I will start this off by saying that I have never liked Superman. I thought he was the corniest super hero in the entire 
DC universe. (Yes, even cornier then a guy who can make anything that he wants to appear from his magical cracker jack ring) As I’ve said to so many friends, Superman always seemed like a cross between that obnoxious kid that you played make believe with but had to have all the powers and Jesus Christ. He’s this amalgamation of all the go to typical super powers with this Christ complex thrown on top of it. All that’s missing are the adamantium claws and the middle eastern sandals. I can appreciate the work that Donner put into the original films but it didn’t change how I felt about the character as a whole. Every time I saw an advertisement for Superman I would roll my eyes, thinking to myself that the world needs a Plasticman movie more then we need another Superman film. This was the last movie that I expected to see this Friday, but I’m a sucker for peer pressure. More accurately I’m a sucker for my own curiosity. If Nolan helped to make Batman relevant then maybe he can do the same with Superman. This must mean I’m a Nolan fanboy, you’re thinking to you’re self. Oh the contrary, I have a laundry list of objections to his over rated works. However, one thing he seems to do well is inject realism and grit to his projects. Realism and grit are the two things I felt that Superman needed the most, so perhaps Nolan as producer is what this franchise needed. Speaking of Grit, Zach Snyder previously directed Watchmen. After it’s commercial failure It’s surprising that DC picked him to helm another property. Needless to say, the film started in a way that I didn’t fathom with elements of fantasy and sci-fi. The first 30 minutes or so were total escapism, it felt like something out of HE-MAN but that’s not a bad thing. The film did a wonderful job to establish that this planet is not earth. At times it got a bit outlandish but it’s like the movie looked at you and said, “don’t take it so seriously.” Flying creatures, robotic machinery, lasers, it was all there. Film should be a total escape from reality and a trip into pure imagination. That first half was something purely unexpected, it was fun. It seemed to know how to cut the boring out of Superman. When Russell Crow was about to start a cringe worthy monolog and it gets stopped by General Zod’s laser fire. This movie was deliciously ridiculous, just sit back and enjoy it. Baby rocket? Why not. When the ship is soaring ever so closer towards the planet earth, the first thought in my mind is that we’re heading straight for the a-typical origin story. The cringe worthy 10-20 minutes about a smallvile couple discovering an alien infant, then raising him as their own. We’ve seen it a million times, and if you haven’t seen it you heard about it. It’s been ingrained in our minds even if we hate Superman. Screen writer, David S. Goyer. skips the crap and jumps right to adult Clark working on a fishing boat. We find out that being godlike isn’t what it’s cracked up to be. Remember that whole Christ complex thing that I mentioned earlier? Well, neither did the production team. Even if you’re not religious, it’s a story that everyone knows. Familiarity doesn’t just grow contempt, but it can also grow empathy. It was a major gamble choosing to play up the Christ elements in this day and age. Somehow, they managed to give realism to an indestructible space Jesus who can shoot heat vision from his eyes. It’s a very strange film in retrospect. It walks a very thin line between being hokey and being fun. It’s as though it abandoned all the superman cliches and started from scratch. And starting from scratch is exactly what this franchise needed.
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