Man of Steel (2013)

A retelling of the Superman origin story as a grim and epic disaster movie. “Retelling” implies “telling” which implies a coherent story, which this is not quite – what is presented through most of the film is a sequence of dramatic moments instead of a story. There is no meaningful character development, too much shaky-cam, plenty of absurd situations and dialogue that is disappointingly stupid, for the most part. Which is entirely consistent with the disaster movie genre.

All that said, I enjoyed this more than I expected to. Kal-El is set up as both the morally good Superman of his classic origin, and as an alien who feels alien and due to his upbringing by his human parents, is taught to not fully trust humans with himself, and by proxy to not fully trust humans. The Kryptonian combat scenes are well-realized, and the final outcome of Kal-El versus Zod feels logical, if at odds with the traditional morality of Superman. Henry Cavill exudes compassion, charisma and an effective unreal alien presence. The devastation of Metropolis is clearly set up to be a landmark event of the DCEU, and I look forward to seeing how it will play out in subsequent films.

Up next: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice: Ultimate Edition: Unnecessary Semicolons Abound.