Anticipation has long been one of my many great follies. As a new movie or game or comic etc. is announced that can even slightly peak my interest, I start getting excited for it. As the months go on towards the release, more and more info on the film will be put out by the media to build hype for it and I eat it up with a spoon.
One of my most anticipated movies for about the last 2 years has been the new reboot of the Superman movies. Not only was it a brand new movie starting one of my favorite superheroes but it was being worked on by Zack Snyder, a man that I have usually thought could really bring Superman's superpowers to life very well. However I did grow a little perplexed at the idea of Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer being involved in the project. Nolan has said before that he didn't really care for the more unrealistic and fantastical elements of superheroes and comic books which made the choice to make him producer and writer all the more perplexing.
I did however understand the choice of Goyer to write it, as his film "Blade" kicked off the superhero movie craze and "The Dark Knight" is one of the highest rated superhero films to date, but his other films (including the last Batman movie) have been extremely mixed.
Well we are finally here, The new Superman movie entitled "Man of Steel" has been released. Did this all star trio manage to finally create a successful Superman movie that will finally give DC comics a chance to build their own superhero movie universe? Did it successfully bring Superman back to the big screen? And most importantly, Was the movie any good? All of these questions can be answered with one word, kinda.
We begin on the planet Krypton which is currently under siege by the head of the kryptonian military, General Zod. Jor-El and his wife Lara know that the biggest threat is not Zod but that Krypton's core is unstable and will soon destroy the planet. Thus they construct a Rocket for their son Kal-El to journey in and escape Krypton before it's ultimate fate. After Kal's ship is safely away from the planet, Zod's coo is stopped and he and his followers are put on trial before they are sentenced to life in the Phantom Zone. Soon afterwards Krypton is destroyed.
Kal-El has since landed on Earth and grown up into a young Clark Kent searching for his place in the world. He takes small jobs to get by and journeys far north looking for something that will give him purpose. He soon finds a Ship with a hologram of his Father Jor-El inside, that tells him that he will have a bigger purpose in this world then he can possibly know and that it's up to him to protect humanity and become the man he was always destined to be, Superman.
The story in "Man of Steel" is really my biggest problem with the film. The first big problem I have with this story is that it is poorly written. Characters will explain something about themselves and then keep repeating it so that the audience gets it. But by the second time you hear it, your already saying "YES! We get it! Superman is here for a reason". I don't need to be told more then once that Superman is here for a reason, he's Superman, I think I already got that from the first time your said it.
Another problem I have with it is that the story is simplistic but poorly put together. For about the first hour of the film we pretty much follow a pattern of back story, present time, back story, present time, back story, present time, back story, present time and then the last hour and a half is pretty much dealing with Zod's invasion with small back story elements spliced in. This gives the film's pacing and flow a very rough feeling as we constantly hop back and forth between time periods and nothing really flows that well in the script. When we jump back to Clark's childhood and forward to the present day, it's like the film hits a road bump and shakes you out of the movie you were getting interested in.
And this is to say nothing of the last hour and a half of the movie where it is pretty much nothing but constant fighting. I'll get into how I feel about the actual fight scenes themselves in the Production and Design portion but the pacing of these fights is horrible. Fights between Superman and his foes (Especially the fight in Smallville) just seem to drag on and on and on. Giving you little to no breathing room between the punches. Fighting is good for a little while but when your watching almost nothing but fighting for almost half an hour, it just starts to get boring. I will say that the last fight between Zod and Superman is easily my favorite as I feel it's a well paced, entertaining bare knuckle brawl between the two super men, that has them crash through buildings, into the ground, flying through the air. It reminded me alot of the end fight between Superman and Darkseid in Justice League Unlimited and it's exactly how I figured a fight between two men this powerful would go. Though it all culminates in a terrible way (that I have many many fan boy problems with) and sadly it can't really be a climax of the movie if most of the last hour was nothing but a climax.
But I think the core problem I have with this movie is that it is a very cold and a very somber film. Nothing about this film really makes me feel good coming out of it, and I feel that is very much the responsibility of Nolan and Goyer. These are two filmmakers who are very talented in making very down tempo, somber films (Goyer wrote Dark City, I don't really think that's a good fit for Superman). They are totally out of their league with this film and it really shows. This film is all about giving humanity hope and how Superman can show them the way there. But it's so desolate so somber and so cold in the way it portrays the world of Superman and even Superman himself that it doesn't inspire that, I don't feel hopeful watching this film. Honestly it makes me a little sad and that's not what I should be feeling when I watch a Superman film. The original 78' movie had it's somber moments sure but they didn't take up the majority of the film. It had moments that could make you laugh or smile or enjoy the time your spending with these characters. It really gave off the sense that Superman is a beacon of light for humanity and gave you a hopeful feeling when your hit the end credits. "Man of Steel" however is just so desolate and cold that when the movie reached the credits. I had zero want to watch this movie again and as I'm writing this about 5 days after I've seen it, I still don't want to see it again.
