Director Zack Snyder has had a bumpy start to his career. On one hand he’s done the excellent 300 and Watchmen, on the other the absolutely terrible Sucker Punch, which just seemed like a glorified pop video than a movie. So, there have been massive expectations and trepidations surrounding Man of Steel unsurprisingly, because everyone, including me, was wondering whether Zack Snyder was strong enough to make Superman weak. In his early incarnations, Superman came from Krypton where the gravity was stronger, came down to Earth and therefore his body became stronger. He was faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and could leap tall buildings in a single bound. Later on, came the superpowers with x-ray and heat vision, and then the ability to fly, but the reason why this came to be was always the great-unanswered question. So, that became the problem that if Superman was virtually indestructible, how do you create the drama and make him vulnerable. And they tried this introducing various elements, whether it’s Kryptonite, the need to hide his identity, his love for Lois Lane, or the relationships with both his adopted and lost parents. The title, “Man of Steel” actually reflects this because steel can be breakable, so it has meaning.
All the great and interesting stuff in Man of Steel is all that with his early background history in Smallville, where he’s a troubled young man trying to find his place in the world and exploring his inner demons. One of the standout scenes is when a young Superman is running between the clotheslines with a red cape with Kevin Costner looking on at him. As the story moves on, Lois becomes that human anchor he’s been looking for, and she becomes his key into the normal world. As far as performances go, Henry Cavill is perfect at capturing the fractured hero that Superman is in the film. Amy Adams is solid as Lois Lane, and both Russell Crowe and Lawrence Fishburne offer good support. Michael Shannon is suitably creepy and imposing as General Zod himself. You understand what drives Zod, where he comes from, what he wants, and in some ways, adds more depth to the character than Terrence Stamp’s iconic incarnation did. But of the villains, Antje Traue’s Faora is a real surprise. She may be Zod’s unquestioning and immensely loyal disciple, but she’s definitely colder and more brutal than her master. But, Kevin Costner and Diane Lane as Superman’s adoptive parents are the real standouts of the films. They give the film that emotional depth and in many ways, it’s their film.
But, the least interesting stuff is the flying, the crashing, the banging, and it has to be said that the last act of the film, which goes on for nearly an hour, is full-on insane flying, crashing and banging in which everything gets blown up twice. So, the big problem for me, coming out of the film, was encapsulated in that last act. The last act where building fell down, huge explosions happened and Superman appeared to be indestructible, it started to lose interest and got a bit boring. So consequently, there is a whiff of disappointment. Some people have taken against Man of Steel, giving negative responses towards it, but there is very good and interesting stuff in the first two thirds of the film, showing us what the title suggested towards. However, the disappointment of the whole final act, because it was just a lot of “blowing up a bunch o’ stuff”, made me feel tired, exhausted, and a little bit deaf.
Verdict: Superman’s return to the big screen is, for the most part, successful, as Man of Steel provides enough interesting character development and spectacle to keep us hooked, even though it all gets bombastically exhausting by the end.
3/5
Leave a Reply