Superman is a notoriously difficult character to write for, because he's basically unstoppable. How do you threaten, cow or defeat a man who can't be hurt and who has the power to change countries and worlds at a whim? It's for this reason that in the modern age Superman is often defined by his humanity, his everyday life and his relationships to other, 'normal' people. That's what Zack Snyder's Man of Steel attempts to do, but the result is the opposite. So determined, so ardent is the film to write itself as an epic new chapter in the Superman mythology, it instead leeches away the warmth, the human drama so vital to the character.
Instad, Man of Steel attempts to answer the big issues. It's a very conscious reboot in the vein of Batman Begins, an attempt to study what would happen if Superman were to appear in the 'real world' so to speak. The film concentrates on the alien nature of Superman, his inherent incompatibility with the planet and the worries both side experience at the prospect of Clark Kent revealing himself to the world.
Which quite frankly, is rubbish. The film is pervaded by a sense of cloying paranoia and distrust, quite unlike the sunniness and optimism I expect from a production which bears the big red 'S'. The point of Superman is he's meant to represent the best of humanity - the only part of him that's alien is his unnatural powers. Here there's a misguided attempt to cast Clark Kent as an outsider, a haunted figure who flits from job to job in a search for purpose and meaning to his existence. He's crushed by the knowledge of his alien past, desperately seeking validation by attempting to connect with it, without ever truly embracing the human aspects of his nature. In other words, he's (sigh) Batman. Now hands up who saw that coming? The essential 'grittiness' that characterised Batman Begins just doesn't work here - Superman is the very antithesis of that approach, an optimist who firmly believes in truth, justice and the American way. You'll find precious little of that here.
The film is also hampered by poor writing, poor plotting and an unusual lurching structure which never really gels. Far too much time is spent on the opening on Krypton, in a tornado of sets and costumes that look straight out of the Chronicles of Riddick, and from there the film adopts a weird flashback heavy style that constantly cuts between the past and present. I'm all for some non-linear storytelling but here it's poorly used, not allowing us to see the growth of the character and consistently interrupting dramatic scenes. The film moves at incredible pace and yet still somehow manages to be boring, and the constant jumping between scenes means there are precious few opportunities for genuine character development. There are also huge, gaping plot holes everywhere, and I don't just mean for nit-pickers or comics nerds, but big ones that cause obvious narrative issues - the film can't keep the source of Superman's powers straight for example.
It also suffers from an obvious lack of chemistry between its characters, and at many times poor performances from its actors. Henry Cavill does a decent job as Superman/Clark Kent, even though he's not really given much to work with. He's better as Superman, bringing gentleness and a soft-spoken charm to the role, but as Clark Kent he can border on wooden, and lacks the instant bright charisma that Christopher Reeve used to make the role his own. Amy Adams is a disaster as Lois Lane, a blank, exposition spouting shell of the tough reporter she's meant to be. Her relationship with Cavill is utterly unconvincing and the two have very little meaningful interaction. The big kiss, when it comes, is more bizarre than heartwarming or triumphant. On the antagonists side, Michael Shannon struggles gainfully with the remarkably two-dimensional General Zod, achieving 'tortured' but never quite ratcheting all the way up to 'menacing'.
If there's redemption to be found, it's in the film's elder statesman. Russell Crowe as Jor-El is on screen far, far too much, but he invests his performance with gravity and dignity that helps sell the incredibly obtuse dialogue he's working with. Kevin Costner and Diane Lane excel as more down-to-earth, less idealised versions of Jonathan and Martha Kent, conveying doubt and fear about their son's potential while never losing the homespun warmth and affection that so defines the characters. The scenes with Clark and his father are some of the best in the film and the closest it comes to fulfilling the idea of a more emotionally tortured man of tomorrow. Their final scene (shown in flashback) was one of the few moments I felt the hairs on the back of my neck rise.
Man of Steel is in the end laid low by a disheartening lack of purpose. The uncomfortable mish-mash of imagery, allegory and style is confusing and almost universally unfitting. The blatant Christ allegories are so unsubtle as to be distracting. For some reason there's a big US Military presence throughout the story , occasionally bordering on Michael Bay level gun porn. Superman is one of the few universes pro-US jingoism is absolutely acceptable and even encouraged, but the hard military sheen sits uncomfortably next to Superman's idealistic fantasy, and watching Zod's men murder helpless troops is uncomfortable to say the least. Speaking of Zod & co., Snyder cannot seem to get enough of the thoroughly uninspired Kryptonian hardware, throwing spaceships, machinery and armour onto the screen constantly to show off his designers' work. Superman himself rarely seems, well, super. Oh sure, there's an astonishing blizzard of CG in the fights, but there's very little actual heroism to go round. Many reviews have commented on the appalling amount of collateral damage that the superpowered smackdowns inflict and the film ends on a moment so out of character it feels like a definitive statement of the new direction the franchise is going in.
It's only after the movie ended that I realised this isn't really a Superman movie. Sure, Superman is in it, but he's close to unrecognisable, and so many of the trappings of the character have been stripped away with nothing to replace them that there's very little of the icon present here. Instead, this is a modern blockbuster sci-fi movie, down to the overabundance of CGI, bad magic mcguffin and lack of attention paid to much in the way of character development and interpersonal relationship. That doesn't make it an awful movie - it still functions on a basic level - but it's empty noise, lacking heart, soul or emotion. This is not a Superman to aspire to, not one who represents the best that humanity has to offer, but instead another stone-faced, grim engine of destruction who nobody would want to be. That's just about the worst thing possible when you're trying to articulate what makes Superman special.
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