Movie Review : Man of Steel

"What a day !", thought Superman as he flew over Metropolis and turned to fly towards his home. The night was getting darker and Superman smiled as looked down and saw all the people going about their lives, preparing to go to their beds to start afresh with the sun the next day. He paused and saw a family sitting down to dinner and contemplated his own loneliness. The ideals and responsibilities sometimes felt like a burden.

"Help ! Somebody please help !", a voice from a building.

Superman burst in through the window of the apartment from where the voice had come, "It's alright. I'm here."

"Easy there big guy.", said a deep hoarse voice. Gotham's Dark Knight stepped out the shadows. Superman stepped back a little and remained silent for a few moments.

"Are-are you the Bat-guy, the vigilante, from Gotham City?"

"I'm someone that the city deserves, but not the one it- "

"Wait a minute, I know you. You're that billionaire Bruce Wayne. Did you not know I had X-ray vision?"

"I'd hoped you would identify me sooner, Mr. Clark Kent." said Batman in his hoarse voice "I'm here to talk to you about a group we call the Justice League. This flashdrive has all the information you would nee-"

"Hey, now I know who you are. Do you still need to talk in that voice."

"Ummm.. I am kind of in the character right now."

"Alright…so, who's 'we'?"

"Some other costumed freaks with a hero complex, like you and me. You must've known something big is coming. You must've expected me."

"Yeah, I know" said Superman taking the flashdrive and turning to look out the window. "I'll let you know what I think about it. How will I find y-?"

The room was empty.

Superman smiled and flew out the window.

Had this scene been there in this movie with Christian Bale as Batman I would have literally exploded with excitement. I really mean literally exploded. You could've found bloody chunks of my body splattered all across the theater.

WARNING: This is a SPOILER-FILLED review and is presented in IMAX 3D. So, put on your glasses and jump in…

Why apologize for a name?

So, the movie begins with the birth scene of Kal, son of El, who is our protagonist, the Man of Steel . Come to think of it, Kal-El and Clark Kent are the only names he is given in this movie. I think there's only one dialogue where they refer to him as Superman and that too apologetically. You have to understand that Superman is a character that has been around for more than 70 years. The time when the character was created the word 'Super' is what 'Cool' and 'Awesome' are today.

'Super' in the old days was what 'Cool' and 'Awesome' are today.

But, the original character has now become a cultural icon. His shield with the red 'S' and yellow background is one of the most recognizable symbols in the world. And also, 'Coolman' or 'Awesomeman' would not find much takers would they? So the name stayed, but why use it apologetically?

One of the most easily recognizable symbols around the world

A Great Beginning

So, back to the birth scene. You have Lara and Jor-El in a room and Lara is giving birth to our protagonist. It is a really good scene. One can see that the surroundings are foreign and you have futuristic robots hovering about, that is, it is an alien world. A shot of the planet is shown and you see strange animals on the planet and strange ships flying about in the background. Also, there is a disintegrated moon or another planet that is faintly visible in the sky. It is clear you are not on Earth. But you have the father holding the mother's hands while she gives birth to the child. It, thus, has a very human touch and instantly connects the audience to this strange world.

Next we see Russell Crowe as Jor-El explaining to some council that the planet is about to blow up because they harvested the core to its limit. Instead, they should have gone to the stars. Krypton will be destroyed. Here I felt there was an attempt at social commentary about how humans are overusing the earth's resources. Russell Crowe is great by the way.

BOOM ! There's an explosion and General Zod enters with bang and shoots down the guards. His Introduction is quite crisp. He means business and coolly shoots and vaporizes a council member who had asked him on whose authority he was taking over. The man has a gun, he needs no one's authority. Then, there is a quick conversation between him and Jor-El, and here is another attempt at social commentary. Both of them want the same thing: Survival of their race, but their methods are different. We get a dictatorship vs. democracy debate between the characters. Also, I got a little sense that there may be more to Zod's character, maybe something like an ideology.

