One of the most
dividing movies this Summer is definitely Man of Steel, the
much anticipated Superman reboot with Zach Snyder at the helm. First,
a little back story... so, back in 2006, there was an attempt to make
a Superman movie with X-Men's Bryan Singer taking charge.
Well, it wasn't an attempt, Superman Returns actually was made
and for the most part, well received by critics. Audiences however,
were not as satisfied and the movie underperformed. Of course, part
of that was due to a way over inflated budget because it actually
pulled in a decent amount of money in the box office; it just had too
much to make back to be considered a financial success. I actually
didn't mind the movie and found its flaws to be a product of the
character... by the way, did I mention that I don't like Superman?
More on that in a bit.
Warner Brothers wanted
to protect one of their biggest potential franchises and were
scratching their heads on how to get audiences invested in their
favourite red and blue super hero (other than Spider-Man). Then 2008
came and changed the super hero film playing field. Not only did the
rival company Marvel release their mega-hit Iron Man and
announce that they were starting up their own cinematic universe that
would lead into an Avengers film, but then one of the biggest
hit in movie history took the world by storm. Christopher Nolan's The
Dark Knight was a huge game changer, raising the bar of audience
expectations of super hero films. They no longer could be dismissed
as being brainless popcorn flicks as The Dark Knight showed a
much more story driven and psychological side to the genre, which
worked rather well for the Batman character.
Naturally Warner
Brothers noticed that Nolan just brought them in a billion dollars
and a legion of hungry fans. Nolan's personal project, Inception,
also performed really well at the box office so it seemed like this
English director was becoming a mainstream name that the public could
trust. So... the company wanted Superman done right especially since
they intended to compete with Marvel and eventually create a Justice
League movie, and the Green Lantern movie was shunned at
the box office and by critics. Thus, they brought in Nolan who didn't
want to direct the new Superman flick, but would produce it and hand
pick the director. Apparently Zach Snyder of 300 and Watchmen
fame was his choice. And it seemed like a good idea to me because I
quite like both those films and found Snyder to have a great talent
for adaptations. His original work Sucker Punch... not so
great.
Okay, enough history.
Now you see what was at stake for this film. The only thing for me
personally that was at stake was that I wanted to see a Superman
movie that was actually really good. I know that some of you will
hate me for this, but I didn't think that any of the Christopher
Reeve Superman flicks were any good. Some were just worse than
others. But I just don't really like the character. You know, he's a
nice guy and all, but he's just really not my type. The issue is that
he can do anything and nothing can stop him and that's not compelling
to me. And when there was something that happened that Superman
couldn't fix, he suddenly would have a power that could fix
it... like the ability to travel back in time by flying around the
Earth really fast. Let's all face it, that is really stupid. This
actually isn't the problem in Man of Steel. In fact, there
were plenty of times where I had no idea how Superman was going to
win. Having General Zod and a legion of followers from Krypton was a
great way to put Superman against something that was a match for him.
And while Superman was well adapted to Earth and his abilities, Zod
had him outnumbered with trained soldiers and advanced technology.
Makes for a compelling struggle.
Snyder's visual style
comes through in this picture. While not as stylized and most of his
other works, he puts that aside for more traditional visuals and the
movie is better of for it. A Superman film doesn't call for the slow
motion blue screened look that worked so well for 300. But
it's still a good looking film, particularly the scenes on Krypton
which were breathtaking and imaginative. That's something that hasn't
really been explored in previous Superman films. In the old ones we
only really got to see some rooms on the planet, but at no point did
we feel like it was its own alien world. I concede that this is
because of the technological limitations of the time, but I'm just
saying that it's nice that we got to see more of Krypton.
Henry Cavill actually
does a pretty good job as Clark Kent and Superman. I was concerned
about his portrayal because in the trailers and photos of the film he
always looked too serious, but it turns out he had a much gentler
side to him. The key to Superman's success is finding the humanity
within the invincible alien and I think Cavill and Snyder were able
to do that. Making Superman likable and fascinating has always seemed
like an impossible feat to me, but they did it. And they did a great
job of making a real personal story for Clark, connecting the values
of his biological father with his Earth father and connecting it with
his struggle with Zod. He learns a different sort of lesson about
power and responsibility than what Spider-Man does. This film teaches
the price of having to make the more difficult decisions when given
the sort of extreme power that Superman does. It's actually
fascinating to think about the responsibility that comes when
millions of lives are on the line and it's unclear what the proper
answer is, I guess because there is no obvious right or wrong answer
and we, as humans, are not really qualified to answer such a
question. That is perhaps what is interesting about this story,
because in mind and soul, Clark is human. But he has god-like
abilities and has to make those tough decisions despite him not
feeling qualified to. This is something that could be explored even
more in future films.
It's confusing to me
that so many people are having such a negative reaction to this
movie. I'm really not sure what they're hoping for. When people
watched Superman Returns and griped about how emotional it was
and how Superman didn't even punch anything, I dismissed that as
people being shallow and just wanting another action film. And now
people are complaining about this one even though it tried to give
people what they wanted as well as an emotional story. The third act
is jam packed with action and destruction to, admittedly, over the
top levels. But thinking about it a bit, perhaps the problem isn't
the movie so much as it is about Superman fans. They want a movie
that is like their hero: flawless. And the thing is, you can never
make a perfect movie that captures everything you like about a
character who has literally 75 years of history. Compromises have to
be made and you'll never please everyone. If you can remember this,
you'll leave a lot more movies satisfied, or at least less pissed
off.
I have a couple of
concerns of my own, but all in all they didn't detract that much from
my experience. It seems as the movie moves from the first act into
the second, I get a bit of a sense that I'm missing something.
Perhaps there are some deleted scenes or something, but when Lois
Lane is in Canada and she and Clark meet for the first time, it seems
sudden and out of nowhere. I could catch up easily enough, but I feel
that there should have been something to fit the pieces together a
bit better. There are a few other minor logical leaps that I had to
take as an audience member, but I didn't feel too bothered by them.
But if run time was a problem, they probably could have taken some
time from the action in the third act and moved to development in the
second.
My main concern is that
I don't know where they can take the series from here. Granted, I
don't know much about Superman's rogue gallery other than Lex Luther
and... Nuclear Man? But it seems to me that the stakes were already
so high for this film and the hardships were so challenging that not
much else can top it. But... I guess we'll see. And come on... how
many people could Metropolis really have in it anyway? A few more
disasters like this one and I'd start to think that it's high time to
move.
4 Stars
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