If there's one thing that I can say that the script and story got right, it's the characters. The characters all still have that splash of somberness that is all over this film but for the most part I feel like they were written very well. Superman is still the nice guy who does what he feels is right, Lois is still the spunky reporter that always has her nose somewhere it shouldn't belong, Clark's parents are still the very simple loving and supportive couple (with a few tweaks for Pa Kent that actually work pretty well) and etc. The film does a good job of making the characters like we remember them.
As for the performances I think that pretty much all of the cast did an amazing job. Amy Adams wouldn't have been my first choice to play Lois Lane but Adams managed to make her one of my favorites. She's got that right mix of sassy and in your face but doesn't make it seem too obnoxious. My problem with her character however is that for some reason Goyer and Nolan kept shoving her into situations where she just didn't need to be and in most of those situations she felt shoehorned in to make her more important in the plot (Why did she really have to go to the space ship with Superman?). Aside from the awkward writing Adams did an amazing Job and is one of my favorite Lois's now.
The Supporting cast did a great job as well with Laurence Fishburne playing Perry White, Diane Lane as Martha Kent, Antje Traue as Faora and Christopher Meloni as Nathan Hardy. Though of the supporting cast the two that easily stand out in my mind as being the best were Russel Crowe as Jor-El and Kevin Costner as Pa Kent. These are two perfectly managed to capture their characters. Jor-El is the smart calculated one that still tries to do what's best in tough situations. And Pa Kent is the wise down to earth man that teaches Clark how to be a good man (some might say a "Super" man ha ha ha ha..........sorry). But I love these two's performances, they look the part, they act the part and their scenes with Clark are some of my favorite parts of the movie. (There you go Crowe, you made up for your performance in Les Miserable).
But let's talk about my favorite and least favorite performances of this film. My favorite performance of the film (and my favorite part in general) is Henry Cavill as Superman. The guy just is Superman to me. From his speech to his pose to his look to the way he speaks. Everything about this guy just screamed Superman to me. He also manages to have really good chemistry with all of the other actors and can really deliver when it comes to the more dramatic parts of the film. Not many people can pull off a dramatic saddened yell, but Cavill managed to pull it off. This is easily the best live action Superman since Christopher Reeves and those were some mighty big shoes to fill, but on Cavill they slip on like a glove.
My least favorite performance in the film is sadly Michael Shannon as Zod. And I don't think this is any fault of Shannon as an actor, it's clear that he is giving it his all. But his Zod just isn't as memorable as Terrance Stamp was. I don't remember alot of what he did or alot of his character dynamic like I did with Stamp. And even the character isn't that badly written, he certainly has a more memorable character arc then Stamp did. He's a military leader and he only wants what's best for his people and will do anything to make happen what he feels is right for them but what does he do when that one thing he's meant to do is taken away from him. It's an interesting character that I usually really like. Stamp was pretty much straight forward. He was an Ego maniac that wanted to rule the world (of Houston) he didn't really want anything else. But that straight forwardness aloud Stamp to really get sucked up into the role and really make it his own with his own mannerisms, way of talking and even some memorable lines ("KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!"). Shannon doesn't, he just doesn't seem to be able to make it his own and it ultimately feels like Shannon is just going through the routines at points. It's a very uneven performance with some high points but nothing that will make me miss him when "Man of Steel 2" comes out.
Production and Design
As far as the production and design of the film goes, for the most part it looks great. All the costumes are very well done and fitting to each character. Superman and Zod's look noticeably like they came from another world, and alot of the staff of the Daily Planet look like they should in modern age Metropolis. If i did have one nitpick about the costumes it's that Zod's military ware looks a little bit rough. Like I feel that it might be a little too much for someone to carry into a battle. It looks so big and bulky that it looks a little bit cumbersome and bad for the battlefield. You would think that the advanced Civilization of Krypton would be able to come up with something better then Megatron cosplay but again it's really just a nitpick and for the most part the costumes are excellent.
