Four Star (of 5) Man of Steel Review

***mild spoilers possible***
If this were a book review, I'd give it a 4/5. It was a decent action movie, though not one I'd immediately rush to see in the theaters another 2-3 times. If a few different sets of friends wanted to see it and I ended up seeing it twice though, it would be fine the second time around.

The Good: It's nice to see a decently done Superman movie that doesn't have him withering in front of kryptonite for half the film. There's a semi-decent balance of action and story development, though they could have done a little better fleshing out the characters. Amy Adams as Lois Lane is a good casting choice. Fight scenes were exciting for the most part.

The Bad: I say "semi-decent" balance of action and story development because there are definitely some SLOW sections. The movie opens up with his mother giving birth. Later it's explained that that's a big deal because it's the first live birth in centuries, but I remember thinking, "Good grief, I know this is an origin story but we don't have to go back THAT far."

The Tedious: The fight scenes, though lovely eye candy, got a bit tiresome after  awhile becuase it was like watching a fighting video game where both players put in a cheat code for invulnerability. Lots of buildings suffered in the making of this film, but the combatants suffered not a scratch.

The Interesting: The movie gave off vibes like half a dozen other movies and video games. The beginning sort of reminded me of Thor, opening up on a different planet with people in elaborate, ornate headgear. The bad guys ship at the end totally looked like a reaper from Mass Effect. The whole attacking a city thing looked like it could have come from the cut scenes of ME 3.  The falling buildings, sadly, reminded me of 9/11 documentaries.

Summary: This movie is worth seeing in the theaters and buying on dvd or bluray later, though if you waited for netflix, you'd probably still enjoy it. I'm one of those people who don't know everything about Superman, but perhaps that's a good thing in terms of enjoying the movie. I can enjoy it for what it is, not how it compares to past triumphs and travesties.