Next Jor-El has to find a Codex or something that is like a blueprint of Kryptonian DNA to help save his people. He goes to this huge field where Kryptonian children are artificially made. A robot warns him that he is committing a crime. His reply is :"Nobody cares anymore…the world is about to come to an end". The field where the children are artificially made reminded me of the field of pods in 'The Matrix'

The pods from 'The Matrix'

They could have shown a simple scene where he goes to a room or somewhere and steals this Codex. But, instead there is this big elaborate chase scene and ships are flying into each other and stuff is blowing up like a war is being waged. These shots set up the tone of the movie that you can expect similar elaborate CGI explosions and destruction throughout the film. Jor-El is on an Dragon like creature from 'Avatar' and the animal is hurt and dying. I don't know whether we were supposed to care for that creature. It would have died anyway when the planet would blow up.

I didn't care.

Like Jor-El said: "Nobody cares anymore …".

So Jor-El steals this broken charred skull that is the Codex which is the blueprint for all Kryptonian children. An incomplete skull was the object that stored the blueprint. A skull (part of the skeleton) signifies this object is what provides the basic underlying structure to the newborn children. But it is incomplete and hence signifies that people cannot be formed using templates. Even if they are something would be still missing. It was a really simple and powerful visual. That is what I thought, maybe I am reading too much into this.

Then he plugs it into some device and there is a light show and finally the black crystal we have in the trailers comes out.

And one beam of light hits the baby Kal-El and somehow the genetic info of the race is encoded into him. Thus, still an infant Kal-El becomes the last hope for his people. As he is lifted up into his ship all that is ringing in your head is what Jor-el said: "Our hopes and dreams go with you".

As you can see there were many elements of science fiction, social commentary and great action scenes in the beginning of this movie. This nicely sets up the movie and you hope the experience would be great.

'I WILL FIND HIM !'

As the ship is leaving Zod approaches and then there is a hand to hand fight scene which was nice. Up to this point Zod's character is fine. You can understand his motivations and what he does.

But as the ship has finally left (more precisely, jumps to light speed, punch it?), out of nowhere he just screams and stabs Jor-El. This was the first scene that sprung doubts into my mind that this movie might not be that great after all. All of them were going to die so killing Jor-El now made no sense. Zod's character turned into a mindless murderer for the audience to hate. Also, after this scene the next two scenes also increased my doubts. I don't mind the scenes but the dialogue in those scenes is not that great. First, the scene where Zod and his henchmen are being sentenced to some conditioning for some amount of cycles to the Phantom Zone. You hear "Jor-el was right", so you know the big explosion is coming soon. But I am talking about the "Do you think your son is safe? I will find him!" dialogue.

So as Zod is being forced back he comes to Lara and says the dialogue. Then he says it again. Then yet again. And finally screams it again. At this point I imagined myself having a chat conversation with Zod

me: Umm….Mr.Zod wat did u say?

Zod: I will find him.

me: Pardon me, can u pls repeat?

Zod: I will find him.

me: Sry, but u were nt clear d last time.

Zod: I will find him.

me: wut?

Zod: I WILL FIND HIM !

me: kk

I don't know, maybe I am nitpicking over small things.

(At this point I heard a whisper in my ear,"big explosions are coming up soon focus on those"… I turned to look,"The people from the studio ! Is that you?"), but this stood out to me and took me out of the movie for a bit. I don't understand why they couldn't have given him better lines. Then the Zod and gang are banished to the Phantom Zone. I liked that they treated the Phantom Zone like a portal in space or maybe a black hole with a triangular opening. Not like a floating shiny parallelogram that was in the first Superman movie.

The shiny floating parallelogram from Superman (1978).

The next scene where the whole planet is blowing up and Lara is standing there talking to the robot. I think it would have been better if they had skipped the dialogue and had her just stand there watching as the explosions come closer, instead she reminds us :"Jor-El was right" as if saying "Don't forget about him people, he would be back"

Again, I could be nitpicking over small things(a whisper). Maybe they could have left the last dialogue: "Make a better world than ours Kal."

