When the story finally gets to earth, rather than see a slow progression of growth that hints to Kal-El’s powers, MAN OF STEEL jumps right into the character as a grown man saving workers from a burning oil rig stationed in the ocean. General Zod (played by the wickedly fun Michael Shannon) and his evil gang are captured, but rather than just being killed with the rest of the planet, the council inexplicably sends them away imprisoned in darkness to eventually escape and reign terror over earth in search of Kal-El. Jor-El is running through explosions and diving in pools in order to get his newborn son Kal-El sent to earth’s safety before either General Zod takes over or the planet Krypton destroys itself. Opening up with the planet Krypton, nothing is left to the imagination as we are fed giant beasts and birds that may have come directly from the Phantom Menace side of Skywalker Ranch. Director Zach Snyder thankfully steers away from his usual slow motion technique seen in 300 and THE WATCHMEN, but unfortunately hangs on to the overproduction side of the action. In fact, I believe he is only called that title once. To the filmmakers credit, MAN OF STEEL definitely takes a different route with the Superman character than before. Sadly, while the film was enjoyable, it squanders away so much potential for originality and inspiration by becoming a simple-minded generic CGI action film.

From Christopher Nolan producing to the incredibly subtle yet extremely affective first teaser trailers with voiceovers imparting dramatic wisdom from Superman’s Krypton father Jor-El played by Russell Crowe and another from his earthly father Jonathan Kent played by Kevin Costner, MAN OF STEEL was shaping up to be the event film of the summer that may rival some of superheroes best movies.

Prior to its release, the excitement for MAN OF STEEL had reached near boiling levels.

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