This reviewer was not looking forward to yet another superhero movie, let alone another Superman movie. But Man of Steel was a pleasant surprise for the first half of the movie or so. Henry Cavill makes an excellent Superman. The movie starts with his character’s birth and shows his development into his adult character in an entertaining flashback way.

This is a much more humane and realistic Superman, even though we’ve seen this story so many times before. And it’s a definite improvement over the 2006 Superman Returns.

There is a good cast too, especially Russell Crowe as Superman’s father and Diane Lane and Kevin Costner as his earthly parents. Amy Adams plays the spunky Lois Lane and Michael Shannon is fine as the villainous General Zod.

But the movie goes downhill with the endless special effects in the grand finale battle of good versus evil between Zod and Superman. It’s all computerized images, most of which don’t look real. You might as well be watching a video game that someone else is playing as the two antagonists bash each other repeatedly, plowing thru buildings and destroying everything in sight. If you like lots of mayhem and numerous explosions, this is the movie for you. The movie briefly returns to real characters at the end as Clark Kent gets a job as reporter at the Daily Planet, setting up Man of Steel 2, which is probably already in preparation.

Rating: three deer out of five

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Alf Cryderman is a Red Deer freelance writer and old movie buff.