And Boom ! There is an explosion with the circular shock-wave known as the Praxis Effect (named after the Klingon moon Praxis that gets blown up in Star Trek VI). Another example is the Death Star explosions in Star Wars (Special Edition of course). A melancholy tune is playing the whole time.

Star Trek VI : The Undiscovered Country

No Humor, yet

Upto this point the movie has been dark and sad. As Kal-El's ship comes out of hyperspace(punch it?) next to Saturn and is approaching Earth the music changes to the Hans Zimmer score from the trailers and it makes your skin crawl with excitement. You hope that the tone would lighten up and there would be some humor. It's supposed to be a Superman movie !

First Contact

The way the ship crashes on earth is similar to some Sci Fi movies when aliens crash land to earth. As it is seen further the movie is also about first contact, that is, what would happen if humanity came in contact with another intelligent extra-terrestrial race.

Star Trek First Contact

Next we see a clip from an episode of Discovery Channel's 'Deadliest Catch' and Superman was on that show. Nah,I am just kidding. The adult Clark Kent is now roaming the world to find his purpose and wherever he goes he saves people in danger. On the ship others refer to him as 'Greenhorn' as he is new to the ship and does not understand how the things work. Well, he is a 'Greenhorn' to the planet as well and has to understand humanity in order to become its savior.

Establishing the Hero

There is the scene where the oil rig is about to blow up and people are trapped in there somewhere. Kal-El goes inside the structure that is on fire and he tears open the door of the room that has people trapped in there and then he just stands there with flames covering his whole body.I don't know if that shot of him standing there is meant to mean something more than establishing that he is indestructible.

Then, there is a flashback to a time when he saves a bus full of his classmates from drowning. I think these two scenes of him saving humans are great and are needed to give the film a human touch and help establish the protagonist as a hero.

X-Men

Moving on, there is a flashback to Kal-El's childhood where you can see he cannot concentrate as his mind gets overloaded with all the stimuli from the environment. It is also a good scene. It reminded me of X-men (the movies and the animated series), not anything specific but the situation was similar. You have a child with powers he cannot understand or control and the world around him is too much. Society thinks of him as an anomaly and he feels persecuted. Similar to all origin stories in X-men.

'Superior-man' and the Kents

There is this scene where the boy Clark can see everyone with his X-ray vision and sees the skull, the bones and internal organs. I think that scene had a nice touch to it. He can see human beings for who they really are, beyond the racial and gender differences quite literally. He sees us for what monsters we really are and accepts us. He is thus superior to us all.

Also, in that scene you have Ma Kent explaining and teaching him how to control his powers. That too was a good scene. You see how important the Kents are in bringing up Superman and making him into what he is. You see I have always thought that if superman had the immense powers that he had and was literally indestructible what prevented him from taking over the earth and be its ruler. It's not like we could destroy him, even with a nuclear weapon. It was his upbringing by two simple farmers who instilled in him a sense of justice and respect. That is why he is superman.

A Messiah from Outer Space

Next there is the scene where the parent of the fat kid from the bus is there at the Kent's house and she is talking about Clark as if he is a messiah, a Christ-like figure. The movie has attempted many times to stress this allegory. There is his birth on Krypton which is different from the way they naturally conceived children. The dialogue: "He'll be a God to them". There are a few others which I noticed which I'll mention when we get there. Again, maybe I am reading too much into this.

Pa Kent is confused

So, Clark and Pa Kent are on the back of a pick-up truck. Pa is angry at him for using his powers to save the kids on the bus. Young Clark asks him: "What should have I done, just let them die?"

I thought that this was a rhetorical question. But, Pa Kent answers him : "Maybe". This scene was in the trailers too. I did not buy the answer "Maybe" in the trailers and also did not buy it in the movie, (even if it was in IMAX 3D, :-P). We all know it is his destiny to become Superman. I cannot imagine any superhero letting people die just because it would compromise his identity. And what identity were they trying to hide. Practically all of Smallville knew that something was special about him.

