Superman has been one of the most legendary comic book superheroes ever. Ever since Jerry Siegal and Joe Shuster developed him back in 1938, Superman is the superhero most people would want to be. (Yeah, I know all you Batman fans are out there thinking no way. Remember, Batman is cool and all, but has no actual super powers. Superman, on the other hand, has a whole list. But let’s not get into these arguments right now.) The movie Man of Steel now brings Superman back into the spotlight and to new life.
Sure, DC Comics tried it a few years ago in the effort of Superman Returns. My opinion? The movie wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t great. I thought it had a decent story, but it felt like a lot was left unexplained. There were so many gaps many audience members were confused over what was going on. I also love Kevin Spacey‘s work, but his role as Lex Luthor was poorly written and such a bad caricature of Gene Hackman‘s, from the original 1978 Superman movie, that it really worked against the film. Plus, the quintessential piece of any Superman movie, Superman himself, was played by Brandon Routh who just didn’t have the chops for a role like that. I felt his acting was very vanilla and bland. Not a good pick. The overall chemistry was all wrong. Of course, I’ve been jaded because, to me, Christopher Reeve is the true Superman.
This time, with Man of Steel the chemistry works. The group of actors chosen are an established group who are mostly recognizable: Amy Adams (Julie and Julia) as Lois Lane, Michael Shannon (Premium Rush) as General Zod, Russell Crowe (Gladiator) as Jor-el, Chris Meloni (Law & Order: SVU) as an army colonel, Kevin Costner (Dances with Wolves) as Jonathon Kent, Laurence Fishburne (The Matrix) as Perry White, and relative newcomer Henry Cavill (from The Tudors) as Superman. This group works very well together. They are very believable and their roles are well written. This adds to any movie, but when bringing Superman to life it’s deadly important.
I was very worried about this film. After seeing the trailers, and before seeing it, I wanted so much to like it a lot. I wanted the film to live up to the hype. But I was also worried it was going to crash and burn in failure like the last film. The trailers showed much of the storyline which was part of the original Superman film from 1978: Krypton, SM’s origins, Jor-El, the trial of Zod, etc. It appeared it might just be a rehash of the same story. In a way it is, but they made it better.el, the chemistry works pretty well.
The makers of this film have seemed to realize, in order to make the idea of Superman better, they needed to make him worse. They couldn’t just follow the “goody-goody” model where good and bad are black and white and no one really gets hurt. The writers took their cue from the Dark Knight series. Michael Keaton‘s Batman from the 1980s is much different than the brooding Christian Bale Dark Knight of the 2000s. Many people prefer this ‘darker,’ torn soul, version. The makers of Man of Steel needed to make Superman a little darker. They gave him deeper emotional range and made the movie overall darker than other Supermans you may have seen. It directly relates to some of the darker versions of the newer comic book series. In fact, the typical bright blue, yellow, and red costume is toned down to darker (much cooler) colors of itself and the ‘S’ on the chest is even explained in relation to Krypton (no it doesn’t stand for Superman). The film makers help out this new model by adding Zack Snyder, of 300 and Watchmen fame, as director. Snyder has made a name for himself by making movies on the darkside. He brings these exact talents to the making of Man of Steel. Indeed, there are several shots in this film which are typical of Snyder filmmaking. The overall judgment is… it works.
Man of Steel takes the origins story of Kal-El (Superman’s Kryptonian name) and plays out the entire story including the attempted coup of Krypton, the trial and banishment, the destruction of Krypton, and the impending battle between good and evil. It all ends up on Earth with epic, city-destroying, battles and the impending doom of the planet. This is great for those of us who want to spend more time in the Krypton world learning more about his birthplace. A lot of this information gets woven into the story from there on out. Snyder revisits Clark Kent‘s child hood, but doesn’t spend time dwelling on a lot of what we already know. I was afraid they would just show you everything again, but they don’t. They seem to understand we know the story, we don’t need to see it again and a few flashbacks suffice.
This film is a constant thrill ride following the rise of one of America’s most iconic superheroes ever. Following from distant worlds to the one we know and the explosive battles which take place between our two antagonists, it’s a movie you can’t look away from because you will miss something small which is a key to who Superman really is. It is almost two and a half hours long, but none of that time is “down time”. Snyder uses every minute to weave a piece of the tale and does so successfully. This is the movie to see if you want to see the original American superhero in all his new found glory. I give Man of steel an 8 out 10.
Zenzland 