Man of Steel (2013)

I watched Man of Steel about a week ago. I was never a fan to superhero movies, but my colleagues had a spare ticket so I decided to tag along. The movie gave me a fresh perspective about Superman. To  Superman fans, the story is not that different. They said it's like watching the short version of Smallville. I was impressed since the first time I sat on my seat. I remember thinking, "We've come a very long way to make this kind of effects in a movie." The first scene depicts Superman's home planet, Krypton. The CGI was extraordinary. The creatures, environments, and all alien technologies are drawn beautifully.

Despite all of the computer graphics, Man of Steel tells the very basic story of Kal-El (portrayed by Henry Cavill). How he was sent to earth, how he grew up differently from everybody around him, how he learnt to control his power to hide his identity, and so on. Unfortunately the 2 hours and 28 minutes movie barely covers all of Superman's stories. Half of the time is used to portray the epic battle between Superman and General Zod's armies, causing the plot for the initial story to move faster. It felt like I jump and skip a few chapters in a book.

I noticed a cooler ambiance in Man of Steel due to the blue and grey color tone that were used in the movie. It felt familiar with the ambiances of Nolan's other movies like The Dark Knight Trilogy. It was probably Nolan's style, but it certainly triggers gloomy and sad feelings from the audiences as the movie moves forward. Building to the last scenes, there were quite a lot overkill in the CGI effects. It felt unnecessary to bring out all of the effects for some simple character movements. Other than that, everything turns out great.

Man of Steel ends rather sad for Kal-El. He was the only Kryptonian who can build a bridge between his race and human race so that they can live side by side, but because of General Zod's selfishness he was forced to bring an end to his own race. Cavill successfully bring the human side of Kal-El when he screamed in frustration and sadness after he killed General Zod and realized that he is now alone in the whole world.

Totally worthy watching it in the theater. There aren't that many 3D effects, so I would prefer the 2D version.

Here's a trailer of Man of Steel.