Then there was again a flashback sometime later where Pa Kent tells him that he would change the world. I mean I'm not sure what he wants. He either wants him to hide, not reveal himself and not save people in danger because the world was not ready for someone like him. Then he keeps on saying that he was meant for something greater and he would change the world. Which one is it Pa Kent?

Back to the scene, he knows that he cannot understand why Clark was sent to earth or what his purpose is. All he can give him are guidelines about how humans behave and he tells him straight up that it was up to Clark to find out his own destiny. There are similarities in dialogue in the old Superman movie and this one.

Then there is the bar scene. All that scene does is provide information about some ship stuck in ice. It tells us that Superman also has super-restraint and control but an all-too-human need to channel his anger. I could have done without this scene.

Lois Lane and no Daily Planet

Next we get our introduction to Lois Lane. She is aggressive and quick like we know her to be . So, she is at this military facility somewhere in the arctic and people are telling her that some ship has been there for 20,000 years. I think I saw Helo and Gaeta from Battlestar Galactica somewhere.

So, like a good reporter she sets out in the night to explore the mysterious object. But she is not alone, Clark is also there in the shadows and anyone could pass him on as an average Joe. This movie did not have the Daily Planet scenes where Clark Kent the reporter hides among the shadows like an average man. Those scenes were great and were also the source of humor in those movies something this movie lacked. Instead, these few scenes at this military station are what come close to those scenes and some slight attempt at humor.

Jor-El is practically alive!

So, Clark and Lois are exploring this ship and Clark finds out that piece of crystal that has the Superman emblem is actually a Kryptonian USB pendrive that has Jor-El's consciousness stored on it. What ! So he is not dead yet. I mean he was stabbed, so his body is gone. But his memories and consciousness are still there. But that means he is practically still alive. Ok, I have no problems with that. More Russell Crowe is not a bad thing. But the point of Zod stabbing Jor-El so that the audience identifies him as the villian is gone.

Nikon vs Canon and Kal-El the surgeon

So, on this ship a robot attacks Lois and stabs her. Probably because she was using a Nikon camera and the robot preferred a Canon. I don't know. Then Clark comes up and performs laser surgery on her with his laser vision and saves her life. We are introduced to his superpower and Lois Lane gets to sleep on the ice overnight out in the open.

Global Warming warnings?

Now Clark is on this ship and Jor-El reveals himself. He recaps the first few scenes of this movie, the events on krypton. I Have already said the similarities between the way Kryptonian people used up their planet's resources which eventually destroyed their race and their planet and the way environmentalists warn about the consequences of climate change are striking .Then he practically repeats what Pa Kent has been saying. There are lofty ideas about Clark's destiny , about him being a symbol of hope and an ideal, about him being something like a shepherd so that he can guide the people of earth and help them not make the same mistakes(again the climate change reference?). Again there are references to him being a Christ-like messiah figure.

Communist Undertones?

Then there is a description of the system by which children are born into Krypton. Apparently the Kryptonians had developed the methods used to artificially make babies that would be used by the machines in 'The Matrix'. Here I felt there were a few Communist undertones in the movie. The society on Krypton had predefined structure and destiny for those born into it. Kal-El's birth was seen as a symbol that he may forge his own destiny. Earlier in the movie when Zod hears this he screams :"Heresy !". Also, I think there were attempts to portray Zod as a communist leader. First of all his shield on his chest looks similar to the communist sickle. For comparison here is Zod's Shield along with Superman's shield from Red Son

I don't know, again, I may be reading too much into this.

"Go out and fly and stuff"

Back on the ship, Jor-El now gives Clark the suit and what he says next is practically this :"I think we have talked enough about you being a symbol of hope and all. Here is the suit. Go out and be Superman."

