Movie Review: Man Of Steel

                                                    

 

 

 

Sometimes, being proven wrong can be fun.

For a little over a year now, I've been hearing bits and pieces about the (then) upcoming Superman flick. Very little gave me cause for optimism. I was pleased to see a villain other than Lex Luthor would be used. As much as I enjoy Lex, he's been overused in the films (five times in eight big screen appearances, if you count the three serials; if you don't, four out of five movies). I was hoping for Brainiac, but Zod works too.

Everything else, though, had me concerned. Most of the film was going to be about Clark Kent's journey to becoming Superman. That's great, but I just finished watching that same journey over the last ten years on the TV series "Smallville". Loved it, but I wasn't interested in seeing another version condensed in under two hours. Jonathan was supposed to be unsympathetic, Jor-El was to survive the destruction of Krypton, and the script had Superman....killing someone. Adding insult to injury, the iconic John Williams score from 1978's "Superman--The Movie", used in every Superman movie since, now considered to be 'the' Superman theme, would not be heard, nor would Superman's name even be in the title.

And then there was the new costume.

I wasn't seeing any reason to go to what was sure to be a travesty. I ranted against this abomination to God and Man, let alone the legacy of Superman. I denounced it fire and brimstone style. I cheered while others did the same.

                                       

After it was released, though, I started hearing good things about it. At first, I didn't take these words seriously--after all, I heard good words about 'Star Trek: Into Darkness" and my initial misgivings turned out to be vastly understated. Surely "Man Of Steel" would be comparably bad. But, just as I felt I needed to give the new Trek film a fair shot, I wanted to give this new Superman film the same. So I did.

I liked it. I liked it a lot.
                                 
                                

In some ways--not all ways, but some ways--this may be the best Superman film yet. Certainly this is best of the lot for action sequences. The fight scenes, which are many, may be the new bar from which others will be judged. The drama was intense. There were surprises, and good ones at that (not really bad ones, like finding out the Starship Enterprise is also, by the way, a submarine).

Yes, we do get a retelling of Clark's journey to becoming Superman. And even though we've seen a very good one (and better) in "Smallville" this was pretty compelling, too. Jonathan Kent did not, in my view, come off as unsympathetic. Yes, he did tell Clark--who had just been outed to a few people by preventing a busload of kids from drowning--that maybe he should have just let them die, rather than risk people seeing his powers. But it's not that Jonathan didn't care if several kids died, his primary concern was protecting *his* child. Which, realistically, is the primary concern of most parents. Jonathan even, by a look to Clark, make it plain he expected Clark to do nothing and let him (Jonathan) be killed by a tornado. All out of love for Clark, and a sense that Clark is destined for great deeds...just not yet.

And here is the heart of the story. When Clark relates this later to Lois, he tells her--and us--he abided by his fathers' wishes and let him die because he trusted Jonathan's judgment. Trust is the big issue. Jor-El and Zod each wants the other to trust them, but neither does. At the end of the movie, Superman lets an Army General know he can be trusted, and points out he's going to trust him (the General).
                                     

Jor-El, despite what you may have heard, not only does not survive the destruction of Krypton, he is murdered by Zod well before Krypton explodes. Jor-El's later interaction with Clark/Superman is in the form of a hologram, a device used in both the first two "Superman" films with Marlon Brando as Jor-El, and in "Smallville" with Terrance Stamp as the voice of Jor-El.

Superman does indeed kill in this film. It's towards the end, when he's forced to take the life of General Zod. He doesn't take it lightly. He has Zod in a headlock. Defeated, and unable to see a future, Zod puts Superman in a situation where our hero is forced, against his will, to kill him.

Zod is one of Superman's three legendary foes (the others being Lex and Brainiac). This may be his best presentation. Terrence Stamp's iconic performance, in a cameo in "Superman-The Movie" and a major villain in the sequel, cannot be diminished. But while Stamp's Zod is a power hungry dictator bent on conquest and forcing the House of El (Superman's birth family) to submit ("KNEEL before ZOD!!"), Michael Shannon's version is a dedicated Kryptonian intent on re-establishing the Kryptonian race. And just as Jonathan Kent was willing--reluctantly--to let others die (himself included) in order to protect his son, Zod accepts the human race will have to be sacrificed to resurrect his race. There's no joy in wiping out humanity; it's just a necessary step. As he tells Superman, his, Zod's, only reason for being is to protect Krypton. With his failure, he has no reason to continue. Cornering a terrified young family with heat vision, beams of pure energy slowly moving towards them, he almost begs Superman to kill him and save the family. Zod could easily just look at them and vaporize, but he doesn't. He deliberately gives Superman ample chance to save them--but only by killing him. When he does kill Zod, Superman yells in grief.
                                                     

I found myself agreeing with the decision not to use the John Williams theme. This is a totally different telling of the legend. It deserves its own score. I wasn't thrilled with what was offered--the weakest of all Super Scores, I think--but it was okay.

The costume remains the one horrid aberration. It's just ugly, period. It has no redeeming value. In defense of director Zack Snyder, this was forced on him by the studio, due to a years-long lawsuit brought against them by the heirs of Superman's creators, Jerry Seigel and Joe Shuster. Let's hope this is resolved by the sequel.

And, yes, the word "Superman" should have been in the title.

Fans of the aforementioned "Smallville" will find plenty of nods to that series as well. Many people who have appeared in the series over the years are in the movie (in different roles). Not the least of these is Amy Adams, Lois in this film. Also look for Alessandro Juliani, who played Dr. Emil Hamilton in "Smallville". In this movie, he plays a radio operator in a scene with....Dr. Emil Hamilton (Richard Schiff).

End of the day, this was not the catastrophe I feared, but a really good Superman movie I'm glad I watched. It proved you can have a very good Superman film without anything cute or suggesting slapstick. I didn't know that was possible. Get rid of the atrocious costume, and you have a very, VERY solid Superman flick.

Only question I still have is this.....Brainiac next time?

"Man Of Steel" is currently playing at a theater near you. Kneel to my opinion, and go see it.


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