MAN OF STEEL

Man of Steel (2013)

Grade: A-

Starring: Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Russell Crowe, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne, Antje Traue, Ayelet Zurer and Christopher Meloni

Premise: Sent to Earth for his safety on the eve of his home planet’s destruction, humanoid Kal-El discovers his true identity and the full scope of his powers just before an interstellar sociopath comes for him.

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and destruction, disturbing images and some language

I didn’t grow up reading comic books or watching superhero cartoons, so I’ll admit I’ve rarely been struck with the awe and wonder most people experience as kids when they learn of the exploits of various men and women with superpowers, who selflessly devote their lives to stopping wrongs. Oh, I’ve fantasized about saving the day (or, more to the point, the Girl), beating up bullies, and being looked at as a hero, but it was always more in a gritty action hero sort of way. I never dreamed of sweeping in, invisible, indestructible, stopping villains and saving people while average citizens stood around gaping in awe. And being an adult who likes to nit-pick movies, the spectacle portrayed in the recent avalanche of superhero movies has rarely moved me with real awe.

I felt some of that awe, that there’s my hero, he’s coming to save the day again delight kids experience as I watched Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel today. Maybe it’s because I’d never seen a Superman movie before, and Superman is the quintessential noble, heroic, indestructible American superhero. I’ve sat through intense action movies and looked forward to seeing Batman, Spiderman and Iron Man stop the villain and save the day, but I’d never seen the last son of Krypton coming zipping in, weightless in the air, in the form-fitting blue suit and the flapping red cape, utterly determined and unstoppable, ready to administer his special brand of heroic, smack down justice on whatever baddies are threatening Earth’s populace. To me, a lifetime moviegoer, it’s the difference between cynically knowing the superhero is going to save the day because it’s his movie and that’s what he does because the script requires it because that’s what he does, and looking forward to the superhero saving the day, because you want him to because it’s gonna be awesome. I’m usually the former, Man of Steel got me to feel he latter. And I gotta tell ya: it’s a heck of a rush.

Most of the details of Superman’s story are common knowledge by now. Despite never having read a comic book or seen a previous Superman adaptation, I knew what to expect. Superman (born Kal-El) is the sole remaining member of a race of highly-advanced humanoids who lived on the distant planet Krypton. Kal-El’s parents, Jor-El (Russell Crowe) and Lara (Ayelet Zurer) more or less die watching their infant son’s emergency shuttlecraft take him deep into space, toward Earth, as their planet implodes around them. Kal-El soon lands on earth and is raised in Smallville, Kansas by a farmer, Jonathan Kent (Kevin Costner) and his wife, Martha (Diane Lane). Raised Clark Kent, Kal-El struggles to fit in mainly because he can’t open up to anyone—his parents embrace him as readily as a natural-born son, sure, but he’s super strong, has X-ray vision and has unnaturally heightened senses, and he can’t show it. He can’t fight back against bullies for fear of causing a hysteria with his strength. In fact, Clark’s father reprimands him for using his powers openly to save a school bus full of drowning children as a teen because it nearly blows his cover, but he encourages him to find out how he can best use his powers.

Which he eventually does. As a young man, Clark (Henry Cavill) discovers his true identity, realizes the full extent of his powers, wins the love and respect of a crusading reporter, Lois Lane (Amy Adams) and becomes Earth’s Mightiest Hero, saving the day again and again while disguising himself daily as a blah Daily Planet reporter named Clark Kent, who keeps everyone in the dark regarding his true identity by wearing thick-rimmed dork glasses on his handsome, chiseled face.

The great pleasure of Man of Steel is seeing all this unfold, and not necessarily in the way or order you think it will. The last days of Krypton at the beginning are beefed up, the young-Clark-trying-to-fit-in-with-Smallville, Kansas are cut down, Clark finds he can learn from and apply the advice of both of his father figures, and he tries to save the world. It needs saving, too, because a treacherous Kryptonian warlord, General Zod (Michael Shannon) has traveled across a great deal of space to try and use Clark’s super-powered D-N-A to recreate Krypton on Earth, which pretty much means leveling it and starting from scratch. Earth’s governing authorities must decide whether to trust Clark or not, whether to appease the threatening Zod by turning Clark over to him or not, and whether being protected by a Superman really is worth all this trouble or not.

 The star-studded cast is terrific. Henry Cavill’s Clark isn’t quite the animated, sharply-etched character say, Peter Parker is, but he’s a likeable presence, he’s humble, he’s got Super Awesome powers, and he looks like a studly superhero. In short: very easy to root for. Adams has proven she can play anything, and while Lois Lane steers close to being a straight-up damsel-in-distress role, the typically-excellent actress plays her with an edge of steel; she’s completely convincing as a no-nonsense reporter. Michael Shannon makes effective use of his unique bearing and voice to make General Zod a threatening, nasty figure without quite making him a frothing-at-the-mouth lunatic. Crowe exudes his usual quietly-heroic charisma in a beefed-up role as Jor-El, and Costner, Lane and Laurence Fishburne (as Lois Lane’s boss) all make solid impressions in limited screen time.  

What flaws Man of Steel has are typical to this type of movie: the climactic bad guy vs. good guy fight goes on forever, there’s a ruined-city-in-peril bit that is emotionally too close to 9/11 for comfort, slam-bang fights become tedious when it becomes clear none of the combatants get actually get hurt, and a mix of shaky cam filming, frenetic editing and overly-busy CGI render some scenes almost unwatchable. At two hours and twenty-three minutes, Man of Steel is long, but it doesn’t begin to feel long until fairly late in the proceedings.

But, of course, it does a lot of things right, first and foremost, as I mentioned, being that it makes you want your superhero to save the day. Better yet, it does so without you being able to predict, in advance, exactly how it’s going to happen (even if you can, watching it happen is still worth it). It deviates from a strictly-linear storytelling that avoids a by-the-numbers feel, as though a storyboard were pasted onto film—it also makes the flashbacks more interesting. Man of Steel also hits the heavy emotional chords when it needs to, the action is appropriately ominous and gasp-inducing, and there are some typically amusing moments watching unknowing shmucks in a bar trying to pick a fight with our indestructible hero.

I know what movie studios have always-and will always-struggle with regarding Superman—how can you make truly exciting, gripping movies about a guy who is literally indestructible, and, therefore, is rarely in any actual danger and will always save the day? I guess we’ll see. But for right now, let’s enjoy Man of Steel, a superhero movie done right.

Man of Steel (2013)

Directed by Zack Snyder

Screenplay by Jonathan S. Goyer and Christopher Nolan; Based on the Superman characters and stories created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster

Rated PG-13

Length: 143 minutes