Guardian of Earth

Guardian of Earth, savior of the human race, power of 100,000 high schools teens, we all know him as a bird and a plane, its Superman the man of steel! In the past century superman has been a worldwide symbolic hero for moral rights ever since he was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in 1933. Now in the movie Man of Steel he faces many challenges not only physically but psychologically too. He has grown up with the constant bullying and plain misunderstanding of himself because of his abnormalities. As he is trying to find himself he eventually questions his parents “Did god do this to me” in to which his father, Pa Kent says “no,” before he reveals the spaceship hidden away in their barn. The 2013 movie Man of Steel has become a blockbuster of momentous proportions as director Zack Snyder, writer David Goyer, and producer Christopher Nolan grind their way into the emotional, action-packed, and character driven life of a man known as Superman.

In the first 20 minutes of the movie they manage to portray the perfect image for the origins of Superman. Jor-El (the actor Russell Crowe) has the very first natural birth in over a century and unlike his test-tube peers his kid has an non-chosen destiny and the name of Cal-El(Superman) ; however, Krypton is not the futuristic science fiction heaven as it once was. After having been scouring the galaxy for nearly 100,000 years Krypton has finally depleted all other forms of energy… except for the planets core. After destabilizing the planets core, a warrior class born to save Krypton known as general Zod (Michael Shannon) now attempts to overthrow the ruling monarchy in hopes of better efficiency. This is where Jor-El manages to steal the Codex the genetic code for all of Krypton. He stores the code into his before quickly sending his just born son off to Earth with an unknown destiny, setting the stage for the absolutely amazing plot afterwards.

This kind of science fiction drama in the beginning really shows just how great this movie really is, especially when Zack Snyder portrays just how similar Krypton and Earth are. People today talk about Global Warming, oil and the soon to come energy crisis but as we see what happened in the movie and think about our current status; we begin to think whether or not we will have a similar fate. The real world events are what partially inspired the beginning few minutes of the movie and are what bring the movie its science fiction post-apocalyptic theme. This doesn’t happen to be the first movie with this kind of theme, for example, the movie 2012, Transformers and even the movie hit movie Pacific Rim all have similar sci-fi post-apocalyptic. This doesn’t happen to be a coincidence as shown previously from all the different conflicts and problems today. All this goes into showing the kind of work and effort that went into the making and writing of Man of Steel.

As the movie progresses a girl named Lois Layne (Amy Adams), a reporter that works for The Daily Planet (a news company) starts to hear rumors of Superman. As she unravels the secrets laid in the wake of his pass she eventually stumbles upon an alien ship, the same one Superman was looking for. She becomes astonished when she finds herself being saved by Superman from the defective robot lying in the ship; henceforth, she was determined to expose his true identity. After spending many days and hours of searching, she finally found him only give up her big dream report to protect the world from his secrets. Never the less this becomes the start of their love interest and the second most important plot of Man of Steel. This very well may be a cliché damsel in distress theme but, adds a lot to the main plot. Picture your first senior prom date (this is mostly for guys) and your about to have some of the best time you’ll ever have with her, but then as your about to walk in the door with her a car is speeding down the walkway and you notice and manage to push her out of the way. The kind of feelings generated by this situation would be very similar to the relationship feelings of Lois Layne and Superman. The beginnings of love have always had a strong link to young adults which are why this becomes a core part to the fascination and versatility of the movie.

Growing up has been a change for everyone in the world and this is why it is the most critical part of this movie. Most of the movie is solemnly to develop Superman’s morals and character and to show the resulting effects of it. It all begins with the constant bulling he endures while he was suffering from uncontrolled abnormal hearing and the x-ray vision. In the middle of movie he has a bus accident where he is forced to make his first big decision. In accordance to life this would be the part where you decide what college you’re going to as well as what your major will be based on what you want your future to be. During this accident he presents his powers to the people he rescues as well as his rescued bully. His father later exclaims that he might have been better off to let them die for the “greater good of the world.” They take this concept of the greater good even further when you learn his father sacrifices himself to keep his powers a secret. You’ll see in the ending of the movie that this concept all focuses down to one ending point where he must sacrifice the good for the greater good(sadly I can’t spoil it for you). They take all he has been taught in the beginning of the movie and successfully put all the emotions from what he has been taught toward that ending and with his father’s words “for the greater good” still lingering in Superman’s head after this amazing climax. Superman stuck to what he believed in and created his moral code through lots of rough past leaving a huge thought on the audience just beginning to see the rolling credits.