Revisited - Man of Steel (2013)

So why haven't we gotten a squeal to this film yet? It's been years since it's release and it seems more and more people are asking the same question. When this film released, the audience had mix feelings and for the right reasons. It wasn't an ordinary superman tale where everything is black and white but rather it shows superman in a different light, a realistic light. It shows how the world would react if we saw a man in a sky flying and that point is even furthered in Batman v Superman. It wouldn't be sunshine and rainbows for the the caped hero and this film shows the hardships a person would face if he was an alien who had powers of a god.

Man of Steel is a 2013 superhero film based on the DC Comics character Superman. Produced by DC Entertainment, Legendary Pictures, Syncopy and Cruel and Unusual Films, and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, it is a British-American production and the first installment in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). The film is directed by Zack Snyder, written by David S. Goyer, and stars Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne, Antje Traue, Ayelet Zurer, Christopher Meloni and Russell Crowe. Man of Steel is a reboot of the Superman film series that portrays the character's origin story. In the film, Clark Kent learns that he is a superpowered alien from the planet Krypton. He assumes the role of mankind's protector as Superman, making the choice to face General Zod and prevent him from destroying humanity.

Development began in 2008 when Warner Bros. took pitches from comic book writers, screenwriters, and directors, opting to reboot the franchise. In 2009, a court ruling resulted in Jerry Siegel's family recapturing the rights to Superman's origins and Siegel's copyright. The decision stated that Warner Bros. did not owe the families additional royalties from previous films, but if they did not begin production on a Superman film by 2011, then the Shuster and Siegel estates would be able to sue for lost revenue on an unproduced film.

Producer Christopher Nolan pitched Goyer's idea after story discussion on The Dark Knight Rises, and Snyder was hired as the film's director in October 2010. Principal photography began in August 2011 in West Chicago, Illinois, before moving to Vancouver and Plano, Illinois.

Man of Steel was theatrically released in theaters on June 14, 2013, in 2D, 3D and IMAX. It grossed $668 million worldwide, making it the ninth highest-grossing film of 2013. Critics praised the film's visuals and Hans Zimmer's score but criticized its pacing and lack of character development. A direct sequel entitled Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was released on March 25, 2016.

The planet Krypton is destabilized from mining of the planet's core. Jor-El, chief advisor to Krypton's supreme council, recommends that the council give him control of the genetics codex. Before any action can be taken, soldiers led by General Zod, an old friend of Jor-El's, launch an uprising and arrest the councilors. Realizing that Krypton is doomed, Jor-El steals the genetic codex sought by Zod and infuses them into the DNA of his infant son, Kal-El, the first naturally born Kryptonian child in centuries. Zod kills Jor-El, who sacrifices himself to allow his son to escape on a preprogrammed spacecraft after his wife Lara-El launches it. The council quashes Zod's rebellion, and the rebels are sentenced to exile in the Phantom Zone after being convicted of treason. Krypton explodes soon after.

Following Jor-El's coordinates, the ship crash lands on Earth in Kansas. A childless couple, Jonathan and Martha Kent, find Kal-El and raise him as their own, naming him Clark. Clark eventually becomes an isolated young man as a result of developing superhuman powers which he tries to hide from others. He learns his true origins from Jonathan, who urges him to keep his powers hidden. Several years later, Jonathan dies in a tornado while refusing to let Clark rescue him, as that might reveal Clark to the world before he's ready. Burdened with guilt and looking for a new purpose in his life, Clark leaves to travel the world for several years under various aliases.

Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane receives an assignment to investigate the discovery of a Kryptonian scout ship in the Canadian Arctic. Having gained work at the discovery site, Clark enters the ship and activates its central computer using a key left by Jor-El, which allows him to communicate with an artificial intelligence modeled after his father. The AI explains that Clark was sent to Earth to guide its people, and presents him with a Kryptonian uniform bearing his family's symbol. While following Clark, Lois inadvertently triggers the ship's security system. Clark uses his powers to rescue Lois before wearing the uniform and testing his flying abilities. Unable to convince supervisor Perry White to publish an article on the incident, Lois tracks down Clark back to his family home in Kansas, intent on finding the truth. She tries to persuade Clark to let her reveal his story, but decides to drop it after hearing of Jonathan Kent's sacrifice, and keeps Clark's identity safe.

Escaping the Phantom Zone, Zod and his crew intercept a transmission from the scout vessel and travel to Earth. Deducing that Kal-El is nearby, they broadcast a global address demanding that he surrender or risk war. Without revealing his identity and wearing the Kryptonian uniform, Clark meets with the United States Air Force and agrees to comply, with Lois joining him as a hostage. Zod reveals that he possesses several terraforming devices, the largest called a World Engine, which he salvaged from Kryptonian outposts, which he intends to use to transform Earth into a new Krypton. His science officer, Jax-Ur, extracts information from Clark's genes to create Kryptonian colonists who will annihilate humanity and build a society based on Zod's ideals of genetic purity.

Using the Jor-El AI to take over the ship, Clark and Lois flee and warn the U.S. military of Zod's plan, resulting in an explosive confrontation between Clark and Zod's troops, just as Zod orders an invasion. Zod deploys the World Engine from the Kryptonian ship, which touches down in the Indian Ocean and begins firing a beam through the planet towards the ship, severely damaging the city of Metropolis, and initiating the terraforming strategy. Clark destroys the World Engine while the military launches a suicide attack, sending Zod's troops back to the Phantom Zone. With the ship destroyed and Krypton's only hope of revival gone, Zod vows to destroy the Earth and its inhabitants out of revenge. The two Kryptonians engage in a lengthy battle across Metropolis, which concludes when Clark is forced to kill Zod as he attacks a cornered family in a train station.

Clark adopts a separate public identity with the military codename "Superman" and persuades the government to let him act independently, so long as he does not turn against humanity. To allow access to dangerous situations without attracting attention, he covertly maintains his civilian identity and takes a job as a freelance reporter for the Daily Planet.

All in all, this movie deserves more praise than it got when it came out in 2013. Sure it has its flaws but the movie does a damn good job and showcasing Superman if he lived in our society. Before I watched the film, I didn't much liked Superman since I felt like he was a boy scout in tights but this film made recognize a different side of Superman just like the previous Batman films did. It made Superman human and relatable and doing that off a character whose basically a god is quite challenging versus doing it with a billionaire caped crusader. I wished there was a sequel but Im glad that we still have this movie. This was Revisited, thanks for reading. Ricardo Signing Off