When Man of Steel was first pitched to the world, through trailers, press releases and advertisements, we all held our breath in hope. And it’s hope that surrounds this movie and consumes David Goyer and Chris Nolan’s (Dark Knight fraternity) story.
Hope that the original Superhero would return. Hope that Superman Returns (an underrated film in its own right) wouldn’t spell the end of Clark Kent. Hope that Superman would follow the recent trend of comic book superhero brands and get a reboot. And finally, hope that as we increasingly take note of our ever-changing (and slightly scary) world, we would return to mythology that makes us feel warm and fuzzy.
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| He's got the female vote. |
Following in the footsteps of The Dark Knight, The Avengers and even Star Trek (check out the similarities between Zod and Eric Bana’s Nero, and the unfreezing of Zod and Benedict Cumberbatch’s Khan), Superman has sought to reinvent
While chatting with At The Movies, director Zack Snyder commented that when he “met with Chris Nolan and talked about the kind of movie [they] wanted to make, it was definitely a ‘let’s pretend like no movies have been made and we just found these comic books under the bed and we’re just going to make this into a movie’” – and that’s exactly what the movie looks like. The establishing shots of Krypton are remarkable, and the dark elements surrounding the planet’s destruction makes us invest in the survival of this seemingly doomed, Moses-like figure, Kal-El. (‘El’ in Hebrew means God, and bear in mind that the creators of Superman, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, were in-fact Jewish.) What these early scenes in Krypton also produce is an understanding for what Zod (Michael Shannon) is on about – in other words he’s not just in the movie to pester Superman. Of course when you lure Russell Crowe in to play Kal-El’s ideologically superior scientist Dad, Jor-El, you are in turn given a first class trip through Krypton and into the scientist’s expansive mind.
Once Jor-El’s only begotten son reaches earth (Kansas to be precise), in his teardrop shaped pod, we jump some thirty-years-and-change (are you beginning to see the Christian similarities?) forward and discover a finely chiselled bloke hanging out with a bunch of physically lesser seamen. This was a touch of class, as we effectively glazed over the monotonous growing pains which we have observed in every Superman movie and show to date. (Teenage angst and growing pains were brought to the extreme in the insufferable Smallville series.) Flashbacks are expected, and they are effective in large part due to the writers’ desire to develop the self-doubt this Kryptonian has about himself... and his destiny. Kevin Costner also shines as Clark Kent’s cautious and selfless (human) father – and he really brings it during these flashback scenes. At the end of the day its Costner’s American-ness which wins us over, as he confidently told Empire magazine, “I make American stories.”
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"No-one ever mistakes me for anything other than American." - Kevin Costner. |
However, it isn’t until Kal-El finds a prehistoric Krypton space thingy that the movie takes off. After activating his Pop’s spaceship-of-sorts, Kal unknowingly leads Zod to Krypton’s next desired colonial outpost – earth. And after Snyder threw in the literal take-off of Superman, and a sweet (but somewhat tedious) montage of Supes flying about, the movie accelerates into utterly destructive territory – Metropolis. The second half of the film lacks story wise but brings an unyielding amount of ferociousness, in the form of CGI action. There really ought to have been a warning sign flash on the screen for those who have heart issues.
Zack Snyder didn’t see a house, farm or Metropolis building he didn’t want to smash. Has there been a more destructive superhero movie? This seems to even top the smash-and-awe spectacle we call The Avengers. Somewhere in a dark room Michael Bay is playing Man Of Steel and turning an Othello shade of green!
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| New age drilling. |
It’s hard to know if my sworn enemy from the historical nightmare, The Tudors, Henry Cavill, is meant to just look good in a costume which is so compressed that it reminds me of the fruit roll-up my mate would bring to primary school. But the new S
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| Burning down the house. |
Even as a bloke I can’t help but whistle at this muscle bound stud. Cavill’s personal trainer would apparently yell at him, “You can’t act your way into a six-pack”, and after watching I tend to agree. Cavill is somewhat charming and charismatic as the original Superhero (when he’s allowed to be) but the seriousness factor weighs us down in the second half of the film. And when he’s finally found yelling in grief, after taking out
Michael Shannon has Zod written all over him. Whether it’s his stony Romanesque face, or his cold maniacal eyes, the dude just strikes the fear of God into us! And as the morally stringent, do-whatever-it-takes, “man of God” in Boardwalk Empire, it works. In Man of Steel we see glimpses of this ferociousness (which comes with a chilling goatee and dagger shaped hairline!), but like Superman it wears thin by the end. Perhaps it all comes undone by the excessive destruction and CGI madness? Also, how threatening is Zod’s right hand
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| No one puts Zod in a black hole! |
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| GQ cover shot. |
“I have always identified with
Lois,” Amy Adams tells Empire. “She
is suited to my personality. When she came up for the third time [Man of Steel is Amy Adams’ third try
for Lois Lane], I was like, ‘Okay, this is ridiculous, I have to play Lois.’”
And guess what? She did. This Lois is like Carey Mulligan’s portrayal of Daisy
in the recent Great Gatsby adaption, emotional
and forceful. It wasn’t a bad performance;
it just perhaps wasn’t what I was expecting. With that said though, Adams has
played tough-as-nails women before, Peggy Dodd (The Master) and
Charlene Fleming (The Fighter) just to name a couple. But someone
needs to let her know that if you go into a relationship thinking it’s “all downhill
after the first kiss” then you are setting yourself up for failure! Oh wait,
Superman told her... in what turned out to be the funniest moment in the whole film.
The parentals, both Kryptonian and
human, are fantastic. Sure, Russell Crowe features a little more than you might
have thought – considering he dies in the opening ten minutes – but why should
that stop him from getting a few more scenes? The women (Ayelet Zurer and Diane
Lane) were quite beautiful as loyal wives and devoted mothers to the naturally
born Kal/Clark. And did anyone else feel their bottom lip tremble when Lara
Lor-Van (Ayelet Zurer) was going down with Krypton?
One has to think that this isn’t
the last time we’ll see this rippling Man of Steel on the silver screen. But what will they attempt with a sequel (or prequel)? Perhaps they’ll do something with
Lex Luthor? Will Superman still be struggling with his identity? They already summed
up the moral philosophy of a superman perfectly when young Clark Kent sat
reading Plato’s Republic. (In Plato’s
Republic there features a story about
the Ring of Gyges – and behind it is this question of a superman and the moral
purpose power (and advantage) brings... check it out.)
This spiritualised version of
Superman certainly doesn’t fail, but it does reek of a movie which tries too
hard to please everyone. In the first half we have a delicious superhero origin,
then in the second the story takes a back seat to the over-the-top destruction
of Metropolis... and the Indian Ocean. Yet if it is escapism, shots of the
letter S (which actually means ‘hope’ in Krypton), muscles and
out-of-this-world action you want – then this movie is definitely for you!
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