Early Review of Superman - Man of Steel

During the ComicPalooza event, the hubby snagged us two free passes to see the early showing of Superman - Man of Steel in Houston tonight. Since I've been all into reviews for books and what not I thought I would do a little blog about my thoughts on this not so new superhero in his new movie.

A little bit about me, so you know where I am coming from as I watched it. I didn't read any comics growing up. I actually just read my first comic a couple months back with Cat Woman and Batman. I did enjoy it but comics just aren't for me. That doesn't mean that I don't know WHO the superheros are (Marvel and DC) and that I don't enjoy them, because I do! Growing up my Ninja Turtle action figures were much more entertaining than anything Barbie and Ken had to offer. In fact my turtle at home was named after Mikey. It's why I only eat cheese pizza, still to this day. Gotta love the turtles. I also was a big fan of Batman. I even had my own little bat mobile as a toddler. My favorite superhero actually is the Batman. Always has been, always will be.

When I go into these superhero movies I always compare them to Batman Begins. I left that movie totally blown away. It was by far, awesome. I left the theater and picked up my cell phone to call D (one of my good friends) and ever since then that has been my benchmark of a good superhero movie. This movie deff fell way short of that.

The Good:
The action scenes were very good, it was jammed packed with movement after movement. I really enjoyed the different scenes and the way they were set up.
My Favorite moment was when Christopher Meloni showed up. I had no idea he was in this film and that made me really smile. I miss Stabler (on Law and Order SVU) and that alone had redeeming qualities in my mind.
My favorite character was Russell Crow's performance of Jor-El. I loved him!!!
Amy Adams was cute, as always. I don't think she can not be cute when she acts.
I think Kevin Costner did a good job as Jonathan Kent as well. The scene with the tornado was touching and pulled at my heart.

The Ehhh:
Superman himself was alright. Nothing to write home about.
The suit was better than just plain ole spandex but it's origins I was ehhh on. I always thought Martha made his cape or something and ehh. But it looked cool.
The bad guys were okay - I liked the premise of their story line, and why they did what they did. But, I wasn't in-love with their characters by any means. I think the best bad guys are ones that can really invoke fear in the person watching, and I wasn't feeling any fear.

The Bad:
I have major issues with parts of the plot. With out giving away spoilers I really feel like they ripped off scenes from Independence Day with Bill Pullman and Will Smith. You all know how I love my Will Smith movies and to see it all ripped off, yeah, that did it for me. I understand that there can only be so many original plots but come on, can you not think of something a little less obvious than a movie that came out in the 90's?
I HATE when movies that are based on books go in a different direction than the book itself. The hubs informs me that in deed, this plot isn't anything like the comics. THAT annoys me to no end. I was partly confused on a few things because I listen to my hubby talk about the comics and I quickly picked up that stuff wasn't in sync.
The Lois Lane and Clark Kent story  line I wasn't totally sold on. I mean, I get it's always the chemistry between her and superman, the big bad hero saves the girl, but I was just hoping for a little more.

The Overall:
I would rate this movie a 3.5 out of 5 stars. It was good, I enjoyed it. But when you stop and think about it, it just pissed me off. I can't get over the 'bad's' mainly because I expect two things: Originality and Staying true to the 'books'. Too much was like Independence Day for me to stay it was 'original' and the plot, while I did enjoy it, veered to far off the origins of the story.

Would I recommend it? Sure, it was one of the better movies I've seen as of late, would I rush out and buy it to keep, nope.

But - I did enjoy my date night with the hubby so all in all it was totally worth it. Even the standing in line and waiting forever to see if we were even early enough to gain entrance into the movie.