Movie Review: Man of Steel
I feel the need to preface this review by making mention of the fact that I’ve never been a fan of Superman. I’ve always found him to be a pretty lame superhero; too powerful and righteous to be very interesting. I’ve never read any of the comics, and the only Superman film I’d seen prior to Man of Steel was the much abhorred Superman Returns. Outside of that I’ve seen a few episodes of the old Superman: The Animated Series (which I found vastly inferior to Batman: The Animated Series), and that’s about it. Maybe the fact that I’d never seen the old Christopher Reeve flicks was the reason I could never really care about the character. Who knows? Anyway... all that being said, Man of Steel has caused my opinion of Superman to pull a complete 180.
To put it simply, the movie is AWESOME. And I don’t mean that in the colloquial way the word is so often tossed around today; but in the literal sense that this film actually instills a sense of awe in the viewer on multiple occasions.
What needs to be mentioned first and foremost is the action. It’s utterly incredible. The film features what is probably the most intense and impressive fight sequence in any superhero film I’ve ever seen. Watching three Kryptonians beat the living hell out of each other is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen in an action film. While there are some moments where the CGI is a bit evident, shots really don’t linger long enough for you to notice too much. The quick cuts and rapid pans are still fluid and easy to follow, perfectly capturing the extreme speed of Superman and the other Kryptonians. Even in 3D I never got a headache or had any difficulty discerning what was happening. A true achievement, if you ask me.
The film also excels when it comes to storytelling. David S. Goyer’s script and Christopher Nolan’s input are evident in that the story is very grounded and character-driven. Superman doesn’t really feel like Superman yet, which is a good thing. He still hasn’t completely discovered himself and is motivated by a yearning to understand who he is and what exactly he wants.
Even once he dons his famous suit, you still think of him as Clark or Kal-El. Then again, Superman has always been one of those characters (at least to me) who has never disappeared completely into his secret identity the way many other heroes do. Regardless, we’re able to connect with him and understand what’s driving him whether he’s acting as Clark, Kal-El, or Superman. No matter which side of the character he is portraying, Henry Cavill disappears completely into the role; he is Superman. (At this point I’d again like to remind you I’ve never seen Reeve’s portrayal.)
Providing a wonderful sense of balance to Man of Steel’s story is General Zod (Michael Shannon). Zod was definitely the right villain to use for this film. He is superior to Clark in some aspects and inferior to him in others, but he is also equal to him in many ways. Zod provides a link to the past from which Clark is forming his own sense of identity, showing him a side of Krypton that he cannot truly embrace no matter how much he wants to connect with his people’s past. And even though his actions throughout the film are malicious and seemingly selfish on the surface, we learn enough about Zod as a character to make it clear that Zod isn’t pure evil. His motivations are perfectly rational, even noble, to him. All of his actions were driven by his character, not by the all-too-typical reasoning of “because he’s the bad guy.”
One of the only things I would even think to complain about is that I felt not enough time was Clark’s adolescence, but I really don’t think I can even make that complaint in good conscience. Since everyone knows the origin of Superman, it’s a bit of a Catch-22. You can’t disregard it but you can’t spend an inordinate amount of time on it. I feel like if there had been more time devoted to Clark’s childhood I’d just be complaining that it needed to be shorter.
Besides that, the only imperfections are a few convenient coincidences that advance the plot and some “movie science” used to wrap things up that makes you think “okay, I guess that makes sense.” But since these things are practically staples of superhero films, I again feel that I can’t really gripe about them too much.
All in all, Man of Steel gives us with exactly what a Superman film should be. It shows us our hero as a remarkable man discovering his identity and his place in a world he is not truly a part of. It shows us what he is truly capable of in a spectacular and visually stunning, yet contextually believable way. It fires on all cylinders and hits all of its marks.
Grade: A-
Man of Steel
Directed by: Zack Snyder
Written by: David S. Goyer
Starring: Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne, Russell Crowe
Release date: June 14, 2013
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Feel free to reach me on Twitter @JOKftw or post in the comments if you've got any questions or comments.
Much like yourself, I went into this as someone who wasn't really a fan of Superman, but came out of it with a new found love for the character.
ReplyDeleteThe action scenes were spectacular, Krypton looked amazing and Michael Shannon as General Zod was just awesome. The ending didn't bother me. I know some Superman purists would probably be upset by it, but for me, it just proved how human Kal-El had become.
Man of Steel was easily Zack Snyder's best film and I can't wait for Man of Steel 2.
Justin