A lot of foreshadowing

There has been a lot of foreshadowing in this movie up to this point with lofty ideas about Clark being a hope for humanity and references to Christ-like figure to help us accept an alien's transformation into a superhero. This is similar to the foreshadowing in 'The Dark Knight' movie about Harvey Dent's transformation from an idealistic lawmaker into a cold-blooded murderer. You know the dialogue: "Either you die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain".

Superpowers and great CGI

Okay, now we have superman and he is attempting to fly. There were reference to the old comics where superman could not fly but jump large distances. The explanation was that Krypton's gravity was much higher than earth. You know like human astronauts can jump large distances on the moon. But now Superman has all these amazing powers and the explanation is the yellow sun vs the red sun. Read the comic books or search the internet if you want to know more. k?

The shots of him flying are amazing by the way. The transition from the CGI flying man and the real man is unnoticeable. Here you proper use of today's CGI as a means to tell the story.

Forced Romance

At the Daily Planet, you see the Pulitzer-prize winning reporter Lois Lane has written an article about the incidents at the arctic and Morpheus would not accept it. So, she goes to this website editor to get it published so as to "let my mystery man know that I know about him". My expression at hearing this was exactly the same as that of the website editor, a raised eyebrow. I know the scene where Clark heals her and these scenes are there to develop the love story between the two characters, but I did not buy these scenes. Something was lacking, what they call chemistry.

Death of Pa Kent

So, Lois Lane sets out on this journey to find out who her "mystery man" is. She essentially tracks him down and asks him why he had kept his identity a secret. Then we get another flashback about how Pa Kent died. Now in the original Superman movie Pa Kent dies of a heart attack. That scene in that movie is one of the most powerful scenes.

Pa Kent has been telling a young Clark about how he believes he was sent there for a reason and about how he needs to find his destiny, that is, basically what Pa Kent in this movie has been telling him. Then, Pa Kent suddenly grabs his chest and falls to the ground. Clark knows that he cannot do anything about it. This is the first time he realizes the limitations of his powers. He may have all the incredible superpowers that he has but he does not have the power to prevent people from dying. It was a really simple and powerful scene.

In this movie, you have this incredible tornado that takes Pa Kent away and Clark just stands there because Pa Kent had gestured him to stay. The point of the scene was, as Clark narrates it to Lois, is that his father sacrificed himself to keep his identity a secret because he believed the world was not ready. Like I said before, practically all of Smallville knew something was special about him. A reporter had managed to track him to his house. That death scene was in vain. Maybe the filmmakers knew it, so to add more emotional strings to it they had Pa Kent save their dog and had Clark and him argue like young Luke Skywalker does with uncle Owen in the beginning of Star Wars.

Set-up and no pay-off

There is also a bit of set-up in this movie as to how the world would react if it found out the existence of an alien with god-like powers who had been living with us for some 30 years. Pa Kent has repeatedly warned the audience. Then Morpheus at the Daily Planet also asks Lois Lane but in essence he is asking the audience. The payoff of this set-up should have been some sort of reactions shots of different ways people from different cultures would react. But this payoff never came.

Zod is a fan of 'The Dark Knight'

Next we see Zod has arrived on earth, finally. Maybe, on his journey to earth he watched 'The Dark Knight'. Like the Joker he too makes a similar demand that Batman/Kal-El reveal himself or people would start dying.

Juxtapose !

Then Clark goes to this church because he is not sure what to do. He cannot trust Zod nor can he trust the people of earth. Here again visual cues to him being a Christ-like figure are prominent. As he talks to the priest there is a glass painting of Jesus in the background. It is a classic visual trick of juxtaposition, showing similarities between the person in your story and a person in a painting in the background.

Still No Humor

Next he goes to the military compound to surrender. The execution of that scene where all personnel are pointing their guns at him and he is slowly revealed as floating above them is great. He is quite literally and figuratively above them, that is, us humans. This scene and a few subsequent scenes (Kal-El using his Xray vision, "What does the S stand for?") are some of the few attempts at humor in this brooding, lofty and sometimes dark movie which is quite, as I have already said, uncharacteristic for a Superman movie. You can understand if a Batman movie is of that nature as the character is supposed to be dark. But Superman is a character that symbolizes hope. Lack of humor for such a character is out of place.

