Man of Steel was the hotly anticipated reboot of the Superman franchise that had its supporters as well as its detractors. The film managed to sidestep the usual “origin story” pitfalls by giving us a Clark Kent already grown and trying to find his way in the world, while showing us how he got to this place through flashbacks to his childhood. After the terrible decision to reboot Spider-Man’s story with almost an hour of origin … which most people already know because of the three previous films … it was a brilliant move on the part of David S. Goyer and Zach Snyder to not bog down the first half of the movie with origin stuff.

Of course, some would say the film went completely off the rails with the bigger and bigger battle scenes that make you wonder where they can go next. Perhaps they did start off the franchise in a much too grand style, but some of the major changes to the Superman mythology left a bad taste in many fans’ mouths. I appreciated the new and improved Lois Lane, thankful that she wasn’t the ditz who could not tell the difference between Clark and Supe. Getting that out of the way right off the bat gave Lois a reason to be involved in the story as an active participant, not as a damsel in distress. The two major battles, in Smallville and Metropolis, were spectacular achievements in special effects, but left many wondering how that much destruction was going to be acknowledged. Quick answer: it wasn’t. Nope, Metropolis is virtually leveled, and one quick edit later, all is well and Clark has a job at the Daily Planet. Perhaps some of this will be addressed in the sequel.

And now for the biggest affront to Superman fandom … <SPOILER ALERT AHEAD>

The “murder” of Zod. As every reader of Superman comics and every viewer of the Christopher Reeve films knows, Superman will never, ever willfully kill someone. Ever. He will always find another solution. So why did he resort to killing Zod to save a family of humans too stupid to run out of the path of Zod’s heat vision? My thoughts on this are that Kal-El had not yet formed this credo of his at this point in time. He’d never been faced with such a dilemma, he’d never put on the suit prior to the arrival of the Kryptonians, he’d never been that visible and never had to fight someone as powerful as he. I believe that this act is what will inform the character in the movies to come. It wasn’t a callous moment for him; it wasn’t even willful. He did what he had to do and it destroyed him, so much so that from now on, we will never see Kal-El kill again. Of course, I could be wrong, but I do believe that act will be the catalyst for what drives Kal-El in the next movie.

And now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, you can relive that moment (and all the others) with the new home video release of Man of Steel, available on DVD, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D and Digital Download. The fine folks at Warner Home Video provided CliqueClack with a copy of the Blu-ray/DVD Combo pack, and I am pleased to say that if you have a Blu-ray player and a home theater system in place, this is the movie you will want to use to show it all off to your friends. The high-def video image is spotless, sharp and colorful (to a point). Some HD broadcasts will have issues with fast moving scenes, but you’ll see no pixelation or digital artifacts during the film’s major action scenes. The DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 soundtrack will surround you with everything from ambient sounds of the country to the destruction of Metropolis, while keeping the dialog clearly front and center and giving your subwoofer a workout. This is reference quality material.

The Blu-ray/DVD Combo comes with three disks. Disk 1 contains the movie and some bonus material, Disk 2 contains more bonus material, and Disk 3 is the DVD. The extras on the first disk include:

• Strong Characters, Legendary Roles (25:59) — An in-depth look at the history of Superman and the evolution of the characters over the decades, featuring input from the cast and crew and includes some interesting behind-the-scenes footage. A quick glimpse of a clapboard shows the movie’s shooting title, Autumn Frost.
• All-Out Action (26:02) — An in-depth look at the rigorous training routine for Henry Cavill, Michael Shannon and the other Kryptonians, and shooting the film’s major action scenes including the battle of Smallville (which used real military personnel). It’s interesting to see that some of the costumes and Superman’s cape were added later as CGI elements.
• Krypton Decoded (6:42) — Dylan Sprayberry (13 year old Clark Kent) sits down with visual effects supervisor John Desjardin to learn more about key effects elements.
• Superman 75th Anniversary Animated Short (2:03) — A nifty little piece of animation featuring the look of Supermna from his origin to the present, including representations of the actors who played the role, set to John Williams’ iconic theme music which segues into the Man of Steel anthem.
• New Zealand: Home of Middle-Earth (6:35) — Huh? A puzzling bonus look at New Zealand which was included on the Hobbit Blu-ray and has nothing to do with Man of Steel.

Bonus material on Disk 2 includes Journey of Discovery: Creating Man of Steel, which presents the entire movie again with interviews and behind-the-scenes footage showing the making the movie, almost frame-by-frame. It’s an interesting way for Warner Home Video to present this because in the past on such films as Dark Shadows and Wrath of the Titans, viewers were able to select this as an option to run with the movie … to mixed results. I never did get the operation to work on the Titans Blu-ray, so perhaps they felt this was a better way to deliver the material. Unfortunately, it’s not interactive at all, so there’s no turning it off if you just want to get back to the movie. It is interesting for those who like to see how movies are made, from the CGI costumes to how color grading totally changes the look of things (Supe’s suit looks a little too blue in the raw footage, for example). The other bonus on the disk is Planet Krypton, a faux Discovery Channel type of show detailing the events of Man of Steel as if they were real. It’s well done, but a little silly.

