Man of Steel - Movie Review

Starring Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Russell Crowe, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne, Antje Traue, Ayelet Zurer, Christopher Meloni, Michael Kelly, Harry Lennix and Richard Schiff.
Directed by Zack Snyder.

★★½

This Christopher Nolan reboot adds some gravity to the Superman story. Maybe a little too much.  There's a lot of brooding, and it could have used some more fun.  Overall I liked it but it had its issues.

First, we'll start with Krypton. (Ever notice how all other planets have one government running the entire planet?  Earth has something like 180 countries, but how come other planets...?) Anyway, Krypton is about to be destroyed by a people too stupid to stop mining its core for energy.  Now to demonstrate how Krypton is run by the folks from Idiocracy, they have sent out scouting ships to other planets to test sustainability, but all of the projects were abandoned. Not really clear why.  But Jor-El (Russell Crowe) manages to sneak his baby boy on a capsule before the whole thing blows up.

Oh, but before that happens, General Zod (Michael Shannon) tries to overthrow the government and fails.  He and his followers are sentenced to 300 years in the Phantom Zone, a safe place that isn't about to blow up.  So Kal-El isn't the only surviving Kryptonian.  Those resourceful Phantom Zone dwellers survive as well.

Kal-El grows up to be Clark Kent, a drifter who goes from town to town trying to find himself, but as soon as he uses his powers to save lives, he moves on.  He just has to find the right time to go public.  Well, the right time is when Zod shows up and lets the whole world know an alien lives among them.

I just wish it hadn't been so brood-tastic.  This is Superman!  He's an alien!  We started out on another planet that looked like Dune meets Attack of the Clones.  I like that it actually digs into how alienating it must've been for Clark to just pretend he doesn't have powers.  Thing is, Clark's still trying to find himself at age 33.  C'mon, Clark.  Be a man already.

Zod is the villain, and Michael Shannon had no chance of outshining Terence Stamp's "Kneel Before Zod."  This Zod doesn't make the smartest decisions and he doesn't seem to understand anything about diplomacy or leadership, but he thinks he does.  He's like the Santa Anna of space generals.

The rest of the cast does the best they can with what they're given as well.  I liked Cavill; I think in the next movie he'll be allowed to have a little more fun.  Amy Adams wasn't right as Lois Lane, but this Lois wasn't anything like what Lois should be.  This Lois was a device to advance the plot.  She didn't really seem like a reporter.

Couple other points:
- Pa Kent's death was stupid. They should have left it as a heart attack.
- The final battle must have killed a lot of people.  You'd think Superman would have tried to get the fight into a more rural area.
- I did get a kick out of a couple Easter eggs in there.