The hype for Man of Steel was immense with the great trailers and was presented as a very promising new take on Superman. I saw it in IMAX last week and I really enjoyed it! It didn't feel like "The Dark Knight version of Superman" which a lot of people are saying. Nolan certainly has made an influence on Superhero films with his neo-noir style but memories, sacrifices and responsibility are one of the many common elements in pretty much every hero story.

The film gradually escalates in scale and pace with a 'pedal fast to keep up' type of nature. The story did feel like it jumped but the focus was on Kal's development of finding his place on this planet and being cautious with both helping our people but not terrifying us with his alien like nature.

There's a lot more action in the film than I expected and Zack Snyder preserves his talent in shooting fight scenes and progressed well past Watchmen and 300 by having the Kryptonians really showing their powers in an exhilarating way. The casting was well done especially with Russell Crowe who portrayed Jor-El beautifully.

Hans Zimmer did an amazing job with the soundtrack by reaching beyond the norm and reflecting the scale of the film as he always does. I never got tears by watching a film since Lion King, his scores are amazing but in this film he has finally found another way to truly touch the soul.

Man of Steel is as fantastic as the trailers show and it is definitely worth a look. I'm still tired of seeing the "Americanisation" with the highlight of the US Military and such, but then again it's Hollywood. Ignore the Rotten Tomatoes rating and see it for yourself and enjoy it  

Spoiler:

You've made me plausibly want to watch it, whereas before I had no interest
Good work

Thanks a lot Hope I can sell my own films in this way too

EDIT: Just came back after my second viewing. Loving it even more!

I never cared for Superman past the age of 7 but this movie was very accessible and I really enjoyed it. They managed to make the character interesting. The 7 hours of CG fight scene destruction at the end was a bit much but a thoroughly fun watch. The first film by Zack Snyder I'd see a second time.

These are basically the first positive reviews I've read for this movie. I might give it a chance. IMHO I think Nolan should've gone back to mindf### thrillers after completing his batman trilogy. Memento is still my favorite of his.

Nastard wrote:These are basically the first positive reviews I've read for this movie. I might give it a chance. IMHO I think Nolan should've gone back to mindf### thrillers after completing his batman trilogy. Memento is still my favorite of his.

It's really divided the audience. I think people who kinda like Superman or want a good popcorn movie liked it, while die hard Superman fans got their pants in a twist over it because he does something at the end and doesn't spend the whole film going after bank robbers and ****.

I don't really see this is a Nolan film so much, though it is disappointing we're getting another comic book movie from him instead of another Memento. But we did have Inception, which was good, and Interstellar is coming next, which I guess is his second film not to be an adaptation of something.

@Avocado: Yeah a lot of people say it is a bit much but yes it is very enjoyable. Sure a lot of CG but I think they did it rather well to reflect the power the Kryptonians have over humans and it is fun to finally see Superman actually beat people up with ownage

@Nastard: Yeah Nolan did lose his usual puzzling nature with The Dark Knight Rises,

Spoiler:

. I re-watched Memento and Insomnia and still really enjoy them. He's shooting Interstellar soon, which could be a return to his usual clever and puzzling nature of film making. He's still great though but I agree he is the strongest with those thriller kinds of films. Even his first film; Following is great too, the film that got him sky rocketing  

SimonBenjamin wrote:@Avocado: Yeah a lot of people say it is a bit much but yes it is very enjoyable. Sure a lot of CG but I think they did it rather well to reflect the power the Kryptonians have over humans and it is fun to finally see Superman actually beat people up with ownage

Yeah it was good for that, but it did make it all seem a bit pointless. They were so strong and survived the biggest attacks ever without so much as a scratch, it lost all tension. It felt like Superman was never in any real danger, and similarly he wasn't really doing anything that would stop the baddies.

Avocado Bone Flower wrote:
It felt like Superman was never in any real danger, and similarly he wasn't really doing anything that would stop the baddies.

Very true, as I said it was at least just fun to watch  Well I believe the real danger was going against what Jonathan Kent says about the world not being ready, taking the leap of faith even though trust between Kal and the human race was a big concern.

Spoiler:

This isn't a spoiler since Zack mentioned it before the film's release; no use of Kryptonite! So far in films that was the only thing when you were like "Oh great, now he's gonna get it". Sure it is in the comics but there's more than just that which imposes on Superman.

I really was astounded at how well the science fiction elements worked, particularly in the opening sequence.

I liked this - how many people died and what was the cost of the damage? http://www.avclub.com/articles/science-estimates-that-the-damage-done-by-man-of-s,99165/

Nice find Avocado It shows that even though it is CG action it still has meaning with the story, if it was all worth the cost. I loved that wordplay in The Prestige, another brilliant Nolan film.

SimonBenjamin wrote:Nice find Avocado :DIt shows that even though it is CG action it still has meaning with the story, if it was all worth the cost. I loved that wordplay in The Prestige, another brilliant Nolan film.

You didn't really get a sense that anyone died from watching the film though, it was like they were fighting in a ghost city.

Yeah except for

Spoiler:

A small thing but I thought they did great effort even in the ADR for effort vocals during the fights. It wasn't like "Ohhh Ahhh" out of human pain, but rather outlets of power and frustration as Zod and Kal are just trying to cancel out the evenness their powers.

This is all just up to point of view really but yeah you make very true points. Still going to try and see it again in IMAX