Chemistry

Next you have Lois Lane and Clark Kent standing in the desert and waiting for Zod's ship to arrive. Here again we are forced to accept that something romantic is going on between them. But all I saw was a brooding Clark Kent looking at an emotionless Lois Lane. Don't get me wrong I think both of them are fine actors. Henry Cavill is great in the role and the material he is given, as is Amy Adams as Lois Lane. But I thought, and I am mostly wrong in these regards, that they did not have what they call chemistry.

Some great visuals

The shot with him standing outside the barricades while the military people are standing behind him waiting for the aliens to come reminded of the scenes from 'The Day The Earth Stood Still' and 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'. Like I have said, I appreciated these visual similarities to first contact Sci Fi movies.

The Day the Earth Stood Still

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Then Zod's ship arrives and his second-in-command, I don't know her name, comes out. She greets Kal-El and then asks for some unknown reason for Lois Lane to come with them to Zod.

"I’ll keep you by my side

With my superhuman might

Kryptonite

Yeah!!"

Next on the ship we witness Kal-El's weakness. He becomes weak in Kryptonian environment. Before the movie came out there was talk about that Kryptonite was completely ruled out.

Well, I don't think they have completely ruled it out. They haven't touched it so it might be back.

Alien Invasion

As he passes out you have him and Zod talking inside their heads or something. The scenes are very visual and simple and quickly get the message across that humans will have to die to let krypton survive. By the way the terraforming device looks like the alien ships from 'War of the Worlds' and the way it shoots down a laser beam reminded me of ships that shoot down lasers in 'Independence Day'.

War of the Worlds

Independence Day

The visual similarity of the ships is not all that is similar to these two films. At this point this movie does feel like an Alien Invasion movie as essentially aliens from another world want to take over the earth.

Damsel-in-Distress

So, next Lois Lane puts the Jor-El USB pendrive into the ship and Russell Crowe is back, again("Jor-El was right."). Then he becomes a traffic policeman and signals Lois Lane in the direction to go. They gave Lois Lane some stuff to do so that she becomes more than a damsel-in-distress for Superman to save. Oh, wait I spoke too soon….she is falling down in a metal chamber and Superman has to save her.

As both of them going down you are again shown the forced romance between them. At this point you are like :"Fine fine, I get it". Then you realize the unknown reason she was invited on the ship in the first place. Yeah, you got it, so she could get into some trouble so that Superman can save her.

More foreshadowing

Before all this you again have Jor-El continuing the repetitive foreshadowing of this movie that Kal-El was meant for something greater, hope for humanity and all that stuff. Then as he is leaving the ship to save Lois you get another visual cue that he is a Christ-like figure. As he floats away his arms are outstretched and his body is in the shape as if he is on a cross.

DRAGON BALL Z

Will Kal-El save Lois Lane as she hurtles towards earth and to her doom? Will General Zod find the Codex and be successful in recreating the Krypton race? Will Jor-El or Pa Kent return to continue the foreshadowing? To find out don't miss the next exciting episode of Dragon Ball Z !

Well that's what the movie is from this point onwards. Don't get me wrong, I love Dragon Ball Z, it's just that the fight scenes that come next reminded of the fights in Dragon Ball Z. By the way it would be great to see a fight between Goku and Superman.

People are punching each other and they are flying into buildings and rocks which are crumbling like sand structures. There is metal and glass everywhere and explosions every 2 minutes. It is fun to see these great action scenes in the beginning but when they continue for 10-15 minutes continuously they become mind-numbing, monotonous and boring. But these huge and loud battle sequences are now the mainstay of most blockbuster movies. It is not a movie if does not have these loud and epic endings.

