Ah, Man Of Steel, our old friend. Last year's Superman reboot subsequently has a lot riding on its shoulders, standing as the first entry in what D.C. hopes will be a Cinematic Universe to rival Marvel's. Which is a big ask of a film that underwhelmed at the box office and, more importantly, starkly split the audience. Taken in isolation, there's some nice elements to Man Of Steel - the visual style is consistent and some action beats pack a real wallop - but it's when it's all brought together that the problems arise. To some it was an exciting way to bring the iconic hero into the modern day, the film serving as a great companion piece to The Dark Knight Trilogy. And to others it was a head-bangingly long exercise of needless updating and unexciting escalation. Even the impartial parties got involved, with an editor at RottenTomatoes shocked by how low the film scored on the site's Tomatometer. The trailers, the first of which teased an incredibly meditative, almost Malick-style, piece, certainly didn't help, leading to highly inflated expectations for what was essentially a gritty Superman reboot. But the real problem was that as a superhero with such a strong screen legacy, doing something so incredibly new would always lead to a mixed reaction. A distinct directorial style certainly didn't help.
