Man of Steel

                               Man of Steel

Please note, this posting discusses the entire film so if you want to remain spoiler free I would avoid this until after seeing it.

I recently watched Zack Snyder’s film Man of Steel.  To give some perspective I have only glanced at one or two Superman comics, but was a young child when the first Christopher Reeve movie came out.  I saw all the Christopher Reeve films in the theatre and loved the first two, disliked the third and thought Superman IV: The Quest for Peace had subpar effects and an underdeveloped plot but had some good character moments.   When Superman Returns came out I loved it.  Someday I will do an analysis of it but I thought although perhaps it worked too much from the template of Superman The Movie it was exciting and well-cast and I was thrilled that director Bryan Singer used the old John Williams score.

When Man of Steel was announced, which I think was at one point a possible title for a sequel to Superman Returns I was glad we would see more Superman though I knew it would be tonally a little different than Superman Returns which made money but was not a giant hit.  I had never seen a Zack Snyder film (I was never interested in seeing 300) but I was glad Christopher Nolan was producing.  I like Hans Zimmer’s music and thought he was an excellent choice to create a new Superman theme.  I knew the film would probably not use Lex Luthor as the villain but someone who could give Superman more of a physical contest.

Man of Steel starts off as a sci fi-fantasy film with opening scenes a little reminiscent of Thor’s.   Krypton is about to explode but we see Jor El fighting against General Zod’s forces since Zod is trying to take over the planet.  Jor El sends Kal El off but is killed by Zod while doing so.  The sequence is original and exciting and rewrites a lot of the background for Superman by painting the Kryptonians as genetically created for specific functions.  The first scene is of Kal El’s birth which apart from introducing the audience to the hero from the very start it also is significant since Kal El is the first naturally conceived Kryptonian in a long time.  Russell Crowe is perfectly cast as Jor El.  He is wise but still a bit of a rogue and his portrayal reminded me of his character in Gladiator, only more talkative.  Michael Shannon is not the first person I would have thought of for Zod.  He plays unhinged characters well (he was great in Take Shelter) but he is not someone I would think of as a military leader.  I did not think his voice fit the part well, while keeping in mind it is a much different interpretation than Terence Stamp’s from Superman II.  Zod is supposed to be in utter control and that characteristic seems to go against Michael Shannon’s strengths.  I will admit though that Terence Stamp’s Zod to me is one of the greatest movie villains but I always try to see a recast role with an open mind.  

The film lifts some of the influence from Batman Begins in that it jumps around in time during the first act.  We see scenes of Kal El as a young boy learning to control his senses and scenes of him being bullied because he is different and unable to fight back otherwise he would reveal himself.   Eventually he takes a series of odd jobs over what must be a couple of years drifting and gradually finds his way to the Fortress of Solitude, leaving a trail of superheroic rescues in his wake that Lois Lane is able to trace to him after he saves her life when she also discovers the Fortress of Solitude.  

Although I thought it was a little heavy handed for the most part I also enjoyed this section of the film.  The cinematography was a little reminiscent of a Terrence Malick film, with ethereal shots of young Clark and the washed out colors of things swaying in the wind.  Henry Cavill is fantastic as a confused young man with nurturing instincts who is struggling to hold himself back from exposing his full abilities.  Kevin Costner as Jonathan Kent is perfect casting.  Anytime Costner plays either a cowboy or someone from the country with solid Midwestern values the roles usually fit him like a glove.  I could not quite buy Diane Lane as Martha Kent. Maybe I have seen her in too many other types of roles but she just looked out of place in this setting to me.  Nonetheless they give Clark the values he needs to survive on Earth and the scene in which Jonathan sacrifices himself to protect his adopted son’s secret is moving.

Amy Adams is well cast as Lois Lane.  She is as is typical for the character, persistent and sometimes puts herself in danger that she probably should not but is not as reckless as in other interpretations.  I liked the change that she is the one who figured out that this strange person is Clark Kent setting up her knowing the secret whereas in past versions she usually does not.  Lois and Clark’s relationship worked well as a developing thread through the story and I thought their chemistry was solid.  I liked her confusion about whether or not to release the story of Clark.  However I also could not believe Lawrence Fishburne as Perry White.  I usually like him but he did not seem credible as a weathered old reporter who has been given the top job at the Daily Planet. He seems more like a manager, similar to the character he played in Mission Impossible III.

The scenes in which Clark goes to the Fortress of Solitude, learns his identity and sees an interactive hologram of his father were good.  The explanation of the history of Krypton was creative and I liked the effects that matched the dialogue which I think the filmmakers called “liqud geo”.  The hologram, which appears to be have been programmed to respond to situations in a way Jor El would, gives Clark a connection to his father and gives Crowe a bigger role, which for me is always a good thing (I am one of the few who liked him in Les Miserables but that is for another post).  It was a neat twist on the presentation of Jor El in Superman The Movie in which he Jor El was an old video.  

