It’s about time! Marvel has certainly led the way with movies like Captain America, Thor (1&2) and The Avengers. So what about DC? Well, DC has been doing its best to keep up, though a few miscues (Green Lantern/Superman Returns) have done their best to derail the steam Marvel has gathered, but thankfully that has detoured studios from continually trying.
What has DC got to show for it? Well, there are those Batman movies that everyone seems to love and…oh, yeah…Man of Steel.
Let’s get right to the latter.
Official Synopsis
A young boy learns that he has extraordinary powers and is not of this Earth. As a young man, he journeys to discover where he came from and what he was sent here to do. But the hero in him must emerge if he is to save the world from annihilation and become the symbol of hope for all mankind.
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The first time I saw the Man of Steel, I felt like maybe the beginning of the film (after Clark arrives on earth) was garbled a bit with bad editing decisions when it was trying to find a focus and solid ground to stand on. If you haven’t seen the film, near the beginning it mixes past with present and flops back and forth between the two until both intersect when Superman is fully revealed. The back and forth, while certainly interesting, seemed to cause a little bit of a disruption of the storytelling flow. When you’re dying to see a scene play out, such as Clark saving a bus full of kids from drowning, and the scene ends abruptly, but then shifts to the present, it leaves you starving a bit for the continuation of the original scene. The movie does end up getting on track when the main plot point surfaces and the action begins, though, but it’s tough to follow when the story is trying to build towards that one defining moment.
Before we move on, let me just note that I really did appreciate and enjoy the new and improved origin of Superman’s parents and what happened to Krypton. Snyder and crew certainly did a fine job with establishing what was to be at stake with the movie later on (after Clark’s arrival on earth) and did a wonderful job with quickly putting together General Zod’s motivation in the film, as Krypton is being torn apart. Also, in the short amount of time that Russell Crowe’s Jor-El and Antje Traue’s Faora-Ul were on screen, they did one helluva job convincing the audience that they were wonderful parents with great intentions for not only their son, but for also passing on the moral ground in which they stood for in life. Kudos should go to the fine writing put in front of them and the superb acting they lent in that small time onscreen. You’ll appreciate and like what Snyder has done to the origin of Superman’s race.
Now, getting back to the story, as soon as Zod hits earth you pretty much understand his intentions. He wants to wipe away the earth’s human slate and start Krypton once again. His only obstacle is Superman, and once that fight starts it really doesn’t stop for the rest of the film. It’s pretty much a 45-minute action-packed thrill ride (you knew that was coming) that ends on a very sad note, but a good one (at least a hopeful one). And this is the real structure of the film, it’s pretty much in two halves.
The first half of the film is a bit of a wobbly story trying to find its ground and establishes the best possible origin it can, while the second part is just pure action that lets you know that Superman is back. History shows that Snyder has a problem with some of his films when it comes to solid storytelling, and the first part of the film shows that (again, sans the Krypton origin). His bread and butter is when the action starts (see 300, Watchmen and Dawn of the Dead for proof) and he doesn’t disappoint one bit. Is this structure okay and entertaining by the end? Absolutely because we get some solid entertainment with this movie, and that’s what Superman fans really wanted. The big problem with Superman Returns is that it had a shaky story for pretty much 80% of the film, which made all Superman fans starve quite a bit for more ‘Superman’ moments. Snyder doesn’t disappoint with fulfilling those fan needs with his intense scenes of action (it also helps that he picked the right actors for the movie), which makes this a very entertaining film. I do wish they had better editing decisions during Clark’s childhood/adulthood sequences, as that would have made this film really darn good, but all is forgiven once the action gets going.
So, in short, if you haven’t seen Man of Steel, see it. It’s worth your time and money.
As for the Blu-ray portion of this film, it’s pretty solid, though the color scheme for the film can lose the beauty of it. The film is shot in a grey-ish/blue tint, which makes the reds and blues not completely stand out. There isn’t any compression issues with this movie or graininess/artifacts that show up, but again the tint doesn’t bring out the beauty of the picture. That being said, it’s a solid HD transfer that has almost no imperfections in the transfer process. Like I’ve said many times in the past, WB does a great job with its big Blu-ray releases (as well as its lower budget/re-releases). You’ll definitely find a better quality with this release than what you might have found in the theater.
As for the audio, you get in in DTS-HD 7.1 and the film comes in an aspect ratio of 2.4:1.
Finally, as for features, here is what you should expect:
– Journey of Discovery: Creating Man of Steel
– Planet Krypton
– Strong Characters, Legendary Roles
– All-Out Action
– Krypton Decoded
– Superman: 75th Anniversary Animated Short
Definitely the highlight of this set is the “Journey of Discovery” feature, which pretty much plays out the entire movie. During the film, cast/crew pop in with interesting tidbits and visual explanation of what it took to do the scenes you’re watching, which is positively awesome. You get a large amount of ‘making of’ details, probably the most I’ve ever seen in a Blu-ray release, which makes the entire experience of watching the movie again feel new. It’s a pretty impressive featurette and one that you need to watch when you get this Blu-ray.
As for the rest of the features, you get some interesting info on how the action was formed with ‘All-Out Action’, a neat look about the evolution of our hero in “Strong Characters, Legendary Roles”, details about Krypton with “Krypton Decoded” (as well as the mockumentary “Planet Krypton”), an animated short and a feature about…Middle-earth (oddly placed? Yes, but enjoy that one).
All-in-all, a darn good set of features.
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