Man of Steel

Each actor who has portrayed the character of SuperMan has brought his own uniqueness to the role, and Henry Cavitt continues the great chain of (super) beings. His chiseled looks enhance the "caricature" aspect of the comic book hero, but Henry's facial features morph into human features of various emotions, such as friendship, respect, loathing, and love. Sparks fly when he meets his Lois Lane, and other sparks fly when he realizes the fight is to the death. The sheer joy on his face when he tests his newly-discovered super skills is the same look on any kids' face when riding a two-wheeler for the first time, mastering a skateboard, hitting the ball off a T, jumping into the pool for the first time, or any of the other rites of passage today's youth use to mark their life journey.

Y and I enjoyed an early-morning showing of the film, which was packed with families celebrating Father's Day. My only caveat for the film begins with the "appropriate audience" approved movie trailers that were far too bloody and violent for all the little children in the theater. I also question the parenting decision to take younger children, those well under age 10-12, to such a violent film. Children are influenced by life's events, whether real or imaginary, and later on, when young adults act out/act inappropriately, sometimes we forget the uber-realistic visual bombardment we showered on our children at the movies. Not everyone who is exposed to violence grows up to be violent, but when a person says, "I snapped," s/he could be reverting to these overly-violent blockbusters that lurk in their subconscious.

Yes, that's my sticking point with the film: the violence is too extreme, too loud, too forcefully in-your-face. I harken back to the good ole days when SuperMan bounced on a trampoline and dove through an open window to fly toward evil, lying on what must have been an early green screen, his cape streaming out behind him. When he held up his hand to stop a bullet from finding its mark, SuperMan convinced me and other children that he was, indeed, impervious to harm from an evil enemy. To a child, it seemed almost magical, and what was portrayed on the screen was filled in with a child's vivid imagination and suspension of disbelief that made it all seem so real.

I disagree with the critics that the latest SuperMan film is too dark, too ponderous, too dull -- and I'm going to say that the other audience members today will agree with me, not the critics, based on the wild applause at the end. I'm not sure what the critics look for, but perhaps they should simply sit in a darkened theater filled with customers and base their ratings on what the people applaud, rather than some phony scale for ratings that is based on technical merit.