Nolan & Snyder Tackle Superman

Rating: 8/10 (15 June 2013)

Krypton is dying and Jor-El makes the brave decision to save his newborn son, Kal-El, by sending him off into the stars in the hopes of preserving their race. The newborn lands on Earth and as he grows older, is told to keep his powers a secret, for if the world found out, they would reject him. He travels the world looking for answers as to who he is and where he came from. He finds those answers when General Zod arrives, another survivor from the planet Krypton. He has the same goal as Jorl-El did, preserving the race...even if it means destroying another.
Man of Steel is Warner Brother's attempt at getting another franchise off the ground. Now that Harry Potter and Batman are done, they have nothing. so they go to the one man from their past who they know can resurrect a dead franchise: Christopher Nolan. With Nolan as the Producer, veteran comic scribe David S. Goyer behind the screenplay and the visual comic book flair eye behind the camera, Zack Snyder, it looked like WB had put all their eggs in one basket. For the most part, it paid off.
Man of Steel has it's fair share of problems, I walked away from it with the same feeling I had with The Dark Knight Rises (which was I really enjoyed it, but the problems it has were very apparent). This is a new take on the traditional superhero. This time, Nolan brings in his dark and brooding style to this franchise. Some people dislike this new look and feel, Superman hardly smiles, the world does not love him and the film is dead serious. There are little to no moments of humour. Nolan is taking a...wait, THE, definition of a Superhero and planting him into a real word realm, much like he did with Batman. While some people will be turned off by this, I actually found it kind of refreshing. Yes, we have another superhero who grapples with issues, but these are issues that he should be struggling with. Who is he, where does he come from, what is his purpose. Nolan and Snyder explore this notion and they do it well.
The narrative of the film is told in two segments, the present timeline which is Kent looking for answers to his past and the other timeline are flashbacks to pivotal moments in his life growing up. The flashback sequences feel like segments from Malick's Tree of Life, which fits the Kansas setting perfectly. Costner and Lane play Superman's Earth parents. Costner feels the need to hide Kurt's powers, he fears the world is not ready for someone like him, but he's Superman after all. So that need to save people, no matter what is there. Lane is given the short end of the stick here and is given very little to do.
Superman's other parents are played by Russel Crowe and Ayelet Zurer. We are introduced to them in an overly long prologue sequence set on Krypton. It feels like a scene that could have been told in ten minutes, instead it feels like twenty. The look and feel of Krypton is lackluster in the sense that we get an Avatar/Matrix hybrid of sorts with flying winged monsters and test tube babies. So the film kind of starts off on a misstep, but once we get to Earth, the film finds its footing. Goyer finds a way to keep Russel around much longer than he needs to be. Although Crowe does bring a bit of charisma to a nothing role.
Things get a little harry for Superman when a being who calls himself General Zod arrives. From that moment on the film feels less like a Superman film and more like an Alien Invasion movie and I feel like that was their intention. There is more destruction in this film than in last years Avengers or any of the Transformers movies. The last hour or so is relentless action and destruction. To the point where I didn't know if I could take it anymore. You can only throw a guy through several buildings so many times before it gets tiresome. Snyder is a visual director and he manages to keep the action going with some beautiful shots. These characters move at incredible speeds, so the fight sequences are CGI heavy. Usually when a film has to animate a human, it looks fake, here they seem to pull it off nicely.
General Zod is played by Michael Shannon. He plays up the bad guy role well enough for me to give a pass to. We know his intentions, we know he is a threat and Shannon seems to be having some fun with the role, despite the seriousness of the tone. He goes over the top and it works. Cavill is great as Superman, he has the looks, the build and the charisma. He's just never really given that one moment that I think he needed to really "sell" that Superman role. The one thing he seems to do different (other than brooding) is scream a lot. Unfortunately one of the biggest problems with the film is the chemistry between Adams and Cavill. Lane and Superman seem to have none of it and their moment at the end felt false. Although she does a much better job than the train wreck that was Bosworth.
Man of Steel is a great Superhero movie. It follows in the steps of Nolan's Batman series more than what Marvel is doing with their characters. I urge people not to expect that Superman from the past, goes he's gone. This new one is here to stay.