After audiences reviled the artsy undertones of Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns in 2006, Man of Steel plays it safe with the most bankable superhero in the DC Comics pantheon. It sets out to deliver the darker, more action-packed Superman film for which fans have clamoured for years, and succeeds in doing just that.
In other words, Man of Steel reinvents Superman by making him much like all the other flawed, brooding superheroes that have pummelled the box office over the past few years. Though Man of Steel often feels like a generic slice of comic book mayhem, it has enough standout scenes and fantastic performances to make it worth a watch.
Man of Steel retells the Superman origin story for the first time in cinema since Richard Donner’s much loved Superman in 1978. Sharing a production team with the most recent Batman trilogy, including Christopher Nolan, it seeks to do for the last son of Krypton what Batman Begins did for DC Comics and Batman.
Out is the airy wonderment and kooky appeal of Donner’s beloved Superman I and Superman II in favour of an interpretation closer those of newer comics starring the character. This Superman is as super-morose as Christian Bale’s Batman, carrying his superpowers like a burden rather than a blessing. He may be a symbol of hope, but he is wracked by self-doubt. And even if he remains an emblem of truth and justice, he wears more muted shades of the primary colours of his classic costume.
Man of Steel trailer (via YouTube):
We meet the lad who grow up into Superman at the time of his birth as his planet is about implode. Mum (Ayelet Zurer) and Dad (Russell Crowe) manage to save their boy from the apocalypse on Krypton by launching him to earth, where he is found and raised by Ma and Pa Kent (Kevin Costner and Diane Lane) in Kansas. But his past catches up with him when the megalomaniacal General Zod (Michael Shannon) and his followers — also survivors of Krypton’s destruction — come to earth looking for him.
Man of Steel feels like four or five films stitched together, from the cheesy space opera of the superfluous Krypton opening to the cheesy soap opera of the Kansas scenes to the thrilling super-heroics of the third act. Director Zack Snyder handles the action sequences flawlessly, cutting a swathe of destruction through Metropolis as the demigods tear up the city in their conflict.
Though the final confrontation between Zod and Superman drags on a bit, it’s as thrilling an action sequence as the climax of The Avengers, one that looks like it really did jump off the pages of a comic book. But one wishes that the film slowed down more often to catch its breath and let us get to know its characters a bit better.
Though Snyder is a slightly better action director than Joss Whedon of The Avengers, he doesn’t have Whedon’s sure feel for tone and characterisation. The Avengers has a lightness to it without descending into outright silliness; in its worst moments, Man of Steel is kept earthbound by its suffocating gravitas.
With a 142-minute running time and no expense spare in the effects department, Man of Steel is aiming for grandeur. There are very few frames in the film where there isn’t something epic going on, always underlined, italicised and bolded by an overbearing Hans Zimmer score. Even its philosophical musings — there’s a confused environmental parable and an even more confused Christ allegory going on here — are delivered with the subtlety of Superman’s sonic boom.
Luckily, most of the cast are good enough to make up for the thin characterisation and clunky dialogue of the script. Costner and Lane turn in heartfelt performances as Superman’s adoptive parents, finding real warmth in the script’s cornball homilies. Crowe treats his portentous dialogue with a comical earnestness, while Shannon snarls and rants in typically scary form as Zod.
Henry Cavill is an imposing, severe Superman who looks the part of the Man of Steel. Hopefully, the inevitable sequels will give him the space to be looser and more spontaneous than this film did. Amy Adams lacks the chemistry with Cavill she needs to be a good Lois Lane, though she is the first cinematic Lois Lane to convince as a tough reporter. — (c) 2013 NewsCentral Media
- Read more reviews by Lance Harris