A Superman for the 21st Century.

Rating: 8/10 (12 July 2013)

As a lifelong comic book reader and viewer of all the incarnations of Superman going back to George Reeves on the original TV show, there was no way I was going to miss seeing MAN OF STEEL. How does it stand up against its predecessors? My answer would be: pretty damn good.
Produced by Christopher Nolan, written by David Goyer, and directed by Zack Snyder, MAN OF STEEL, successfully makes the last son of Krypton relevant in the 21st Century, not an easy task with a character very much rooted in the 20th. The main problem with Superman in recent years has been that his character, as opposed to the Dark Knight, lacks the kind of internal conflict needed to make him interesting to modern audiences.
No such problem with MAN OF STEEL, which takes his legendary origin story and tweaks it with the theme of what it means to be an outsider and is our fate determined for us, or our we free to make a choice. This is essentially what Kal-El/Clark Kent has to wrestle with throughout the movie: does he become the champion his Kryptonian father envisioned him as; or does he listen to the fears of his earthly father and hide his powers from the Earth's population lest he become a pariah on a world that is frightened by what it does not understand or control. This kind of tension is just what Superman needed and the way it plays out in Goyer's screenplay is most satisfying.
How does MAN OF STEEL stack up against Christopher Reeve's SUPERMAN of 1978? It depends, I missed some of the humor Director Richard Donner brought to his movie; everyone in MAN OF STEEL is very earnest and very serious. Then again, the 1978 movie was battling the ghosts of the campy 1960's Batman TV show.
Henry Cavill is a worthy successor to Reeve, Reeves and all the rest; he has the right look for both Kal-El and Clark Kent, and the talent to convey the internal conflicts of the character. And in Michael Shannon's General Zod, they have given him a worthy opponent, something essential to any superhero movie. When these two square off, buildings come down and the earth itself shakes and we finally get the kind of all out throw down between super powered beings that was sorely missing in some of the previous Superman movies.
Russell Crowe as Jor-El, gets a lot more screen time and is a bigger part of the story than his character has been in the past; Kevin Costner makes a great Jonathan Kent, although I agree with everyone who says that Clark's father would never suggest that he let children drown rather than give away his true identity. Diane Lane makes Martha Kent sexy for the first time. As for Amy Adams as Lois Lane, she does get the pushy part of her character right.
Of course there is no pleasing some die hard fans, who don't and will never like the tweaks made to this version of Superman: genetic breeding on Krypton; Jonathan Kent does not die of a heart attack; Perry White (Laurence Fishbourne)is black; where's Jimmy Olson? Their biggest bitch is MAN OF STEEL's climax and the resolution of the battle between Superman and Zod. Some really cry foul, but I think it makes perfect sense in the era of Bin Laden.
To me, MAN OF STEEL is a terrific re-imagining of an icon, with state of the art CGI and a story full of heartbreak and heroism. One that hopefully the sequels will build upon.
What villain should Superman battle next? My choice would be Brainiac, but we know Luthor is going to turn up somewhere.