Man of Steel Review
Superman has had almost just as many films as Batman in his cinematic life, but has often not been as well received. The morally flawless and physically superior alien from Kansas doesn’t give for a lot of creative freedom for actors, writers or directors, no matter how you spin Superman, as an audience, we can always know what to expect.
He isn’t anything like Batman – a narcissistic sociopath that gives scope for audiences to delve into the psychology of the human mind. With Batman there’s childhood trauma, anger, guilt, an overwhelming phobia and an interesting form of discipline.
He isn’t anything like Spiderman either – an egotistical teenager that dons a latex suit only to revenge hunt for the killer of his uncle whom he regretfully feels he always unappreciated.
Both these heroes (Batman and Spiderman) can break, bleed, bruise and die. They don’t fly; they zip, swing, glide and fall.
Superman could literally destroy the human race. If he wanted to he could bring the moon down on the Earth and we would be powerless to stop him. Superman is like many other superheroes, is an orphan of sorts, his parents died on his home planet Krypton shortly after sending him to Earth to be found and raised by a loving couple in scenic America country side. Due to his races’ ability to adapt on different planets he is nothing short of a God on Earth who could give Thor the beating of a lifetime.
In nearly every other Superman film we first meet our man of steels secret identity Clark Kent, before he switches his budgie smugglers to the outside of his pants and fly’s around really fast saving everyone – in latex. But Man of Steels writers and producers David Goyer and Christopher Nolan, the duo who brought us all the Dark Knight Trilogy, have gone for a different approach, the thing I think the two excel at, backstory. They aren’t paying tribute to the Superman movies of old. Bryan Singer tried that and although he came pretty close the film fell harder than Superman sucking Kryptonite. In this new take on the origin story of Earths only immortal Clark/Kal, Earthling/Kryptonian; a child of two worlds, one that made him what he is and the other that shaped him into who he is. Not an easy role to play for Cavill who’s fairly new to the world of Hollywood cinema, especially given the high expectations for the film when names like Goyer, Nolan and Snyder are cast.
The Dark Knight trilogy has been labeled humorless on several occasions, which I think is completely ridiculous given that Nolan was making a Batman film that took itself seriously, which in order to avoid awful one liners and nipples on the bat suit, it had to do. But Batman was full of characters that did one liners well it had Alfred, the Joker, Selina Kyle and Bruce Wayne, Batman’s own Clark Kent. It surprised me then that Goyer and Nolan allowed for Man of Steels one liners to be so cheesy and misplaced. Cavill’s Kal-El has absolutely no memorable wisecrack as his only role models with in the film (before he himself becomes Earth’s biggest role model) give him nothing but mentoring speeches; Kevin Costner’s Jonathon Kent tells Clark to keep his pants on the inside of his trousers, or words to that effect. Whereas Russell Crowe’s Jor-El encourages his son to give Earth a chance and allow them to learn who he is, letting him ‘be an ideal to strive towards’.
Lois Lane isn’t quite what I had expected from a realistic reboot of Superman but Amy Adams does a good job of adapting the character that is even more fiery (or naïve depending on how you look at it) than even John Byrne’s version of Ms. Lane depicted in his ‘Man of Steel’ comic book mini series released in the 80’s that was no doubt one of the key texts used by Goyer. I was expecting her character to be the films release of humor but as the Internet is trying to close her paper and a genocidal alien’s landed in her city and decided to destroy Earth, we can forgive Lois from straying away from trying to find the hilarity in the situation.
With all this in mind I think its safe to say Man of Steel is taking it self very seriously, or at least trying to. I think with all the other superhero movies out at the moment, Iron Man, The Hulk, Thor and the rest of The Avengers, its easy to see why Man of Steel was trying very hard to stray away from the absurdity of the situation. Despite being just on the side of DC over Marvel (just), I do feel that Man of Steel falls short and all it has to offer to undo The Avengers would be spectacle. The film is huge; its opening sequence on Krypton makes you wonder why you ever thought Avatars Pandora was so wondrous.
The set pieces of Man of Steel are almost as immense as the cost of property damage and the death count that Superman must rack up in the films duration. Epic fight sequences that see Superman land heavy blows to Zod (Michael Shannon) and the rest of the ‘Zod Squad’ have us tearing through a burnt, crumbled and ruined Metropolis, that once you see the scope of its ruin makes you wonder why Superman is Super at all.
This film is brimming with Zack Snyder’s confidence and I feel that no one could have done better other than Nolan himself. Although I enjoyed it I still find it really sad that I have to say that Man of Steel is exactly what you’d expect from a Superman movie, especially from someone who made Watchmen and 300.
This film is aching for more backstory; it has the space and doesn’t even have to try for its target audience but unfortunately I feel once again the chance of Superman becoming the most relatable superhero of all time through clever story telling, has once more been sacrificed for special effects and set pieces. Man of Steel threatens to become the next superfranchise and effortlessly asserts itself as this generations Superman origin story. However, this is not the best Superman movie we have seen or are even yet to see.
The Earl of George 