First of all you have this fight with Zod and it just mindless punching and explosions. You see Zod cannot focus his attention like Kal-El has learnt to do. Next you have fights with Zod's second-in-command and some other guy. That is again crashing and blowing things up. Also I remember it had some horrible dialogue about evolution or something. Oh wait, the dialogue is not horrible, you have a Christ-like figure punching someone who is speaking in favor of Darwinian evolution. Now I get it.

What I liked about this fight scene is that the Kryptonians have super speed and super strength on earth so they must move really fast for the human eye and should fight really quick. Like if a Kryptonian was punching you, you would not see him/her coming. Much like the Kaio-Ken attack in Dragon Ball Z. Their movements and attacks would also be faster like having a Mask of Madness from World of Warcraft.

So, Kal-El saves some people's lives and the commanding officer there tells his subordinates : "This man is not our enemy." Ok, finally people are accepting him as their savior.

What do you do with villains? Send them to a Black Hole !

Next you see Zod has released the 'War of the Worlds' devices. One of them lands in Metropolis and the other somewhere in the Indian Ocean. Both of them start altering the environment and the gravity to match Krypton's. The shots of the first device landing in metropolis again were similar to an alien invasion movie.

So, next you see Kal-El has devised some plan for the humans to use to defeat Zod and gang and send them back to the Phantom Zone. It is basically to create a black hole by colliding two phantom Drives. One of them is the terraforming device in metropolis and the other is the ship he came in to earth.

So the ship in which he came to earth is on a Carrier aircraft. For some "unknown" reason Lois Lane is also on that plane. Kal-El then goes to the Indian Ocean to fight the terraforming machine that has grown tentacles. At this point I was completely out of the movie. The tentacle fighting scene was too much and I waited till Kal-El gathered his strength to punch the white laser and destroy the machine.

9/11 imagery and mind-numbing destruction

Back in metropolis the terraforming machine is levelling the whole city in a growing radius. Cars, buildings people are getting crushed to death due to the immense gravity. Distorted gravity is causing planes to fly into buildings creating a vivid 9/11 attacks like imagery.

They did not show actual dead bodies but it was clear from the scale of the destruction that a lot of people were dying. As in our minds we know a lot of innocent lives have already been lost a few scenes that follow did not have the emotional impact that they were supposed to have. First of them is the scene where the female reporter from the Daily Planet is stuck in the rubble and Morpheus and some other guy are there trying to help her out. What happened was the people from the daily planet were running away from the destruction but a building behind them started falling towards them.

Prometheus

Thankfully, 'Prometheus' has been released for quite some time and people know that you must run sideways from long and large objects( for example a building or a circular ship) that are falling towards you . I am just kidding, I liked 'Prometheus'. But building catches up to them and the female reporter gets trapped. All this while the radius of destruction is coming closer. This scene was added to help the audience connect on an emotional level amidst all the mind-numbing loud explosions and destruction. But like I said , so many people( maybe even half the city) have already died, and the scene lost its touch.

A convenience

While all of this is going on Zod has reached the ancient ship in the arctic as it contains the Pods from 'The Matrix'. We again have Jor-El and him arguing over the same stuff they did on Krypton. To further solidify his villainous nature the script makes him kill Jor-El again. Also, so as to allow for final fight with Kal-El in the end on earth he now has learnt to focus his attention on one thing at a time and hence control his new superpowers. That was very convenient much like Bruce Banner could control his anger at the end of 'The Avengers'.

There's trouble on the Carrier aircraft. Zod's second in command is there caused all manner of destruction and Zod's ship is behind them. Kal-El gathers the sun's energy and is there just in the nick of time to destroy Zod's ship and also all hope for his race's revival. Next like most alien invasion and apocalyptic movies a secondary character must sacrifice himself for the greater good. Here the army captain who now shared some chemistry with Zod's second in command takes the Carrier aircraft and drives it into device thus creating a black hole and sending them to the Phantom Zone. Lois Lane has somehow fallen off the plane is now falling away from the black hole much like how Tony Stark falls out the black hole at the end of 'The Avengers'. Instead of the Hulk, Kal-El is there to catch her.

