Directed by Zack Snyder, who unfortunately has the slightly ignominious reputation of having directed the brutal, needlessly violent 300 (2006), the interesting but lengthy and self important Watchmen (2009), and most recently the puzzlingly bad Sucker Punch (2011), the latest iteration Man of Steel is interesting enough to hold one’s attention, that is, right up to the last 20 minutes or so, when the action is needlessly protracted and the villain just won’t die.
The script, co-conceived by David S Goyer and Christopher Nolan (of the latest Batman trilogy) looked promising enough (after all, who doesn’t want to watch a film conceived out of the darkly convoluted mind of Nolan these days), and so, the film starts particularly well, on Krypton, Superman’s home planet.
We are treated with a spectacularly realised world where Superman’s father Jor-El (Russell Crowe) is trying to save what remains of their species by sending his new born son, Kal-El to Earth, with the Codex, a complete genetic history of their race. Krypton is dying and every one on it is doomed, even though Jor-El, the leading scientist there implores the leaders of the council to try and salvage what remains.
Enter the unfortunately named General Zod (Michael Shannon), a rabid warrior who attempts to stage a coup to save his beloved planet. He fails, but he kills Jor-El in the process and is imprisoned along with his team, just as Kal-El’s shuttle takes off and Krypton collapses into its own core.
On Earth, Kal-El is played by the British actor Henry Cavill, who has radically inflated his physique to try and embody the famed man of steel. Cavill is astonishingly good looking and a fair actor, but he clearly could have done with a slightly leaner and more athletic physique rather than the beefy armed, sloped shouldered action hero he has rigorously trained to be, apparently by consuming 5,000 calories and training two hours per day.