Overall, this is a set worth having, not so much for the bonus material which is interesting to real film geeks like myself, but for the stellar video/audio presentation of the film itself. If you loved the movie, it’s a no-brainer. If you hated it, it may be worth a second look now that you know what’s going to happen. Either way, it’s a decent package all around.

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Hollywood has been trying to properly portray Superman on-screen since the early 1950s. From The Adventures of Superman to Richard Donner’s big-screen version to The Adventures of Lois and Clark, each attempt has had varying degrees of success. The latest effort, Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, is easily the best of the bunch, but falls short of being the near-perfect film every one else is telling you it is.

While my list of problems with the flick is substantial, I don’t want to start with the impression that this isn’t a great flick. Henry Cavill is great in the duel roles of Clark Kent and Superman. Some actors have really hit all of the notes of one side of the last son of Krypton, but Cavill does a great job differentiating one from the other without sacrificing either. Before walking into the theatre, I never quite got the casting of Amy Adams as Lois Lane, but she made me a believer (naturally). I’m not sure why I had any doubts, as the actress has proven time and time again she’s got the chops to pull off just about anything. Even Michael Shannon excels as General Zod.

Man of Steel also excels in one area, besting my still-favorite superhero flick The Avengers. For years, as special effects technology has grown by leaps and bounds, comic book fans have been waiting to see a superhero and villain to rival what we read in the comic books. While not every scene delivers – I was particularly bored by a fight on Krypton early on – there was one in particular that is everything geeks across the world have been waiting for for years. Superman fights several other Kyptonians in a battle that destroys everything in their way, fulfilling a promise made the first time special effect artists found a way to make George Reeves leap tall buildings in a single bound.

But I did have problems with the film, large and small. Everything from a series of unnecessarily confusing flashbacks that peppered the first half of the film to the Superman as Jesus analogies that found a way to be both subtle and over-the-top simultaneously. I also found the sequence on Krypton off-putting; it was a bit weird, rooting the story in space opera roots nearly as much as a superhero story (I didn’t particularly like the sequence on Krypton in Donner’s version either).

Most of all though, I was not a fan of what happened in the final moments of Man of Steel. The climax of the film clearly reflected the more emotionally mature feeling that producer Christopher Nolan brought from The Dark Knight trilogy. The story has a “Really Big Moment™” – one I think you could make an argument it only barely earned – but then completely ignores its magnitude as the story comes to a close. For the story to include that moment – earned or not – and then not deal with the aftermath was almost unforgivable.

At the end of the day however, it is just one moment in a sea of mostly-awesome. Man of Steel is going to make a metric-crap-ton of money at the box office, and will be lauded as one of the best movies of the year. Despite my reservations, the superhero film market needs stories like this. As much as I love the Marvel Cinematic Universe – and as long as Joss Whedon is in charge it will likely be my first love – we are lucky to have superhero stories with the emotional maturity of Man of Steel and The Dark Knight Returns.

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The commenting period for this contest had ended. Winners will be notified by email.

CliqueClack has partnered with Warner Brothers Pictures and Allied Integrated Marketing to give our readers in the DC and Norfolk areas a chance to be among the first to see the highly anticipated summer blockbuster Man of Steel, starring Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Russell Crowe, Michael Shannon, Laurence Fishburn, Diane Lane and Kevin Costner. The screenings will be held:

• Monday, June 10, 7:00 PM, AMC Tysons Corner, McLean, VA
• Tuesday, June 11, 7:00 PM, Regal MacArthur, Norfolk, VA

A random drawing will be held for each screening. Please read the following instructions on how to enter:

• Leave a comment below, and include which screening you want to attend. Without this information, you will not be entered into the drawing.
• ONE comment per person, please. Multiple comments will be discarded.
• Commenting period will end at Noon on Sunday, June 9.
• Winners will be contacted via email with a special code that can be redeemed for up to two Admit One passes at GoFoBo.com. Please make sure you enter your email address correctly. If an email bounces back, another name will be picked at random.
• Do not leave your email address in the comment section as this is a public forum.
• Passes are limited. CliqueClack has no control over the number of passes allotted by the promotional partners.
• Passes do not guarantee you a seat at the screening, so plan to arrive early. Advance screenings are overbooked to ensure a full house.

Good luck!

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=QD-Cg64GuvI