I also liked the scene in which Kal El first learns to fly.  He has to figure it out and you sense the wonder of the skill as well as the fear of it getting out of control.  The sequence is well punctuated by the way he crouches before taking off, which he does through most of the rest of the film.

The film up to this point had me engaged though I did feel it was a little melodramatic.  It loses me quite a bit once Zod shows up on Earth.  Zod first appears through an unclear message that hijacks the Internet which is effective but the film devolves into many labored digital endless fight scenes that wore down my senses.  Superman battles Zod and his army as they try to take over Earth.  There is little sense of danger to Superman but the destruction of all the buildings with the Kryptonians throwing each other around was disturbing since we can imagine how many people must have been killed.

A lot of screen time is devoted to Perry saving one his employees under part of a building in the chaos of the fights in Metropolis but it just seemed like a false heroic moment.  There are also a lot of scenes of Superman and the villains using heat vision but it looked like fire to me coming out of demon eyes which felt a little overdone to me.

After most of the villains have been vanquished and Zod’s plan has been foiled Superman stands over what appears to be a weakened Zod before Zod reveals that he is more than ready to fight some more.  My reaction during this was not “Oh, no he still has to find a way to beat Zod”.  It was more of a sense of dread that I was about to be subjected to another digital action scene.  Sure enough in this final fight Zod and Superman, while not looking the slightest bit realistic, destroy a lot of buildings while pounding each other and it ends in a scene that has received much unnecessary discussion.  Superman has Zod in a chokehold and Zod aims his heat vision at innocent civilians forcing Superman to break his neck in order to save them.  To me the scene is a bit contrived since I do not see what Zod’s motivation is unless he wants Superman to kill him.  Superman is distraught after doing so perhaps because he has violated his own morals or perhaps because he has killed the last remaining link to his own world.  But all the people who complain about it should just remember this scene.  Reeve’s Superman killed Zod at a point when Zod had lost his powers and also broke his hand first and it was played as a heroic moment (of course it was revealing that Superman had tricked Zod into giving up his powers).  

A week or so before the film was released Nokia released a fantastic trailer scored with Hans Zimmer’s main action cues.  It got me very excited to see the film but also made me aware of the product placement.  This film has scenes that are set at or in front of Sears, IHOP, Walmart and 7/11 and all the characters use Nokia smart phones and Nikon cameras.  I would think the filmmakers might try to be a bit more subtle but one impression it left me was how today even a place called Smallville would likely have all of these stores.

Standing out in all the absurdity of the final hour is Henry Cavill.  After famously losing out to Brandon Routh when Superman Returns was cast and then Daniel Craig for James Bond he finally gets to play the lead.  He is great throughout the film and I thought he portrayed Superman’s heroism and nobility in a very credibly.  He speaks in a strong voice that is also filled with warmth.  I hope if he plays the part again he gets to do so in a better constructed film.  

After all the destruction is over Superman is hailed as a hero for saving Earth even though I think many earthlings would probably blame him for having attracted Zod to Earth.  Zod came after him in search of a codex that could continue the Kryptonian race.  Superman figures out that he needs to be seen as a normal man most of the time and in the final scene of the film arrives for his first day of work at the Daily Planet as Clark Kent.  The last shot is of Clark wearing his glasses right after he introduces himself to everyone at work.  I enjoyed this scene quite a bit.

I also think David Goyer’s script is too dark for a Superman film, which is supposed to be about hope.  Superman, as far as I can tell, is not supposed to be so conflicted the way Batman is. Goyer co-wrote the Dark Knight trilogy but worked very closely with Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan on the stories.  Here, though he worked with Nolan as a producer I think Goyer had too much influence and needed another writing voice to tamper some of his more wild instincts and also to make the characters sound real.  For example, Faora has the following dialogue “The fact that you have a sense of morality and we do not gives us an evolutionary advantage”.  A better writer could probably communicate that idea better or would have the sense to drop if it he or she could not. 

 

In a nutshell what I liked about the film were the first two acts, Hans Zimmer’s exciting score, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Kevin Costner, and Russell Crowe.  I did not like the overreliance on digital effects nor the mindless destruction of the third act and some of the cast.  If anything this proves how much influence a director has over a project.  I greatly enjoyed Christopher Nolan’s Batman films, especially the last two, but they presented Bruce Wayne as a real man and the action scenes were paced better and told different stories involving multiple characters.  Henry Cavill is up to the task but has a director much more interested in “cool” visuals than in telling a story that makes sense.  **