Man of Steel (***)
Directed
by: Zach Snyder
Starring:
Henry Cavil, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Russel Crowe, Kevin Costner, Diane
Lane, Lawrence Fishburne, Antje Traue, Ayelet Zurer
Seen:
July 7th 2013
***
Out of ****
After
the massively successful Batman trilogy from Christopher Nolan, it only made
sense to resurrect the other DC Comics giant: Superman. Nolan was involved as
producer and he also had a hand in the story for Man of Steel. This is however
all Zack Snyder’s movie, with strong visual elements reminding of his earlier
fare, including 300, Watchmen, and Sucker Punch. The movie is an absolute visual
spectacle, as only Snyder can deliver, and this spectacle adds to the perception
of Superman’s strength in the movie, and also to the depth of the threat from
the villains, making for a viewing feast.
The
movie starts with an unexpectedly long section on Krypton, the home planet of
Superman, and with events leading to the destruction of the planet. General Zod
(Shannon) and his followers are taking over a doomed planet, and as things fall
apart scientist Jor-El (Crowe) and his wife Lara (Zurer) manage to launch their
son Kal-El towards earth among scenes of tremendous destruction and interesting
alien beings. Zod kills Jor-El and is imprisoned, but when the planet is
destroyed, he is freed to continue his search for the codex of the Kryptonian
race, which Jor-El encoded in Kal-El, who ends up in Smallmille, Kansas. Kal-El
is raised by Jonathan (Costner) and Martha (Lane) Kent, and they call him Clark
(Cavil). Growing up, Jonathan impresses upon Clark the importance of keeping
his extraordinary powers secret so that he can be accepted amongst humans. After
Jonathan’s death, an incredibly moving scene in the movie, Clark leaves home
and becomes a nomad, for years moving (fleeing) whenever his powers are
revealed, always pondering his father’s death coupled with the fact that he
could have saved him.
Clark
discovers a US military research facility in the Arctic where they have found a
Kryptonian spaceship. He activates the ship, and is confronted with the
conscience of Jor-El, telling Clark of his origins. Reporter Lois Lane (Adams)
is close-by and soon enough Clark must rescue her. She wants to expose him
though, and afterwards traces him back to Smallville, where she confronts a
very protective Martha. Clark’s activities on the ship has however alerted Zod
to his whereabouts, and they come to earth wielding the terraforming “world
engine”, which they intend to use to transform Earth into a new Krypton, and which
will end humanity, and Clark must step into his full destiny to save earth.
Man
of Steel is a very good movie, but unfortunately it stops just shy of being a
great one. There is a point in the story where, even though I paid full
attention, it just seemed to… jump. It suddenly felt as if I had missed a part
of the movie when Clark approached the world engine. The relationship between
Clark and Jonathan is a thing of beauty, with Kevin Costner really infusing the
movie with a wonderful sense of fatherhood. The relationship between Clark and
Lois on the other hand feels tacked on, underdeveloped, as there is no real
build-up to their relationship here. It was also somewhat startling that
Superman went to such a violent extreme against Zod, in this moment he isn’t
the Superman we’ve all known for decades. Also, city blocks are levelled in
fights to save small groups of people, and there has to be some sort of balancing
act here as opposed to just large-scale destruction.
Man
of Steel is a really good start to DC Comics’ response to the Marvel universe
that has already been established, and I can’t wait to see what comes next with
Batman vs. Superman (tentative title) in 2015. It’s a very, very good looking
movie, and I believe the good truly outweighs the few bad elements or moments sprinkled
throughout the movie, mostly in its last half. Even though it doesn’t come
close to Nolan’s Batman trilogy, Man of Steel still has my vote, it’s a particularly
entertaining movie.
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