Man of Steel (2013)

Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

I've wanted to like the character of Superman more than I do, yet it seems like he's too powerful. He has heat vision, cold breath, the ability to fly, he has X-Ray vision, super strength, he's also faster than a speeding bullet, and one time he even flew around the Earth to reverse time. Yet his only weakness is a glowing, green crystal? Well, this movie finally proved me wrong. This movie showed that Superman is a compelling character who's real weakness is his humanity. He's torn between his home on Earth and his birthplace of Krypton, which the villain of this movie exploits to the fullest. Man of Steel also made sense of the Krypyonite weakness as well. Its not that the actual green crystal is his weakness, its that the atmosphere of the Earth has made him powerful, yet on his home plant of Krypton he would become normal. The green crystal isn't a weakness as much as coming in contact with a relic of his home world will strip him of his abilities.

Man of Steel does something different with the origin of its superhero than most modern superhero films. It uses flashbacks to younger versions of Clark Kent who has to suppress his instincts to use his powers, while also showing present day Clark Kent being the powerful person that he is. Man of Steel also distances itself because it makes the point that Superman is actually not of this world, he's an alien, and I don't recall the other films boldly stating that fact. Being that Superman is not of this world, yet appears to be a man, I noticed a parallel between another figure of many stories; that would be Jesus Christ. Both have human parents but were not born of those parents, they were raised with humble beginnings, and while the people actually did turn their backs on Jesus, it was feared that they would do the same thing to Clark Kent if they knew his true nature.

The movie does many things right and most of those moments are it's personal moments between characters. It excels when it comes to the emotional side of the story, and even manages to momentarily make its villain a sympathetic character, which Michael Shannon does convincingly when his character of Zod tells Superman that he's doing what he was born to do. The rest of the cast is just as good in their roles, especially Henry Cavill as Superman/Clark Kent. The Lois and Clark of this movie felt a bit more real in their romance, which is more than I can say for Margot Kidder's version of Lois Lane.

As much as the dramatic side to the movie won me over, when it came to being an action blockbuster, it nearly crumbled. It pains me as a lover of action movies to say that this movie had too much action. It felt like it didn't know when to end, as there were battles after battles and I didn't even know if Metropolis had that many skyscrapers to smash. Despite that fact, Man of Steel may not be the best superhero movie but it is the best Superman movie.