and destroy the World Engine to disable the Gravity shield around Zod's ship so that the military can use the Phantom Drive to send the whole ship back to the Phantom Zone. Lois points out that the atmosphere will weaken him but Clark acknowledges the risk he has to take to save the world and flies off.
Sitting down outside the fortress, Zod whips off his helmet and forces himself to master his senses, removing that weakness.
Going inside, Zod speaks with Jor-El and the Terraforming process begins.
With Zod's ship on one side of the planet and the World Engine on the other, the process starts messing up the planet. Sending out gravity waves, causing a storm, changing the atmosphere and messing up the planet.
The world engine and Zod's ship send out simulatenous gravity beams on both sides of the world and with Superman on his mission and the military struggling to do any damage at all to Zod's ship, the gravity beam starts demolishing Metropolis, killing everyone within the blast radius.
But again, this on ZOD's head, no Superman's.
Speaking of Big Blue, he is going mano-a-machineo with the World Engine.
While the Daily Planet staff do manage to escape the collapse of the building, a woman gets stuck in the rubble but Perry and another employee stand by her to save her, refusing to leave her even with the gravity beam coming ever closer.
Superman destroys the World Engine just in time though and the military can now take it out. There is some trouble though: Zod, Faora and the machine not working right at first.
Zod is flying the ship containing the genetic material from the codex sample and is shooting down jets but Superman manages to recover and returns just in time to confront Zod.
They are not out of the woods yet though, as Faora jumps onto the ship and in typical Faora fashion, starts killing soldiers. Also Lois falls off the ship.
Doctor Hamilton manages to figure out how to activate the machine just in time though and Hardy slams the jet into Zod's ship, sucking Faora and the ship full of Kryptonians into the Phantom Zone.
Superman catches Lois and the two embrace and kiss now that the threat is over with.
Until the rubble shifts and Zod shows up again and we get the final battle.
I want to post something out here for a moment. There have been rumors about Superman killing a lot of people and destroying the city in the final battle. I wish to dash these rumors.
Building #1: Zod punches him through it and it was already damaged anyway.
Building #2: Superman flies into it and then Zod brings it down with heat vision. Building is clearly empty.
Building #3: Parking Garage. They fly into the lower levels and then Zod throws a truck at it. Explosion, but no proof anybody was killed.
Fighting in the street.
Building #4: They wreck some windows and make a hole in it, but no evidence of death.
Building #5: Construction Site. Damage to it, yes, but no death.
Sky Fighting.
Building #6: Zod flies through it and grabs onto Superman.
Building #7: They fight alongside of it and wreck some walls and windows. That's it.
Buildings #8-12: Zod grabs and throws Superman through them. Superman makes holes but again, no deaths.
They take the fight into space and Zod throws a satellite at Supes and then rams into it and tackles Superman. Re-entry and raining down satellite.
Building #13: Train station. Bit of property damage and then Zod fires heat vision. We all know what happens next.
Add to the fact that there were quite clearly a large number of civilians on the streets safely and civilians in the train station and that the majority of deaths and destruction were from the World Engine Terraforming thingy, which again was on Zod and Co and it becomes quite clear that Superman killed nobody except the villain in that final battle.
Also, on Zod's death, I want to point something out: Superman had no way out. No where to put Zod: The Phantom Zone was gone. You can't put him in a normal prison, he'll just wake up, slaughter everybody and then keep on doing it until he runs into Superman again and Superman barely beats him this time. The family was trapped and if Superman didn't do something right then and there, Zod would vaporize that entire family with heat vision. He couldn't fly up, Zod was keeping himself down. Superman had no other options: Either kill Zod or Zod would kill that family, the fight would continue and one of them would die. And if Superman lost, humanity would be screwed.
So yes, Superman kills a villain to save the world.
After this, we jump forward to Superman talking with a General in a field. This takes place months after the battle and the Government has been tracking him with the satellites and Superman took it out. He assures the General that he is American as it gets and that they can trust him but not to track him.
Later, after talking with Martha, Clark Kent goes to the rebuilt Metropolis to get a job at the Daily Planet.
And that was Man of Steel.
It is not a perfect film, but it is an awesome one and it is nowhere near as bad as the haters say it is.
Also, Superman saves the world, so yes, he is a hero.
The actors did a great job, Cavill is amazing as Superman, the fight scenes are fantastic, I could go on but I am going to end this reviw by giving Man of Steel a 10 out of 10 score.
And I for one cannot wait for Superman/Batman: World's Finest in 2015.
