Intriguing, Eerie, Chilling Installment

Rating: 9/10 (8 August 2013)

I have seen 'Man of Steel' yesterday, and perhaps the first thing one might notice is how unlike a comics the movie looks, in its gloomy, chilling grandeur, and harsh violence, and somber, uncanny look; shot in cold, metallic hues, it shows Clark mainly in wilderness and in cosmic battles. The overall look and economy of images and scenes are a bit unbalanced, slightly uneven, as if a few other things were required, to give a fuller satisfaction, beyond the sense of what is happening. Like other reboots ('Batman', 'Spider—Man', 'Trek', 'Bond'), 'Man ' is decidedly unlike what has been previously known as being the franchise; it's a very good movie—intriguing and eerie, with undertones of a religious parable, unsettling, disquieting, downbeat, many ideas, the prologue on Krypton seems a bit hurried (of course, they were on all on a hurry there—but regardless), it's a movie of many visual ideas, and Kent levitating above the officials (and meaning to look Messianic, in fact he almost looks more menacing than Zod), a Nolan movie, one feels Nolan's inspiration. The mood is downbeat, and the movie is chilling, a dramatic clash given as a disaster movie, with a Nietzschean aside (Costner's warning); Kal—El is a Byronian hero. The ideas themselves are spooky.
It's a Gothic story, in its eagerness for dramatic effects and gloom, that of a Gothic story—also the pervasive and heartrending dismay, and the Byronic hero, and the unusual logic of the scenes, almost all in barren or desolate places, in sinister landscapes, and in a destroyed metropolis; Lois, of course, has her city scenes, together with the newspaper team, and the _militaries and officials, but she is a face only, having no _bio; the actress is as uninteresting as her part. Antje is better in proposing feminineness in this men's movie.
The movie feels and looks eerie, and the scene of the death of Costner's character, when he simply fades, is sharply masochistic. But like in the Gothic, these ideas are ideas of effects, of the dramatic effects. Hence, the chilling grandeur of a Gothic tale, and the disquieting mood. So, an intriguing, eerie and intelligent movie, and a good one. Intriguing throughout. Also a bit unbalanced and not really mastered by its authors.
There are a few objections—if Krypton's ecology and clime was so unlike ours, why are the aliens human; there's also the feeling that the fauna of Krypton and the machines they had there don't really belong. As a story, 'Man ' seems disjointed and more eager to startle, then to really thing through its subject.
Cavill is very handsome, but he looks mean, undependable, and sometimes annoyingly aware, for a moment, of his dashing looks; anyway, the movie doesn't seem interested in exploring any side of his character's mind.
This is a passing of the torch—Crowe following Brando, Michael Shannon following Stamp; it's a deserved homage to Crowe's status as a star. There's Costner also, as Clark's putative father. Crowe plays very much in Brando's detached and fantasist key; the interactive nature of his assistance seemed a bit cheap, and Crowe used a behavior whatsoever, though his role is enjoyable. But Costner's role is better, perhaps the part is finer; he doesn't quite look like a man in his 40s. I liked very much Antje Traue.
I do not think that Snyder & Nolan's movie surpasses or outshines Donner's 1978 movie; as a matter of fact, it isn't even related.
Shannon makes a very good, very cool Zod—menacing and tough and handsome, a killing machine—just like Khan, it occurred to me. Michael Shannon is 39 in 'Man of Steel'—Stamp was 40 in Donner's movie. Zod resembles in many ways Khan—they are both merciless warriors, engineered to rescue their races, according to the circumstances that characterized their engineering and dawn; they work within a template that no longer fits.