Still Living In The Shadow Of The Bat & Mr Reeve

Rating: 5/10 (18 June 2013)

This Summers Biggest Super-hero movie is Zach Snyders Re-boot of the Superman Franchise after Bryan Singers extremely dull 'tribute to' fell on its proverbial backside last time round. Warners & DC have turned to Christopher Nolan (again) & 'Watchmen's' under-rated Director Zach Snyder to try & rise above the fan boys glowing admiration of the first two Reeve movies & make something resembling an 'ok' attempt to emulate those 2 classics whilst at the same time trying to re-imagine the mythos in a way to appeal to those Bat fans who jumped aboard via Nolans Impressive trilogy. Not such an easy task even with the talent aboard on Man of Steel. The answer to the question does it succeed is really dependant on where you stand on comics translating to movies. Nolan & Goyer take liberties with the classic standard DC Origin & make some ridiculous mistakes along the way, if anything Nolan & Goyer are to blame for all the failures of this movie as Snyder's style & impressive comic sensibilities can do nothing if the story & script call for some non-sensical approaches (Jonathan Kents demise is almost laugh out loud ridiculous & despite Kevin Costner's superb if under-used performance, he can do nothing to make us believe that Clark would just stand by & watch him die. One of the pivotal moments in Kal-Els life is the death of his 2nd Father, Clark realising of course that even with all his incredible powers he cannot beat the fate of being human) Cavill is impressive as Kal-El but cannot make the transition to geeky Clark like the late great Reeve managed but pulls off Kal-El with ease. Lois just appears & her entry into the movie is another flaw, tracking the legendary urban legend to the fortress of solitude, Lois will know Kal-Els identity throughout the movie seemingly losing all the great potential Lois-Clark-Superman triangle stuff made great by the comics & the earlier movies alike. Snyders approach to the first half of the movie is an obvious nod to planting Superman's roots into a world that could be the same as the one in that other DC superhero movie & the look & feel is much darker & murkier than any superman before it. Kryptons demise is also impressive & one of the highlights of the film (Although again flawed as Jor-El is born a scientist not a warrior but still manages to take out almost all of Zods 'Warriors' with ease but i guess he is Russell 'Fighting round the world' Crowe) The Second half of the movie is kind of like the first 10 minutes of Trey Parkers 'Team America World Police' as Superman & Zod's cronies go WWF on Smallville & Metropolis in turn almost laying the ground flat in both. The Fight scene in Smallville is brutal & the effects by Weta are some of the best i have seen in recent times & its also good to see what would happen if you decided to pick on Supermans Mother, not a wise idea! The problem with the movie is hard to pin point but it just feels like the creators are trying to hard to satisfy both themselves & the fans, sometimes its better to just go one way rather than meander about somewhere in between. There is no real heart to the movie, no real 'WOW' scenes, the actors are good, Crowe, Cavill & Costner in particular give fine performances but are again slaves to a screenplay that doesn't really take off like Superman should. DC have problems & it's plain to see that the shadow of the bat looms large over every other hero in their cannon, Nolan really is to blame for raising the bar in his movies so high its almost impossible to get near it with anything else. Marvel have managed to spend the best part of a decade developing a plan for their universe & the fruits of that labour is plain for all to see. Its a shame that DC has no Avi Arad to consult. If Man Of Steel is a stepping stone to a wider story there are no real signs here & fans awaiting a Justice League movie should really not hold their breath after watching this. Overall Man Of Steel succeeds in being more entertaining than Singers 'Returns' but loses the heart & soul of the Superman Myth, something that is sacred really to fans of the comic. As a movie on its own, it looks good, has its moments but is overall just an average action movie, i wonder still personally weather Snyder would have benefited without Nolans figure in the background, you can't 'ground' a story about an alien, Snyder knows how to do comics (Watch Watchmen) there are plenty of other good writers in Hollywood but i guess the ka-ching factor of Nolans name made Warner's execs eyes explode. Maybe another reason why DC is failing to put their universe in order. A Crisis on Earth? hardly but a real shame.