Man of Steel

The first think that came into my mind after watching the much awaited Zack Snyder film “Man of Steel” was about the director’s signature style slow motion. It’s a movie that has incredible amount of special effects without any sort of slow motion. With Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer doing the writing part with almost all possible layers to give the content some depth, Man of Steel is really worth watching.

Well there is no need to explain the central protagonist as we are all quite familiar with Clark Kent aka Kel-El. Clark who has been hiding his specialties as he believed that the world wasn’t ready to accept him is forced to capitulate before General Zod of Krypton as Zod and his men threatens earth. Clark’s real father Jor-El sent him to Earth along with Codex. Zod who wants to find a new space for Kryptonians decides to use earth for that, but to create a new population of Kryptonians he needs the Codex. The movie is about the fight between Kel and Zod with both of them deciding to be with the ones who they really cared about.

Reconstructing or narrating the basic superman plot isn’t that easy of a task as everyone is quite familiar with the character. It is the non linear narration and the screen play that concentrates more on the emotional shades of this particular character makes this movie an interesting one. The reinterpretations on many of the Superman elements are quite interesting as everything had a very detailed reasoning. Comparing the movie with dark knight series won’t be a smart idea as our central character has all those special talents which normally only helps in enhancing the visual treatment.

Technically, it’s not that typical Zack Snyder film that’s too stylish. The rendering is done in more of a realistic way, even though the character is unbelievably super human. Even the smartly choreographed stunts among the Kryptonians itself had that brutal feel. The screenplay is engaging and the non linear narration gives a fresh feel to the enterprise. The scientific factors they included also impressed me a lot. Dialogs are on the intellectual side, it may not be as sharp as the typical Nolan dialogs but considering the plot they have managed to reconstruct, there is definitely some juice in them. Impressive cinematography and engaging background scores from Hans Zimmer. The visual effects part is really stunning and I really loved the on air fights towards the climax that really had that intensity.

In the performance side, Henry Cavill scores with his appearance and charming face that really suits this kind of a super hero. The antagonist Zod played by Michael Shannon was quite impressive. Russell Crowe showed his experience. Amy Adams does not have much to do as the female lead in this episode. Rest of the cast including Laurence Fishburne, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane and many others also delivered a good performance on screen.

Well, I am thoroughly satisfied with Zack Snyder’s Man Of Steel. Considering the nature of the franchise, they have added enough layers of various flavors. Happily giving a 4/5 for this Christopher Nolan production.  There is no need to keep your expectations low, just keep it sensible. With sequels in the offering, who knows we might get another intellectually elevated super hero.

By Aswin Bharadwaj

Founder and editor of Lensmen Reviews.

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