I’m a Marvel guy as you all know, but that doesn’t mean I’m not a DC Comics fan. Characters like the Watchman, Batman, Swamp-Thing are among the many DC Characters I love, although I will say that Superman was never my favorite. He always seemed too powerful for me to truly relate to his plight or to even truly understand him. Still, I do have an appreciation for him, plus his Broadway show and several of his comic book storylines present a compelling case for why ol’ Supes is irreplaceable. The best of these storylines embrace the inherent cheesiness of Superman; yes, he’s a man running around in a red cape, but he also has a fascinating conflict; unlike Batman, Spider-Man or Iron Man he can’t turn off his powers. He’s always Superman, even if he’s not wearing the red and blue outfit. Combining those philosophical qualities with Supermans good natured and cheerful personality usually created a fine character, not to mention the occasional rift between him and Batman.
Such whimsy and joy is thrown out the window in “Man Of Steel”. Instead of the Superman every single person on the planet knows and loves, we’re given a “Dark Knight” wannabe. Instead of exhilarating action sequences and dizzying romance, the film is orchestrated so seriously, that I half expected anyone caught smiling or having a good time in the movie to be whisked away by a theatre attendant. After all, none of you are interested in quality storytelling, just depressing and gritty heroes right? Right?
The planet Krypton is in mortal danger, mere hours are left in its existence. While the planet itself is doomed, it doesn’t help that General Zod (Michael Shannon) is establishing himself as rightful ruler of his species. As a result Jor-El (Russell Crowe) decides to send his son Kal-El to Earth, in order for him to be spared from the destruction of Krypton. Adopted by the generous Kent family (Ma Kent is played by Diana Lane, Pa Kent is played by Kevin Costner), Kal-El is given the name Clark Kent and must grow up with strange alien powers that separate him from everybody on the planet. However when Zod returns to destroy Earth, Clark will finally be able to use his powers to protect everyone he loves.
There’s a lot of promise in “Man of Steel”, but director Zach Snyder and writer David S. Goyer botches it all with their incompetence in directing and writing. If it weren’t for some solid visuals and actors, the film would be a messy failure. But even that isn’t enough to disguise the movies many flaws and shortcomings that are so disappointing to a major degree. Heck, it’s atrocious dialogue alone makes George Lucas’s prose resemble the writings of Tennessee Williams.
“Man of Steel” has an oddly low expectation of it’s audience, and assumes that they won’t remember what happened an hour ago in the movie, causing tons and tons of exposition to be repeated over and over again Good lord, the exposition. First we have to sit through at least 20 minutes on the planet of Krypton, setting up General Zod, the planet Krypton, Superman’s parents, etc. Then, we have to hear it all over again when Superman is told what happened to his home world. To boot, the film contains a female soldier, who asks hilariously obvious things in a scene during the finale, such riveting questions like “What’s terraforming?”, “What does that thing do?”; you get the point. This kind of stuff pops up everywhere and quickly becomes grating, but not nearly a grating as the film’s poorly chosen tone.
The main problem with this movie is it’s tone, which feels like these guys want to have their cake and eat it too; they would love to have the darkness of “The Dark Knight” but would also love to have the gigantic action sequences of “Transformers while still having that exact sense of foreboding darkness”. Um, yeah, it doesn’t work like that. See, before you get to do the big seismic action packed conclusion, you gotta set up your antagonists and the world the hero inhabits before you jam it full of god like beings of colossal powers. There’s a reason that all of Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” movies action scenes are usually smaller, but still rousing spectacles (i.e. Very little in any of the three movies escalates from much more than a fistfight). Such care towards the films big moments made sure that all of Batman’s more intense moments fit in with that films series more realistic and brutal world, while simultaneously making sure the films more emotional moments still were mixed in effectively with all the action.
“Man of Steel” suffers from by trying blatantly recreate “the Dark Knight” mixture of By having little to nothing but exposition happen in the first hour, the film is inadvertently setting up his action sequences for failure; they feel disjointed and out of place next to the smaller, more personal moments in the first half of the movie. Not to mention that they all go on and on and on and on, to the point where you’ll be checking your watch after umpteenth time Zod and Superman smash a building. To boot, all but those two aforementioned characters are sidelined in the finale, leaving their already oddly underdeveloped roles in the movie feel even more pointless.
It doesn’t help that Superman doesn’t exactly have much of a personality to boot. He doesn’t have charisma, humor or much of anything, he’s even more bland than when he was in his original goody-two shoes persona. Instead, he mainly broods, and pouts and occasionally punches things, has a forced romance with Lois Lane (played by poor Amy Adams, who is obviously trying to working hard with the pitiful script she’s been given). In short, he’s not so much super as he is a symbol of marketing; why keep a personality that’s been famous for 75 years when we’ll give you the dark version that fits in with your gritty lifestyle? Replacing such an iconic personality would’ve been perfectly acceptable if it had actually been a good replacement; instead, it’s a lame attempt to appear edgy that fails on several levels.
The visuals in this movie are amazing though, especially in the final action sequence where it all gels with the real world perfectly. Plus, the emotional moments in the film are surprisingly effective, especially ones involving Clark growing up on Earth and trying not to use his powers, a unique aspect of his character thats displayed perfectly here and feels like one of the films ambitious ideas that truly works. To boot, sequences involving Ma and Pa Kent are handled excellently, especially a pivotal scene involving a tornado and the Kent family. What could’ve been a ridiculous and manipulative scene turns into one of the best moments in the movie, thanks to Kevin Costner’s great acting. Also, kudos to Michael Shannon for some great moments as Zod, especially when Zod is freaking out; because we all know no one does freak out moments like the great Michael Shannon.
“Man of Steel” isn’t quite “Howard The Duck” bad, but it is a major disappointment, The potential here was great, but they waste it on humdrum action, underdeveloped characters and too many repetitive flashback sequences. There is just enough good acting in here and some spectacular visuals to save it from total failure, but “Man of Steel” is a waste of a superhero who has such potential. Truth, justice and the American way? Sorry, maybe on the next reboot.
