"You will give the people an ideal to strive towards. They will race behind you, they will stumble, they will fall. But in time, they will join you in the sun. In time, you will help them accomplish wonders."
Ever since Batman Begins came out in 2006, the world has seen more superhero movie releases than ever before. Considering the incredible success of Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, everyone knew it only was a matter of time before Warner Bros would initiate yet another reboot of one of DC's most popular superhero franchises. I personally wasn't surprised to see a certain caped kryptonian soar across the screen of my local theatre when I went to see The Dark Knight Rises in the summer of 2012, but that doesn't mean it wasn't extremely exiting as well. I've been looking forward to seeing Man of Steel ever since, but truth be told, I've also been very concerned about it. Warner Bros had a lot of money and their reputation at stake with this project, and there also was a decent possibility that they were gonna fall victim to the same inevitable problems that several comic book characters, especially Superman, have suffered greatly from on several previous occasions. Did Man of Steel live up to its hype? Is Zack Snyder still capable of directing big time blockbusters? Is Superman still wearing his underwear on the outside of his suit? Let's find out, shall we?
Man of Steel starts out the same way that all other Superman-origin stories have in the past. The planet of Krypton is dying, and in a last moment attempt to save their newly born son, Jor-El (played by Russel Crowe) and Lara (played by Ayelet Zurer) decide to send him off to a much younger and simpler planet than their own; the planet Earth. Everyone might have seen this done before, but Man of Steel does it a very cool and different way in my opinion. Instead of just breezing over this important part of Superman's story, we actually stay on Krypton for a good 20 minutes before skipping to the actual story, witnessing how Jor-El and his wife struggle to save their son, how the kryptonian people react to their inevitable doom, and how the planet's military leader General Zod (played by Michael Shannon) tries to "save" his people from getting extinguished. In my opinion, this opening act is the best of its kind since the bank robbery opening in The Dark Knight, simply because of how insightful it was to see what Krypton was like before its decimation. Another great thing about this part of the movie is Russel Crowe, who's straight up phenomenal as Jor-El. His character becomes incredibly important to the plot very early on in the movie, mainly because of how likable and strangely relatable he is, and this character's motivations and principals made me root the shit out of him. It's not often that I get to say that my favourite part of a movie is the very first act, but thanks to Crowe and Man of Steel's writers, that's exactly what I'm gonna do.
To say that it's all downhill from here on and until the credits would be an overexaggeration, but honestly, the last two hours of Man of Steel never reach the same heights as it's opening did. We skip directly to seeing Clark Kent as a grown up man after Krypton meets it's inevitable doom, and as the story begins to pick up, we're told what happened during Kal-El's childhood, which is what Superman is called in this movie, through several flashbacks that intertwine with the things that are going on in the present. Seeing as Man of Steel is the first part of a reboot and therefore also is an origin story, this part of the story absolutely had to be great in order for the movie and its upcoming sequels to have something to base everything that happens upon, and it therefore saddens me to confess that it isn't as good as I had hoped it would be. The individual flashbacks are all great when watched separately, but when they're combined and mixed with the events that take place in the present, it does become sort of messy at times. What I mean by this is that the plot never really gets a chance to "cool down" after one big scene has ended, before the melodramatic music starts playing again and something new and monumental takes place. I do see what Zack Snyder tried to do with this segment of the movie, but the entire thing feels a little choppy and overdone as a result of the way it's constructed. I also find it a little too overly convenient that Kal-El always seems to find himself within the near proximity of flame-engulfed oil platforms, raging tornados and school busses that drive into rivers, but then again, I guess that's just an inevitable part of being a superhero.
I hadn't heard about Henry Cavill before seeing the first Man of Steel trailer, and honestly, I didn't have high hopes for him going into the movie. Filling out Christopher Reeve's shoes is an almost impossible task for any man of cause, but I have to admit that Cavill did a great job with the material he was given. He actually doesn't have too much dialogue now that I think about it, and even though it did feel like he delivered some of his lines a little weirdly, I think he did an over all good job. The guy certainly looks like Superman, and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing him in the upcoming sequels and in the Justice League movie, because of how human he was in this movie. My main problem with superhero movies is that the main character often feels way too superhero'ish and too invincible, but just like Christopher Nolan's batman, Zack Snyder's Superman managed not avoid that. Cavill aside; it's time to talk about the character for Kal-El himself. As previously mentioned, Man of Steel is the first movie after the Superman reboot, and the movie therefore deals with Clark Kent's insecurities and doubts about himself a lot. Having to initially suppress his powers and and hide the fact that he isn't a normal human being would be devastating for everyone, and even though it was told in a somewhat clunky fashion, I could absolutely understand what Clark Kent/Kal-El was going trough. Kevin Costner plays Jonathan Kent in this movie, Superman's earthly father, and he's almost just as awesome as Russel Crowe is as Superman's real father. Costner's character is responsible for learning his adopted son why the world isn't ready for him and his powers yet, and the back and forth conversations between the two of them in the flashback scenes are some of my favourite parts of the whole movie. To recap what I said before: the second part of this movie has some really great moments here and there that work very well as individual scenes, but the way they are put together could have been done better.