As he is flying away there are waves of white light on his skin. I thought the genetic data for his race that was stored on his cells is getting deleted. Why? I am not sure.

The end? and a character flaw

I thought the movie had ended at this point. But no, there is another extended Dragon Ball Z like fight scene to go between Zod and Kal-El. Like the other fight scenes it is also loud, explosive and leaves much destruction in its wake. Here I thought about Superman's character. Had the Superman I knew from the original movies, comics or the animated series been here, he would have taken this fight where it would have not caused so much death and destruction. This character flaw really stood out to me. This sort of mindless punching and total disregard for the surroundings can be expected from the Hulk but not Superman. Say whatever you have to about Marvel's Cinematic Universe, at least they get the character right.

Easter Eggs?

During these final fight scenes there are some references to a larger DC Universe. You may call them Easter eggs for what may be expected in movies that would be made in the future. There is the LexCorp sign on a truck. Then there is the Wayne Enterprises symbol on the satellite. As has been recently pointed out there is a "Keep Calm and Call Batman" poster too somewhere. I thought the Batman references were more of a homage than a teaser. It was too small to be a tease.

A really dark ending

At last we come to the scene when Kal-El kills Zod to save a group of civilians. This is the second scene where the previous scale of destruction in the movie had numbed me out and I could not feel the emotional attachment the scene was trying to create. So, a group of civilians is cornered and Zod is about to kill them with his heat vision and Kal-El has him by the neck. Now superheroes have been known to kill but usually it is handled in such a way that the cause of death is indirect or attention is not drawn to the act of killing. For example, a similar situation like this movie was created towards the end of 'The Dark Knight'. Two-Face/Harvey Dent is pointing a gun at a child and Batman swings into action.

The result is that Two-Face falls to his death(cause of death is indirect) and the child is saved. But in Zod's killing, as we are numbed out to the emotional connection of the scene the focus is only on the killing. It was a really dark way to end a superhero movie not to mention a Superman movie. Maybe they realized it and the next few scenes are in a lighter tone. There is the scene where he drops a drone out of the sky and has a chit chat with the army captain. The attempted humor in this scene is only too little too late.

No revelation

Finally you see him join the Daily Planet. Has he put on the mask of Clark Kent? I am not sure they did not have any scenes to show that. Lois Lane already knows about him. You see in the stories other than this Lois Lane does not initially know that Clark Kent is Superman and the reveal was an important part of those stories. Different people handled the reveal differently. By bypassing the reveal have the filmmakers lost out on something? I would like hear your thoughts on in the comments below.

As I finished watching the movie one of things that bugged me was the lack of humor. The dark tone of this movie is nothing but a reflection of the shadow cast by the towering success of 'The Dark Knight Trilogy'. There was some resentment from fans of Superman that the iconic John Williams tune would not be used in the movie. I think the filmmakers made the right choice in leaving out that music as the tone of that music would not have suited the dark tone of this movie.

They made Green Lantern which was in a lighter tone but it did not work out for the studio. So, they stuck to the dark, brooding and gritty tone of the Nolan Universe for this movie as well. Will this tone be carried forward to other DC characters as well? They still have to do Wonder Woman, Flash, Aquaman and Martian Manhunter if they are to begin the 'Justice League' movie. Will Wonder Woman and Flash be dark and brooding as Batman ?

I don't know. Let me know in the comments below if such tone will work for other characters and the Justice League

In summary, I liked the visual style of many of the scenes and the acting was good especially from the supporting cast(Jor-El, Pa and Ma Kent). The story has been told numerous times so nothing new there. Some of the dialogues were not that great, there was a lot of foreshadowing and some character flaws. Lack of humor and comic relief really stood out to me.

Rating : 7.5/10 ,that is, seven punches and then a soft blow from Batman to Superman with Kryptonite laced gloves.