Man Of Steel... Is It Super?~ 3D Cinema Review

I have to start this with the embarrassing truth; I have never been a superman fan.
Uh oh busted! No I'm afraid its the awful truth. I honestly wish I could say it was something as simple as me being a closet +Marvel  fan, but the +Superman  franchise never really struck a chord with me. The early ones were instantly dated and the most recent one, with its bemusing premise of his offspring, I found laughable. So its fair to say I looked forward to this with all the anticipation of series 139 of  +Big Brother. 

Woe unto me The Controller adores the pant wearing, caped alien, so I knew this was a preordained date night with Man of Steel.



The only thing I had any choice over was the cinema choice. +Imax  would have been great (but who fancies being frozen for that amount of time),  +Cineworld   is too far away, so the plushy seats of Vue were destined to hold my buttocks. Nearly £25 later we had pre booked the 'VIP' 3D seats, ouch! Let me also add that the parking is atrocious, I have never been so glad to see a 3 storey supermarket car park in my life. Going to the cinema gets more expensive every time and simple hot dogs and juice robbed us for another £17, by this point I'm wishing for nothing more than an overdraft! 

The seating would have been lovely, if it was couch sized and lacked the melted chocolate stuffed down the side of the fake leather seats. There was a hastily avoided huff when a especially tall curly haired man decided to park himself fully upright in front of The Controller, completely negating the 'watching' aspect, and breaking some unwritten cinema law. After pointing out the expanse of empty, less comfortable seats on the left and promising to move if the required slouch was not achieved.

My aim had been to get a picture of me pulling the required pose in front of the poster to head this post, this was thankfully thwarted by crowds of gleeful fathers looking to indulge their own childhoods by dragging along various children and partners. I was a little surprised at the lack of capes, but immaturity is wasting on children these days.


I hate that cinemas play trailers before a film, rather than the VHS staple of after film viewing. This time was no exception, trailers always seem to induce a magical jealousy, and a certainty that you've chosen the wrong film to watch. The 3D Wolverine and World War Z both looked astounding, and visually effective, with real flinching involved. Hugh Jackman and psycho speeding zombies may have put a pall over the film before it even started.

The film begins on Krypton, which seems to distance the film from previous incarnations, showcasing Russell Crowe it sets an epic backdrop to Supermans history. With an introduction to the new technology and capabilities of Jor-El, it brings freshness to the story. After that though the whole film goes weird; jumping through Supermans (Henry Cavill) life to show his struggles and adventures. Empowering speeches from Kevin Costner are complete with irritating shaky hand-held camera shots to show emotion and depth. The obligatory romance with Lois Lane (Amy Adams), is furthered by her knowing his identity shortly after their first meeting (which will undoubtedly lead to more 'fun' in the sequels we all know are coming!). The mixed up story hones in to the actual scenario of Superman being outed to the world, by a crazed General Zod (Micheal Shannon), and here lies all the promised CGI action.

By this stage the 'luxurious' chairs have defied my excess padding and there is a growing sense of awkward numbness, which no slow motion fidgeting can get rid of. Perhaps this is why the epic fight scene seemed to drag on, or it could be down to the repetitiveness of the scene. Punch, punch, throw something, destroy a building and repeat. This is the section I expected to fully exploit the 3D aspect, and frankly it was unimpressive. The 3D seemed to have been used to give depth to the screen, in reality the only thing spectacular about the 3D was how ineffectually it had been used. Having watched many action superhero fight scenes, this was far too long and lacked the wow factor required to make any of it memorable.

For some-one with such legendary morals Superman disappointed me with his disregard for human life and buildings in particular. Perhaps the method of drawing your destructive moral enemies to remote harmless areas is a lost art form, but the level of destruction could have been simply aimed at shock value and grandstanding.

Ignoring the hype about how fabulous Superman is and the amazing reinvention Chris Nolan is capable of, this film is at best mediocre. I can see more than a few crushed fans, but seeing that this could be the start of something new it does hold possibilities. With so much groundwork to do in this initial film (which could also explain the levelling destruction of our hero) it explains the pace and drawn out nature of the film. I do like the new direction the film takes and I'm interested in future developments of the franchise, it is the first Superman film I haven't disliked, which is also another bonus.

In summary (congrats if you've stuck with me through this!) a must see for fans but not as 'super' as it could have been. Perry White, Jor-El and Jonathan Kent were far and away the best acted charters in my opinion, I feel superman and Lois Lane let the side down a bit, but I hope that sequels will allow them more development.

 Oh yeah, VIP cinema seats are not designed for extended posterior comfort, and cinema's need take note of the fact that not everyone is 5 foot tall, please design the seating to reflect that! In addition the bloke next to me rattled and crunched his way through an entire carrier bag of sweets, whilst slurping at the longest lasting slushie. This is not ideal for engrossing film viewing!