MD – Man of Steel

Man Of Steel is not so much a classic Superman tale as an alien invasion superhero movie. To be precise, with its premise of a super non-human race playing out its familial tiffs on Earth, right down to its small-town showdown and big city face off, its ‘Thor” - albeit without the Kenneth Branagh’s lightness of touch.  And that’s a great shame. Because for all of the interesting bits in Man of Steel, that essentially revolve around the young Clark Kent making choices about who he is and his loyalty between his origins and the potentially judgemental culture that has adopted him, there is very little originality here.

The Superman tale is always encumbered by the potential dullness of his invincibility and therefore part of the saving interest in the character is his struggle to assimilate whilst doing his anonymised good deeds. Here however Clark Kent ignores the perils of others to take on a second comparative persona. Like the equally immortal Logan, he wonders across the US and Canada in solitude seeking answers to the questions of his identity.

The crash-bang-wallop of his run in with a determined General Zod and co is initially impressive – the super-speed and heavy-hitting of their first face-off delivers a solid punch. But by the time face-off number three comes around it has become increasingly tedious.

The acting is generally fine although the charisma void that is Russell Crowe is fast becoming as unwatchable as Nichols Cage. Henry Cavell looks splendid and does all that is asked of him although the chemistry with Amy Adams is far from superhuman. Ultimately for all of the effort that Nolan and Snyder have put in to trying to find a different angle, Man of Steel ends up being a Thor/Wolverine mash-up.

6/10