Superman is a tough nut to crack. A being that is essentially invincible on Earth with amazing super powers is more god than human. It’s hard to root for a guy that seemingly has nothing to worry about. More than 70 years of comic books, 30 years of sporadic movies and a good 20 years of cartoons means there’s a ton of material on Superman. While a tough character to write for, there’s a lot to like about the ultimate boy scout. A true hero to humanity. Man of Steel is the most recent (and a reboot) of the Superman movie universe. After hearing a lot of mixed things about the movie, I’m happy to say that I loved it. It feels honest, grounded and true to the core of who Superman is supposed to be and represent.

Man of Steel is a very fitting title. The beginning of the movie starts with Superman’s birth and jumps around a bit from his adolescence and adult hood. I like how they handled his origin and arrival on Earth. While it’s something you’d think everyone would know by now, it’s interesting to watch and sets up General Zod perfectly for his role as the antagonist. The beginning shows us his luck of being raised by good people who show him the path to being good. And through his formative years, it seems like he can’t help but be good. He’s a natural defender.

But fear suppresses him. His foster father Jonathan Kent repeatedly tells him that the world isn’t ready to see what he can do, so he needs to stay off the radar. It’s a real and scary struggle for Clark and rightfully so in a world where many people are wary of others just from skin color that’s a different shade from their own. For awhile, Clark thinks he’s just different from everyone. Abnormally stronger, faster and with heightened senses than everyone else. So the time comes where Pa Kent shows him the space ship they found him in. That would make anyone wonder who they are and what the hell happened to him. Why is he here?

That’s the core of Man of Steel. Who is he in this world? What would motivate an alien being to become his adopted planet’s protector? Why would he do it with the threat of an entire planet afraid of him? It’d be just as easy to go the other way, either take off or break bad. That other half shows up to Earth as General Zod, who believes Kryptonians are the master race and damn anything that he sees beneath him.

I really liked the set up of the over arcing story. Clark finding out where he comes from and who he really is. Lois Lanes introduction and coming into his life. General Zod threating the planet to get Clark to come out and into the open. The fear of a crazy powerful being that’s been hidden on earth for decades (loved the scene with Superman turning himself in to the feds and he’s got handcuffs on that might as well be made of air and the discussion he has with General Swanwick. The last talk they have at the end of the movie is great too). The action scenes completely deliver as well. Way better than anything in Superman Returns (2006). Kryptonians fighting is a lot of fun to watch, the possibilities and level of destruction are near infinite.

It’s a great looking movie too. Some great special effects work that can look rather cartoonish, but I think that’s unavoidable considering the power these beings are throwing around. The strength and force they exert is something you’d never be able to see normally, so seeing someone hop huge distances and whipped around like a rag can look bizarre. I didn’t mind it though as it’s really high quality work and it’s a Superman movie so if I didn’t see crazy action, I’d be upset. Speaking of crazy action, I read a lot of viewer dismay over the destruction in this movie. Pretty much all of Metropolis gets leveled and they wanted to see Superman save every single person in sight. While that’s admirable, it doesn’t work that way. Read any of the most popular Superman books and animated shows and things simply get obliterated. He does save everyone he can in the movie and ultimately saves the entire planet, so I really don’t understand the gruff the movie got from that standpoint. Yes he’s fast, but he can’t be in two places at once. This fight is the first time Clark went all out with his powers and he’s up against beings who are just as strong and are all about planetary genocide. Was Superman supposed to fly around and catch everything that fell for an hour? Who wants to see that? Superman also kills someone which threw up a bunch of arms in disgust, but I think it was done right (for the most part). Given what’s happening, he doesn’t have much choice and is directly defending innocent people from a monster. The only fault I see is that while Superman shows remorse, it’s fleeting. A couple of seconds and it looks like he’s over it and we’re off to the next scene. My hope is that they refer to it in the next movie. It’s a decision that Superman has to live with and grow from now. This is his first outing, so I expect this hero not to do everything right on the first try. He has to figure out all of his potential for good on his own, there is no one like him now.

Finally, I loved the direction and the soundtrack. I only question the one redundant scene near the middle of the movie where Jor-El is telling Clark about his home and General Zod. It covers the exact ground that the intro does. With an 2 hour and 20 minute runtime, cutting out one of those scene (I think the intro would be easiest to cut as the speech with the visual aids in the ship covers everything faster) would only benefit the movie. Henry Cavill is a fantastic Superman and I completely loved Michael Shannon as General Zod. Fantastic villainous performance (love Antje Traue as Faora-Ul too). Great work from Russell Crowe as Jor-El; Kevin Costner and Diane Lane as the Kent’s are great too.

While there are a ton of rumors going around about the sequel that concern me (it could turn into an oversaturated mess like Spider-Man 3), I hope Zack Snyder and company can knock it out of the park again.