My Review of "Man of Steel"

Man of Steel came out back in 2013. It was the start point of the whole Snyderverse series. I remember liking this movie when it first came out but I wanted to see it again today if it holds up. Thankfully it has and to a certain extent I saw more in this movie this time around than I did the last.

The movie starts off with an introduction to the Krypton which Superman is from. Basically its in ruins and there's political upheaval in this foreign planet. Jor-el seems to recognize this as well as his colleague General Zod. Both of them see the ultimate picture of Krypton but drastically different directions they want to take.

Jor-el wants to coexist with another species on another planet. Zod wants the proud people of Krypton to flourish. In order for Jor-el to go through with his vision he decides to send his son to Earth. Along with this son he encrypts the key to repopulating Kryptonians on Earth. Zod wants to get this key but isn't fast enough to catch Jor-el's son's rocket ship.

Eventually Zod is imprisoned for his acts of treason and sent away to some imprisonment in space. While this happens Krypton eventually explodes and the population is extinguished. The only hope is Jor-el's son who crash lands on Earth.

We then flash forward years ahead when Jor-el's son is now a nomad on Earth. He's soul searching but he is absolutely lost. You'll see him all over the world not really knowing what his purpose in the world is. He knows he has powers but tries to hide from the public.

The reasons behind his elusiveness is played out in flashbacks. I thought this was cleverly added throughout this movie. Now as Clark he has various situations where he is tested to use his powers or not. In those situations he's called back to his adoptive father's words of wisdom. His adoptive parents love him and he obviously cares deeply for them.

With their love for Clark they've kept him in isolation as they knew the world would be after him if they found out who he was. A debate of moralities continues to permeate throughout this movie. Does he use his powers for good or bad? Why should he sacrifice himself for the betterment of humankind? To live a life of duty like that is extremely heavy. No one wants this kind of burden and yet this is the weight put on Clark all of his life.

When Zod finally finds out where Clark is, Clark has to really wrestle with his personal decisions. He's had 33 years to think about what he wants to do and now it's go time. It's interesting to see how he has to decide what to do and what moral issues come his way when he has to make his decisions.

Although this movie came out in 2013 the movie still looks fantastic almost a decade later. I was mesmerized by the art direction throughout the movie and the intricacies of what they did story wise. You can tell they had a plan with this movie because Batman V. Superman only makes much more sense after watching this movie.

His relationship with his mother and the ones he loves is the central focal point of this movie. He constantly has to wrestle with that, duty and remaining anonymous so that he can have at least a private life.

Overall, I really liked this movie. It did a great job in introducing the Snyderverse and it's a pretty damn good Superman movie as well. I'm going to have to read why people don't like this movie to have a better understanding of why they didn't have a good time with this one. I have to give this movie an 8 out of 10. I could go back and watch this movie over and over again. It's just that good.