Man of Steel soars on Blu-ray

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.