Man of Steel

Directed by Zack Snyder

(PG-13)

**

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“Never has a race to save the fate of humankind seemed so tedious,” said Chris Nashawaty in Entertainment Weekly. Though the new Superman reboot works furiously to make the superhero a brooding, Dark Knight–like figure, the makeover “never quite comes together,” and viewers instead must sit through “endless” computer-generated fight sequences that pit our “impossibly handsome” protagonist against a villain from his home planet. Far too much time is spent detailing Superman’s familiar origin story, said Richard Roeper inthe Chicago Sun-Times. Diane Lane and Kevin Costner are terrific as the Kansas couple who raise the infant Superman after his arrival on Earth, but the grown-up hero faces no interesting challenges, and star Henry Cavill turns out to be “a bit of a stiff on screen.” Director Zack Snyder and producer Chris Nolan can’t seem to decide if they want their Superman to be a Christ figure, a Nietzschean Übermensch, or just a cartoon, said Andrew O’Hehir in Salon.com. “A profound confusion” sits at the film’s heart, and “supremely empty” action scenes can’t hide it.