"Man of Steel" soars

I admit I was nervous walking into Zack Snyder’s "Man of Steel." Having seen the schizophrenic nightmare that was "Sucker Punch" and hearing the rumors buzzing around the internet, it didn’t fill me with high hopes.

Brian Singer’s "Superman Returns" left a really bad taste in my mouth. To say it was terrible would be doing a disservice to terrible movies everywhere. It was like going back in time and slapping my child-self in the face. It was a Syfy Channel production of a Superman movie. (Oh, and can someone tell Brian Singer he sucks and needs to give the X-Men franchise back to Marvel?  Who decided he knew anything about comic book-dom anyway?)

"Man of Steel" isn’t a perfect movie, but it was a good movie. It delivered in a major way.

"Man of Steel" tells the story of Kal-El, Superman's name on Krypton, with reverence and the certainty of a great cinematic storyteller. Snyder is at his best when bringing other peoples' stories to life. To throw out the Christopher Reeves motifs and actually start from scratch was not just brave but very necessary, showing that he actually knows and loves his source material.

Superman, played by Henry Cavill, and Lois Lane, played by Amy Adams, are incredible. They left out the embarrassing or crazy powers like ice breath or being able to reset time by flying counter clockwise to the earth. They took out characters that were not essential.

Hell, they didn’t even say the word kryptonite in the movie. For once, Superman wasn’t a god, but he was heroic. It hit all the right notes at the right time and the sound track by Hans Zimmer was amazing.

This summer has been a rough one for blockbusters. All the hype surrounding "Iron Man 3" and "Star Trek into Darkness" ultimately lead to disappointment. I didn’t expect a reinvention of the wheel with "Man of Steel," I expected to roll my eyes at the screen.

Snyder doesn’t take on small films. He is ambitious and I respect that. Snyder did "Man of Steel" justice, breathed new life into Superman and gave hope to a Justice League Universe.    

No one wants to see the same thing repeated back to them over and over again. Let the past be in the past and start something different. So are we looking at the DC cinematic universe starting to come to life?

I’m happy to say yes, we are, and I, for one, am ecstatic about it. What Marvel did with their shared universe is great, but who doesn’t want to see Superman and Batman on the same screen?

In comics there are two pantheons of god-like superhero teams; one is the Avengers the other is the Justice League, and if you’re not excited about what’s in the pipeline, trust me, you will be. Just ask one of your nerdy friends.

Do yourself a favor and see "Man of Steel" it's a good time. If you agree or disagree let me know in the comments.