Man of Steel was one of 2013’s biggest movies making well over 600 million dollars at the box office during its run. It’s currently out on Blu Ray and DVD but is it good? Well the Man of Steel was a film we rated quite highly on Resident Entertainment and you can read our full review right here,
As far as the film itself goes on this Blu Ray, I very much enjoyed watching it the second time through. While I did enjoy the film when I first saw it in the cinema I found I took much more away from viewing it a second time in terms of the message of The Man Of Steel. I also thought that on Blu-ray, this film looked great. The sound was excellent and it’s definitely a good one to have in your collection especially if you enjoyed the film in the cinema or definitely if you are a Superman fan.
The Blu-Ray is broken up into a three disc set:
Disc 1
The main feature film is on this disc which does not include any director or cast commentary to go with it. This disc is the 2D version of the film and likely the one most people will watch as most don’t have a 3D TV. The only feature available to view on this disc apart from the Man of Steel is a look at the behind the scenes for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug called “New Zealand: Home of Middle Earth”.
It’s actually a pretty good extra if you are a fan of the Hobbit films as it shows you a lot of the actual locations that the movie was filmed at, and many are easily recognisable as part of the movie but are surprisingly all places in New Zealand. Many beautiful landscapes are shown along with the construction efforts the filmmakers went through to build the shire.
Disc 2
The main feature film is on this disc which does not include any director or cast commentary to go with it. This disc is the 3D version of the film and likely the one you would watch if you enjoy having the 3D experience.
Disc 3
This contains all the special features that you get with the Man Of Steel (apart from the “New Zealand: Home of Middle Earth”)
1. Strong Characters Legendary Roles
This explores the Superman canon and mythology as it has evolved over the years to become what is now known as the modern Superman tale. It explains little differences in charactersiation such as the changes in Lois Lane and her portrayal as a modern woman over the years along with the changing nature of Superman. It speaks about the importance of the death of superman series in the 90’s and how the story was changed over the years.
This is the best special feature I think on the disc as it provides quite a lot of information for the viewer about the source material that the movie derived much of its plot from. It also has many comments and ideas presented to the viewer from actors like Henry Cavill or Amy Adams and also the director Zack Snyder.
2. Krypton Decoded
This special feature takes a look at the special effects in the movie, the technology on Krypton, the design of the ships and the clothing and what the inspiration for all of it was. It’s a little bit cheesy though and comes in the form of an interview conducted by Dylan Sprayberry who plays the 13 year old Clark Kent in the film. I didn’t think it was really anything special and would have been better if they actually got Henry Cavill or any of the actors to do the interview and not a kid. It was lame and had silly jokes.
3. All Out Action
This special feature is a very good one and shows in a very detailed way the creative process and the training and preparation involved for the Man of Steel. It has comments from Henry Cavill, Michael Shannon, Russell Crowe and many others from the film who talk about the action sequences. It also shows Henry Cavill training and all the work he and everyone else had to do to get fit and strong for their roles. It was a very detailed special feature and quite a good one which I learnt a lot from and because of it I now have a new appreciation for the action sequences in the Man Of Steel.
4. Superman 75th Anniversary Animated Short
This special feature was a 2 minute long animated short that sort of goes over all the years of Superman in a very quick animated way. You see the changes over time. I didn’t think it was very good and just seems like an advertisement disguised as Superman history.
Overall this Blu Ray comes with one great movie and some interesting special features where you can learn a lot about Superman and the film making process. “All out action” and “Strong Characters Legendary Roles” were easily the best features but the rest were a bit of a let down and did really add anything special to the film. It’s still a good buy though and has its moments. I enjoyed it and seeing the film again in my own time was great.
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