So there’s about four different versions of Man of Steel coming home on November 12. You can get the Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack, the regular Blu-ray Combo Pack, the 2 Disc DVD Special Edition, the 3D Limited Collector’s Edition, or forego the packaging altogether and just get the digital download. The packaging looks pretty cool though, so I’d kind of want to make space on my shelf for that.
Man of Steel is, of course, the long-awaited prequel to 2015’s Batman Vs. Superman movie. I’m actually impressed the Superman reboot was so popular with the fans. I loved it for all the weirdness Zack Snyder brought to it, the sorts of things for which I thought the die hards would crucify him. Sorry, I guess that was the last Superman movie where he was Jesus.
Snyder put the scenes of Clark Kent/Kal-El (Henry Cavill)’s life out of order just because it’s cool that way, had full blown scenes of Kryptonian creature battles, changed major facets of the origin story, took time for quiet moments of contemplation, staged a major confrontation in a dream, and oh yeah, Kryptonian hentai! I effing loved it for my own Sucker Punch-y reasons, but I guess it worked for the straight-ahead Superman crowd too.
The three Blu-ray packs are loaded with extra features. A feature length documentary called “Journey of Discovery: Creating Man of Steel” has everyone talk about making the film. Feature length means at least 90 minutes, right? “Strong Characters, Legendary Roles” talks about the characters of Superman and how they evolved into this adaptation. “All-Out Action” is about training Cavill, Michael Shannon and Antje Traue into Kryptonian warriors. It has interviews with cast and crew, but mainly we’ll watch Henry Cavill work out. “Krypton Decoded” oddly has Dylan Sprayberry, the actor who played teenage Clark Kent, explaining all the Kryptonian technology, weapons and spaceships.
“Planet Krypton” promises “the world’s first exploration of Krypton and its lost society.” That might be overreaching. I believe there has been material on pre-explosion Krypton before, but if they’re setting the bar that high, it should be a respectful portrait of the doomed planet also portrayed in certain comic books, games and Superman Returns deleted scenes.
The DVD version drops the feature length documentary and “Planet Krypton,” maybe because “Planet Krypton” will utilize Blu-ray’s interactivity features. So, at what point do they release a new six-part Superman anthology? Christmas 2014 is my guess. If they throw in Supergirl, I’m in.
Click through to see the Man of Steel Blu-ray cover in high-definition!
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Shelf Space Weekly. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
