Man of Steel

Rating : 6/10
Release Date : 14th June, 2013
Time : 143 minutes
Director : Zack Snyder; Writers : Christopher Nolan, David S Goyer based on the character Superman created by Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster; Music : Hans Zimmer
Starring : Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Diane Lane, Russell Crowe, Kevin Costner, Laurence Fishburne, Antje Traue, Harry Lennix, Richard Schiff, Christopher Meloni, Ayelet Zurer



This is a Hindi movie masquerading as a Superman film, with lots of wonderful but overdone special effects. Henry Cavill as Superman is discovering himself through the film, finding reserves of power which you wonder why he didn’t use when he was getting bashed up by the bad guys. The baddies try every trick in the Hindi film book, including kidnapping the mom and the girlfriend. Amy Adams as Lois Lane is transformed into a near superwoman, who does stuff she isn’t qualified to and comes up with solutions which neither scientists or her beau can. And all this in the backdrop of alien ships, lots of explosions and skyscrapers collapsing dramatically

Henry Cavill is sent to Earth from Krypton moments before its collapse by his parents, Russell and Ayelet. His new parents, Kevin and Diane, spend a lot of time trying to unsuccessfully get him to conceal his superpowers, worried about the reaction of the rest of the world to something they don’t understand. Henry becomes a drifter, moving from job to oddjob. However, when General Zod (Michael Shannon) and his cohorts come looking for him, the time for hiding is gone, Henry has no option but to reveal himself. The only one who knows his secret is Lois Lane, the two of whom mutually fall in love at first sight shortly after he saves her life.

The climax is way too overdrawn, too many things blown up, too much of the ‘America is the center of the universe’ kind of stuff, quite predictable in lots of ways. There are a lot of things that don’t entirely make sense – the solution that Amy comes up with, the role of the Codex, the powers that the visitors from Krypton have…

The movie has its moments as does Henry Cavill, whom I found a bit wooden though, despite his Greek God, statuesque looks. What I did find fascinating was the central question – if someone with powers like Superman were really discovered on Earth, would we treat him as a threat or would we embrace him, worship him as a God ? I think the jury is still out on that one…