Man of Steel

Zack and Chrissie Make A Snorno

I never have had a great affinity for Superman as a comic-book hero, being more interested in human and damaged heroes such as Bruce Wayne's Batman or Tony Stark's Iron Man. Their stories contained flawed men trying to better themselves, as well as their world. 

However, Superman being an alien from Krypton, I never really related to the character.  He was always “Mister Goody Super Two-Shoes”, never breaking his high moral code to bring the bad guys down.  I didn't mind Batman using fear and intimidation to find out The Joker's location, it was for The Greater Good.  Try and get Superman to use his heat vision to go all Jack Bauer on a bad guy's kneecaps.  Not going to happen.

Broody, no?

So skip to 2013, and we have the newest Superman film, Man of Steel. The franchise has been rebooted under the helm of Zack Snyder, with Christopher Nolan producing. I'm a fan of Snyder's early directorial work, such as the rebooted Dawn of the Dead, 300 and Watchmen, but he's been slipping in recent years. Christopher Nolan on the other hand has just gone from strength to strength in his career. Starting with innovative films such as Memento, then creating the incredible dream-thieving of Inception and perfectly capturing a gritty and realistic Gotham in the Dark Knight trilogy, he can just do no wrong in my eyes.

Christopher Nolan and Zack Snyder
(Producer and Director...)
(...I wish their roles were reversed)

Focussing on the realistic portrayal that Nolan gave Batman Begins, that is what the trailer for this film seemed to suggest Man of Steel would focus on.  The man that is Clark Kent/Kal-El and not the Superman he chooses to be.  The trailer showed a young child running through washing lines with a cape on his back, pretending to be the ideal than mankind could strive towards.  That was the film I wanted.  More Man than of Steel.  I wanted Clark to have the life we have seen before (reporter for the Daily Planet, budding relationship with Lois) but to have the realistic inner struggle of whether to reveal himself as Superman. And to be fair to Man of Steel, we do get that for about half the film.  It's just simply not enough.

General Zod
(Michael Shannon)

Clark struggles between keeping a low profile and not using his powers, therefore obeying his Earth father, played with a terrific subtlety by Kevin Costner, and utilising them to benefit those around him. This is so not to alert people that Clark is actually an alien, and proof that we are not alone in the Universe. It is an interesting way of taking the Superman idea, as no one has thought about how a realistic Earth would react to a man like Kal-El. Previous films simply show everyone instantly loving and supporting him, but the film's correct; people would freak the hell out knowing that there's a planet called Krypton that has not only intelligent life, but life that is way more advanced than us. That is why I enjoyed the style of intimidation that the villain, Krypton's General Zod, uses to announce his arrival to Earth, a broadcast around the world telling us that “We Are Not Alone” and that one of his people has been living amongst us.

However, when Clark goes on the road to try and find his true identity, that idea of a secret identity seems to begin to fade away. He starts using powers like super-strength and heat vision without hesitation, seemingly throwing away all the inner conflict he endured and the advice Costner gave him. This culminates in Clark blindly listening to his second father figure/Robin Hood of the film, Russell Crowe, and becoming the eponymous 'Man of Steel'. Just like that.  In the blink of an eye.

Then the film quickly degrades to becoming a 45 minute 'epic dual' between the two warring alien factions, which slowly becomes tedious and boring, despite the amount of collateral damage they mindlessly cause. For a guy fighting on behalf of Metropolis and it's people, Superman surely causes several hundred deaths in the final fight scene with General Zod. I imagine because Snyder and Nolan got a bit greedy with the effects and wanted another skyscraper to spectacularly tumble to the ground, rather than think “Would Superman be so brash as to collapse 20-odd buildings without hesitation?”.  

Most importantly, I felt no real desire to see Superman come out on top during the final fight due to my lack of connection with the guy.  Either that or the simple fact that I just knew that he'd be fine and finish the job, unscathed as usual, since he is freaking invunerable!  Kal-El literally gets pummelled into sides of buildings, gets blown up in explosions and flies through giant alien spaceships, but not a single hair is touched when he comes out the other side. There's no potential peril at all and therefore no tension in my mind or my heart.  At least Bruce Wayne had broken bones that need healing and Tony Stark required a Hulk roar to revitalise him in The Avengers. Supes needs none of that and therefore I really wasn't worried about him during any part of the film.

Even Hulk was momentarily subdued during
the Avengers' Final Fight, and LOOK at the guy!

It's not all bad, as I mentioned earlier. The first half of the film starts the character off well and tries to take it in a new and fresh direction, but ultimately falls down in the conclusion. Cavill does a good job as the conflicted Man of Steel, but the plaudits lie with Michael Shannon as General Zod, the film's antagonist. As usual Shannon played the role with a lethal intensity which fit the Kryptonian purist, who simply wanted to carry on the future of his planet, albeit on Earth.  Along with Costner, Shannon made the film bearable, but again, his talents were wasted in the second half of the film where he is hung from wires against a green screen and re-enacts the final fight from The Matrix Revolutions.

"Misterrrr....... Kent" doesn't have the same ring...

I feel like I was promised something much better than this reboot of a franchise, mainly from the trailer but the appointment of Nolan as producer led me to believe that another “comic book art film” such as Batman Begins would be projected onto the silver screen, but alas I was mistaken.  Since release, it has earned millions worldwide and received positive opinions from most of those who see it, so I implore you to watch and see for yourself, it's probably just me. But don't blame me when you're questioning Lois Lane's entire role in this storyline, as well as the origin of Superman's suit. In a film like this, you're not supposed to question the small details, but be brought along for the ride, forgiving such indiscretions. But as I was left with a laundry list of complaints after the credits rolled, I don't think it had the desired effect.  I simply had a lack of zeal.

Rating - 4/10