Now that Superman's character has had some time to get introduced, the normal superhero-movie cliche dictates that the main bad guy should start thinking about taking control of every single television set in the entire world, and then proceed to deliver his cliche bad guy speech about how powerful and almighty he is. As we all know, this part is usually followed up by the cliche bad guy stating his cliche bad guy requirements and the cliche bad guy consequences that will follow if said cliche bad guy requirements aren't met, and what do you know, that's exactly what General Zod does! Seriously though, apart from his done-to-death introduction, there's nothing specifically bad to say about Michael Shannon as general Zod. In my and hundreds of thousands of other people's opinion, Shannon is one of the best actors working today, so seeing him throw down with Superman was that one thing about Man of Steel that I absolutely couldn't wait to see. As it turns out, Shannon did a good job at portraying a believable and well created villain with understandable motivations and realistic strengths and weaknesses, but when it comes down to it, his character just didn't demand as much attention as Tom Hardy's Bane did, as an example. Zod's principals and reasons for being who he is weren't as fleshed out or as understandable as Tom Hiddlston's Loki was either. Even though I'm giving him a hard time right now, Shannon's General Zod isn't a bad villain by any means, he just comes up a little bit short compared to some of the more recent bad guys. I'll do a little Q&A to sum it up: Was General Zod an overall disappointment? No. Did he have the potential to be much better? Certainly. Was he even close to reaching the same level of menace that Heath Ledger did as The Joker? No freaking way.
Alright, I think it's time to talk about the element of Man of Steel that has been dividing audiences and critiques the most. I'm of cause talking about the huge amount of actions sequences that take place in the second part of the movie, and to begin with, I think it's important to mention that I usually don't care for movies with huge amounts destruction and mayhem in the slightest. That being said though, I'm actually on the action-appreciators' side in case of this movie, because I think the incredible amounts of fighting and destruction of infrastructure was just what this movie needed. I mean honestly, Kal-El has been living "undercover" as Clark Kent for 30 years, and now that the world finally needs his powers, let's see him kick some serious kryptonian ass for God's sake! The way it's done is really impressive in my opinion; everything from the computer generated effects to the practical special effects and the way the fight scenes were filmed looked great, and had it not been for the bad and grainy looking 3D that my local theatre makes use of, I'm sure these scenes would have been absolutely astonishing to look at. The only time where I felt like less action would have been better was when Superman has to deal with one of General Zod's giant machine thingies, and even that wasn't nearly as bad as I had heard it was supposed to be. The inevitable final showdown between Superman and Zod is the greatest action segment of the entire movie in my opinion, especially the over-the-shoulder shots were awesome, and the way the confrontation ends is flawless in my personal opinion. I was afraid that the fight scenes were gonna drag on forever based on what I had heard about Man of Steel before watching it myself, but I have to say that it wasn't no way near as big of a problem as I had expected.
When it all comes down to it, Man of Steel is an enjoyable movie that I'd recommend everyone that likes action/superhero/comic book-movies to watch, and even if those kinds of movies aren't exactly your favourite, the 6th adaptation of Superman still is a very fulfilling experience. The simple and very recognisable plot wasn't too big a big problem for me, and even though the movie is crammed with Christ-references and a few overly cheesy cliches, Zack Snyder still manages to make this movie his own. Man of Steel feels and looks like a big summer blockbuster, something that Hans Zimmer's ridiculously epic musical score plays a big part of, but the movie still manages to keep it's feet on the ground for the majority of its runtime. The first 20 minutes on Krypton were fantastic thanks to Russel Crove, who in an ideal world should receive some kind of nomination for his performance as Jor-El, Kevin Costner was great as well, and the rest of the supporting cast was alright too, although a little bit misused. I didn't get to talk about Lois Lane in this review, but I think she was alright as Superman's romantic interest. The movie does have its fair share of flaws though, the major one being the way the content in the second act is managed. Man of Steel definitely is the best superhero movie to come out in 2013 (I'm looking at you Iron Man 3), and with that in mind, I'm gonna give it a very solid seal of approval. (4/6)
Man of Steel IMDb link here
Man of Steel trailer here
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