And that also goes for the camera work and score of the film. The camera work really manages to show off how it would feel to fly faster then a speeding bullet with the wind coming at you at 100 mph. For the longest time we have really only had the original movies flying scenes as a point of reference for how to do Superman flying. And of course for 1978 they look great, though they don't hold up as well nowadays. This really nails how it feels to fly through the air as Superman. I've heard alot of people complain about the shaky cam in the fight scenes. It never really bothered me and I thought that the fights were filmed fine, with Snyder's patented quick cuts and fast pace.
As for the Score Hans Zimmer does a great job. No one is ever really going to replace the original Superman theme by John Williams (hallowed be thy name) but Zimmer does do a great job at making the films sound his own. Fights are dynamic, Flying is upbeat and lifting and tender moments are very low and soft. Though like Michael Shannon, it's not really that memorable of a score. It's certainly fine while your listening to it but your not really going to remember too many tracks coming out of it. Maybe one or two will stick in your head but nothing that will really stay for long.
And now we are going to talk about one of the films biggest strengths and one of it's biggest weaknesses, the direction and the fight scenes. Now I would like to get this out there right now, the special effects look fine. It's clear that alot of guys worked hard on making these look huge and bombastic and really putting alot of heart into the look of these fight scenes. No I'm not going to blame them, I'm sadly going to have to point the finger at Snyder.
Now the biggest strength of these scenes is that these fights look awesome. They look exactly like how I figured a superman fight should look on a scale of this size. Things explode, buildings crumble, trains are thrown, lots of flying and fighting, there's debris everywhere, people are getting thrown through buildings. It is the ideal way a Superman fight should look.
However the biggest draw back to these fight scenes is that they are disconnected from the narrative and what the story is trying to get across. The story is about Clark's transformation into Superman, protector of humanity and someone who is willing to protect people no matter what. And in certain areas, that is what they are getting across but it's really only if they are main characters or one section near the end. Through out the movie there are explosions, buildings crumbling thousands of people are dying all over the place. And one of the main perpetrators of this is Superman. He's either throwing someone through a building which knocks it over, is being knocked through something that makes it explode or fall over or dodging debris that hits another building that kills more people. There are people constantly dying in this film and Superman isn't doing anything to help them (except saying for them to get inside, oh yeah that's going to help when a train and jet fighter are hurled at your house). These fight scenes don't work for the character that the film is trying to portray Superman as, they portray Superman as someone who will help if he's shoved into a situation where he needs to help people but will forget about the innocent lives being lost if he cant see them.
Usually things like this don't bother me in Superman cartoons. People are always getting thrown through buildings and things are exploding. But that's a cartoon. There's the obvious disconnect that what I'm watching isn't real and that it was drawn by an animator. But with Live action that disconnect is gone and I know that there should be people in there that Superman should save but doesn't. He just goes on fighting with Zod and letting all the innocents in those buildings die. And I blame Snyder, at points his direction is great for this film and again he really makes what I feel a Superman fight should look like a reality but he's long been criticized for his over indulgent action scenes and this movie pretty much allows him to go nuts. But he's going nuts at the expense of the character and story he's trying to get across. And this would have been such an easy fix for them too. When a building is falling over, have Superman try and keep it from falling, knowing that he can't he quickly flies through and picks up as many people as he can. He carries all of them to safety. Zod sees this and realizes that human lives are Superman's greatest weakness, so he knocks over another building. Superman tries to go in a save them but is knocked away by Zod, the building crumbles, people die and Superman is pissed. It would have given their rivalry more depth and shown how Superman really tries to save everyone but ultimately can't.
Hell that scenario I just described was pretty much summed up in one line back in Superman 2. When Zod and Superman are fighting, Zod starts attacking the people and you see Superman scream "NO! Not the People!". This one line gets across that Superman really cares about these people and they are not just random background extras to him. But Snyder can't take his eyes off of the action and thus sacrifices narrative and story for more punching.
This movie has been one of the most difficult movies I've ever had to review. I've had to take the fan boy glasses off and really sit down and think about this film and my feelings towards it. And much like alot of movies this year, I didn't love it but I didn't hate it either. There are points in this films when it soars high and points where it falls like a rock. If the script, direction, pacing and action had been better handled this could have been amazing. But as it stands it's just decent. I know that they already have Man of Steel 2 in the works and I can only hope that Goyer and Nolan step down from it so I can see this great cast really shine. But for now Man of Steel is decent.
Rating: 5/10, Rental
Fanboy Nitpick of the Movie!!!
How the hell is able to pull off the Clark Kent thing at the end of this movie?
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