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Movie of the Summer (so far...)

Movie: Man of Steel
Contributor: Hunter
Rating: 8/10
This was the comment made by one of my good friends after seeing the movie last night in Downtown Disney. I know, summer has hardly arrived, but this one may be tough to beat as far as summer blockbusters go. This film had the action, had the special effects, had the comic relief, but did not have good character development. Regardless, it was definitely worth the money to watch it in the theaters.

Henry Cavill certainly played his role of muscly, hunky superhero quite well. Cavill has the ability to effectively show off internal identity angst much better than some of his predecessors. Amy Adams also was impressive and was reminded me of a more talkative Maya (played by Jessica Chastain in last year's Zero Dark Thirty). However, Michael Shannon gets my vote for MVP of this film with a very convincing performance as the evil General Zod. Finally, Russell Crowe, if you're listening, thank you for not breaking out into song.

Two things wrong with this movie: One, and something very common with high-action films, there were about 20-30 minutes of "fighting" that came across more as space-filler rather than legitimate, necessary conflict. In the midst of all of that, they tried and failed to create some sort of mini-plot with some of the minor cast of the Daily Planet. Two, there was little to no character development. The movie utilizes a series of flashbacks that really restrict the viewer from creating a sound chronological understanding of Superman's past struggles. It comes across not as Clark Kent discovering he is Superman, but rather, Superman building up reasons to protect humanity, which I guess works for what the movie was trying to accomplish, but it just detaches itself from the audience.

Perhaps the writers just assumed that everyone knew how the story would end and didn't fiddle with the details and focused on the explosions. C'mon writers, don't get lazy! Otherwise, this was a pretty good movie; better than what critics are saying on average in my opinion. Go check it out, or if you want to wait until it's on DVD or something, do that.

Written June 17, 2013
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