'Man of Steel' Sacrifices Superman's Origin Story for Cynical CGI-Fest

General Zod (Michael Shannon) vows revenge Jor-El and his son Kal-El, later known on Earth as the Man of Steel, Superman.

Superman, we hardly knew you. After enduring a pretentious two-and-a-half hour origin story, Zack Snyder's Superman reboot, Man of Steel forces the iconic epithet into the plot for one random instance. Snyder's iteration doesn't stand for truth, justice or the American way, rather assuming the role of an alien refugee attempting to remain off the grid except for the occasional phantom heroism.

Man of Steel goes through the same expected motions Richard Donner's Superman: The Movie did back in 1978. Still a carbon copy origin story, the alien planet Krypton is dying and in a last-ditch effort, scientists Jor-El (Russell Crowe) and his wife Lara (Ayelet Zurer) send their newborn son to Earth for a chance to live and grow up to become humanity's savior.

'Iron Man 3' Kicks Off Summer Complete with Energy and Laughs

Iron Man returns with more suits of armor than ever before, including Mark XLII.

Last year this time, Marvel embarked on its most ambitious outing ever with The Avengers. For the legions of rabid Marvel fanboys out there, witnessing its larger-than-life superhero dream team (Iron Man, Thor, Hulk and Captain America) joining forces for the very first time onscreen sparked a higher demand for more superior superhero flicks. That's all fine, except there's even greater pressure on Iron Man 3 to deliver the goods, more so than any previous installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Since the life-altering events of The Avengers, billionaire genius Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) has found himself suffering from PTSD, unable to sleep and consumed in the bowels of his Malibu home lab with constructing newer variations of Iron Man armor. But those are just the start of his problems when Ben Kingsley as the Mandarin begins to terrorize the American people and its government. After an attack on his long-time friend Happy, Tony's war with the Mandarian gets real personal.

'Avengers' is Marvel's Newest Definition of Super

Marvel's superhero "dream team" defend New York from the villainous forces of  Loki.

Very few films have been able to come close, let alone match the hype factor that’s been gradually brewing throughout the past four years for Marvel’s superhero dream team to assemble onscreen. Since 2008’s Iron Man, Marvel has systematically been laying their cards down one by one, revealing subtle clues about what Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury describes as the Avengers Initiative. Die-hard comic book fans know exactly what’s about to happen and if you’ve seen Iron Man or Thor or any of Marvel’s other recent superhero movies in the theaters and you’ve seen moviegoers glued to their seats during the credits, they’re just anxious for the next little piece of the greater picture.

In The Avengers, the world is threatened by the devious Loki (Tom Hiddleston), the exiled prince of Asgard who’s driven to redeem his defeat in last year’s Thor by conquering Earth once and for all. Loki isn’t alone in this conquest; this time he commands an army of Chitauri, a formidable alien force with its own agenda. Being that this is humanity’s largest threat to date, Fury assembles the Avengers composed of Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Captain America (Chris Evans), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and the Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) to defend Earth.