Man of Steel

- Clark Kent asks a priest for advice

This week's movie checkout from the public library was Man of Steel ...

a 2013 superhero film featuring the DC Comics character Superman .... Directed by Zack Snyder and written by David S. Goyer, the film stars Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne, Antje Traue, Ayelet Zurer, Christopher Meloni, and Russell Crowe. Man of Steel is a reboot of the Superman film series that retells the character's origin story. In the film, Clark Kent learns that he is a superpowered alien from the planet Krypton and assumes the role of mankind's protector as Superman, but finds himself having to prevent General Zod from destroying humanity.



I hadn't wanted to see the film when it came out because I had really liked the earlier version of Clark Kent/Superman with Christopher Reeve, but after seeing Superman V Batman I decided to give it a try.

Most people know the basic story so I'll just give the bare bones: The planet Krypton is self-destructing and Jor-El (Russell Crowe) sends his baby son in a space ship to Earth to save him. He's discovered and adopted by Kansas farmers Jonathan (Kevin Costner) and Martha (Diane Lane) Kent and is named Clark. He has unusual powers and he has a very hard time finding his way, but eventually grows up to be a protector and savior of people in distress. Then Zod and his minions, Kryptonian criminals who also escaped the destruction of their planet, come to Earth and wreak havoc until Clark/Superman stops them. Along the way he meets Lois Lane, investigative reporter, and ends up working at the Daily Planet newspaper himself.

What I liked best about the movie was the relationship between Clark and his adoptive father Jonathan. I though Kevin Costner did a good job with the role of Jonathan and he kind of reminded me of my grandfather. Here are a couple of scenes with Clark and Jonathan: the first is when Clark is a boy and has just saved some of his classmates from drowning - he doesn't understand why he has powers, and Jonathan finally tells him why ...



Here is the scene where Jonathan dies ...



And here is the very end ...



So I mostly did like the movie, and recommend it though I thought the scenes on Krypton and the scenes of battle later with Zod and his minions dragged on too long. Here's a review from TIME magazine: Man of Steel: Super Man … or Human God?