Man Of Steel [Superman] [DVD] [2013] [2017]

Must admit, other than Disney Comics, DC's Superman comic series was, from an early age, a firm favourite when growing up.This the first of a new beginning from director and writer Zack Snyder.....The story starts during the final days of planet Krypton when we see Jor-El (Russell Crowe) the father of Kal-El/ Clarke Kent/Superman (Henry Cavill /young Clarke - Dylan Sprayberry) make the decision in the knowledge Krypton's days were now few to locate a place far away to transport his new-born son too, giving him a chance of life.However, General Zod (Michael Shannon) try's to prevent Jor-El from doing so, and when he does promises that he will, however long it takes find Kal-El.General Zod and his followers after committing treachery against the state are sentenced to exile in the Phantom Zone.The young Kal-El lands upon his fathers chosen destination on a farm in Kansas and is found and raised by Jonathan Kent (Kevin Costner) and his wife Martha (Diane Lane)Though Jonathan realizes early-on that Clarke as Kal-El is known by has unusual power he does everything in his power to protect his adopted son from the World becoming aware.Clarke now a young man though having occasions to use his powers manages to remain invisible, it is now that he has his first encounter learning of who he is and meeting a hologram of his real father deep below the artic icecap and where he first comes across reporter Lois Lane (Amy Adams)Lois will promise to keep Clarke's secret until he's ready to show the World who he really is, which will not be so far off as the banished General Zod and his followers arrive determine to bring Kal-El back into the fold and create a new Krypton on planet Earth at the expense of its inhabitants.General Zod and his followers have similar powers to that of Superman, the battle begins, though not wanting to destroy his distant past Clarke will have to make difficult choices to protect the people he'd grown-up around.Will Superman prevail against all odds?For me, this action-packed, CGI wonder is far and away the best of the Zack Snyder trilogy and yes, is greatly enhanced on the 4k Format....a spectacle to behold, well worth the upgrade investment.

To do this review properly I thought it necessary to go back the the origins of the "superhero" & the battle between DC (Detective Comics to give it it's full title) & Marvel Comics. If you grew up in an age as I did these were absolute gems to read as a child & it soon became clear you would be making a distinctive choice between which of these titles you preferred (pocket money would only stretch so far in those days). My loyalties fell strictly in the Marvel camp, & still do to a degree, because with Marvel Comics the characters had so much more substance. Eschewing such comic book tropes as secret identities and even costumes at first, having a monster as one of the heroes, and having its characters bicker and complain in what was later called a "superheroes in the real world" approach totally won me over. So let's take a look at Superman's origins. Here was a guy from another planet, he wore a laughable costume (although at the time it was totally acceptable as it was based on the attire of the strong man in a circus), was totally invincible plus super strong (unless you had a small lump of green rock handy), had x-ray/laser vision, could move faster than a speeding bullet, & he could fly!!! Now through a child's eyes this was magnificent but as an adult seemed totally ridiculous, especially his holier then thou image ... change was needed.To be honest I would like to thank all those people who spouted forth such negative comments as if spitting out vile in their reviews because I had absolutely zero expectations before watching this film & I have to say I was totally blown away. I would go as far to say this is the best re-boot of any franchise I have seen to date. Marvel were taking the higher ground with the like of X-Men, Iron Man, etc. & DC were starting to fall desperately behind so what do they do? They take Superman & give him the full Spiderman treatment. He has angst, he gets angry, he doesn't fit in at school, he is unsure if the world will accept him as a hero or a villain, he's adopted & is forced to watch his adoptive father die, & at last he has a costume that is cool!! It absolutely works on every level & I have no idea why people are complaining about there being too much action ... are these the same people who complain about long winded plot build ups meaning we don't get to see enough of our hero in action?I thought the mixture of action, plot, & flashbacks (to fill in the gaps for people unaware of Superman's past but kept thankfully short) were spot on. You have a stellar cast of whom none dissapoint & the choice of the relatively unknown Henry Cavill to take the lead for me was a stroke of genius. He manages to make Superman believable again explaining that it is not an "S" on his chest at all but a symbol from his planet that means hope, he can grow a beard & his hair can get ruffled.If you love films of this genre my advise is plain & simple give it a go ... pay no attention to all the negativity surrounding this movie. I hope you will be as pleasantly surprised as I was.

Style pretty much defined this version of Superman. The music is brilliant. The visuals are brilliant. I really like the more human, emotional representation of Superman and the villain, Zod, is quite exceptional.A 4 star film for me, with the potential to have been a 5 (on Amazon if you like something you give it 5), this could have been something ridiculously special with some tweaks and reshoots in my opinion. Some strange pacing/scene sequencing at times, sometimes almost too much destruction, things like this let it down.Synders films can be all over the place in terms of quality, with certain aspects being 'best in the business' for this and that, and other things falling through quite a bit, so it's understandle that his films can be quite polarising. While I wish this could have been what I feel it had the potential to be, I can still appreciate it for what it is, and thats a very stylish, moody, and intense version of Superman that nicely offers something different to the also brilliant, but equally flawed in its own ways, Reeves version, which focused a lot more on Superman as a symbol of all that is pure and good etc.Side note:There was a major issue with the actual delivery of this item. It was bought new, yet came completely shattered. The disc survived in a playable state, but I of course was still not happy about the state it arrived in. Amazon customer service did however handle this very well.

Good film.