Man of Steel

Man of Steel

2013

Science Fiction

3.5 stars out of 5

Man of Steel is an interesting re-boot of the Superman franchise. Co-written by Christopher Nolan (Memento and the recent Batman/Dark Knight trilogy), one can both appreciate Nolan’s expertise at writing and also his darker vision of the various comic book heroes making their way onto the big screen. I like his dark vision and find his angst-ridden heroes much more interesting to watch in the movie format than the more comic book-like versions envisioned by others.

Nolan writes his characters as if they were real people that just happen to also be super heroes. Without taking anything away from the 1978 Richard Donner/Christopher Reeve version of Superman (which I also liked), Nolan, co-writer David Goyer and director Zach Snyder have created a tale that makes far more sense (as if that were necessary) of Superman’s origins, his lost world of Krypton, and both sets of his parents and their foe/ally General Zod.

Act one opens with the young Superman-to-be, Clark Kent being parented by Jonathan and  Martha Kent (David Costner and Diane Lane). Told in flashback mode during significant events in his future, we learn of the upbringing by a remarkably wise and prescient  Jonathan. In the movie’s most moving and significant scene, we watch Jonathan stop young Clark with an upraised hand – saving the secret of Clark’s super powers , but at the cost of Jonathan’s life. And tragically this occurs just after a family quarrel between Clark and Jonathan. Clark takes this heritage of love and sacrifice into adulthood: still wondering who his natural parents were/are, why did they send him away, and having learned of the space craft he arived in as a baby, wondering whether he is even human or not - pretty heavy baggage for your average teen.

Clark (Henry Cavill) struggles for awhile as a young adult. He continues as an adult the various acts of heroism he started as a child, saving those in need of saving; and doing this despite the risk of revealing to the world his existence. This remains a secret he carries with some difficulty. He eventually finds another Kryptonian spaceship and via its on-board computer and a special artifact that orignally arrived with him as a baby, he learns of his natural parents (Russel Crowe plays his father, Jor-el), their devotion to and love for him, and significantly their world view of hope; hope despite the desperate peril of their times. They place both this boon of love and knowledge on Clark/Superman, but also a very heavy burden of responsibility towards the people of Earth, and to the heritage of the kinder, gentler souls of lost Krypton.

The above must seem like a good case of over-anaylsis of a comic book story, but it was genuinely the way the first two thirds of the movie affected and informed me. Of course, there’s always that final third of such a movie. That final third is why I give this movie three and half stars instead of the five I contemplated watching the early parts of the movie. A General Zod on a mission shows up, and in a profoundingly unsettling way, we watch Zod and Superman literally destroy New York City/Metropolis in a very disconerting, building collapsing manner. It goes on forever. I get it – it’s a comic book story and the movie-makers had a gigantic FX budget.  Still such a disappointing conclusion to what was in the beginning a very intelligently written and acted (Crowe in particular) story.

As just noted, Russel Crowe brings some significant acting to his protrayal as Jor-El, Michael Shannon does quite good job at making Zod a real person with a real motivation for what he does. Amy Adams plays Lois Lane in a fairly throw-away fashion for someone of her acting caliber. This is in the final act a very violent movie. Adults that like comic book science fiction will enjoy the end, adults that like believable people with real emotions and motivations will enjoy the first two thirds.