MAN OF STEEL: A Counterpoint

 

Our man Andrew Allen took a crack at reviewing Man Of Steel. What follows is his take on the film. You can get the first review by our Sci Fi Columnist Stephen Sumner here.

Superman is back and he's ready to take out the trash, Zack Snyder style!

In a movie landscape dominated by superhero flicks based off of Marvel comics, it's easy to forget that there's even another contender in the playing field. DC comics has always struggled in the film industry, their track record is filled to the brim with lackluster efforts to bring their heroes to the screen (I, personally, have never particularly liked any DC based films prior to "Batman Begins"). With Marvel only gaining box-office traction, it seemed like it may be time to call it once and for all..... That is, until "Man of Steel".

"Man of Steel" has the vision, the heart, and the torque to bring DC comics to the forefront yet again, and to make people care about one of their heroes that isn't Batman for the first time in decades. Superman is a tough one to crack, nigh impossible to make a film about him that won't have audiences rolling their eyes every ten minutes at the sheer, juvenile implausibility of the whole shebang. But Zack Snyder and Chris Nolan have set out to drag the bad-sequel weary Kal-El into the realm of the legitimate, and although they don't succeed at every turn, boy do they try, and their unrelenting dedication to their goal is well worth the price of the ticket. 

The film kicks off with a lengthy introduction which takes place entirely on Krypton, a somewhat revisionist version of the history established in the most mainstream versions of Superman lore, though the basics of it stay the same. Krypton blows up, Zod expelled to the Phantom Zone and baby Kal-El launched into space.



Jor El, played by Russell Crowe, watching his world crumble.

 

From there on out we get a narrative mainly concerned with Kal/Clark finding his identity in a world where he simply doesn't fit in. Trying to find a way to use his powers to help others, while still not really sure what his purpose is, or where he's trying to go. Then everything changes when General Zod shows up with an army of pissed off Kryptonians, threatening Kal-El and his adoptive home world. And that's when the show really gets started. 

The good:
 

The cast is stellar, far more stellar than a franchise this tired really deserves, and they sell this movie like nobody's business. The MVP in this one is Supes himself, Henry Cavill. More than just a hulking mass of uncontrollable masculinity, Cavill brings genuine charm to the role of Kal-El. There are dimensions to this version of Superman that I had never seen before, and that credit goes largely to Cavill for bringing that to life.

 

Though the rest of the cast does great across the board, the runner-up for MVP will have to go to Michael Shannon for his portrayal of the fearsome General Zod. Zod is truly the result of the failures of Kryptonian civilization, he's almost a robot programmed with one goal, one reason to exist: to ensure the survival of his people at all costs. Shannon plays the role with a grim gravitas, yet also with a pitiable naïveté. Yes, he's a battle-hardened general from space, but he also seems genuinely convinced of his jingoistic life purpose that it's hard not to feel some sort of pity for such a blinded individual.

One of the film's greatest successes is the modernization of Superman as a hero. From slight costume changes, to a fleshed out backstory, to a deepened character arc, this new Superman is a story that feels thick with storytelling potential. And, for the most part, Snyder and co. make fine use of that potential. It's a fascinating experience "rediscovering" such an iconic figure, and DC made the right decision banking on the vision of established film makers instead of hawking half-baked scripts off to indifferent directors (lookin at you, "Green Lantern").

And last, but not least, the action is awesome. A little CGI-heavy, but tons of fun none the less.

The bad:

"What's going n here?"

 

As much as it pains me to say this, the narrative structure of the film deeply hinders the story's development. Which is really unfortunate because I really liked what they were shooting for, in theory. Most of Clark's childhood is told through flashbacks placed strategically throughout the film, which allows for the story to jump directly into his adulthood after the prologue and for relevant information to come to light as the movie chugs along. Unfortunately, our understanding of Clark as a person is very shallow without those flashbacks. Some of the key elements of his childhood are withheld until later in the film, so a lot of the earlier events in the movie ring hollow as they don't have enough narrative structure supporting them. By the end, the story does form a cohesive whole, I just wish I could've been as engaged toward the beginning as I was toward the the final acts.

Another rough patch is when the story turns it's focus towards General Zod's invasion of Earth. His appearance is somewhat unceremonious and therefor doesn't make much of an impact. An oddly paced sequence with Lois and Clark on Zod's ship serves as a poor reintroduction to his character and prevents the film from gaining the momentum it needs to propel itself into it's final act. The actual contents of that final act are just great enough to overcome a lack of proper set-up, but I can only hypothesize how much better they would have been had they gotten their proper intro.

So is "Man of Steel" ACTION A GO GO approved? By my standards, most definitely. Even when the story becomes clunky in places, the charisma of it's stars and the interesting twists on age-old characters keeps the film well-above sea-level. Also, this is the perfect film to show those people who have a grudge against Superman. A friend of mine who had been convinced from the very first trailer that it simply wasn't possible to make an interesting narrative out of Superman became a convert after this movie. 

Personally, I'm already excited to see the sequel. Bring on Lex Luthor!


 

4/5 Arnolds

By Andrew Allen