In the 1930s, he was a populist champion protecting the working man from corrupt politicians, gangsters, and common criminals. In the ‘50s, he became an alien god among men who could move planets with his bare hands. And in the last few decades, he regained his humanity, lost his more outlandish powers, and struggled to find his place in a cynical culture fixated on dark, brooding heroes and stark, joyless realism. But despite every change, he has remained a hero, a symbol, a realization of humanity’s ultimate potential. He is, quite simply, a Superman.
Riding the tide of recent superhero box office sensations, Warner Bros. have released a new take on this first and most iconic of all superheroes entitled Man of Steel. The film boasts a veritable who’s who of industry superstars who have helped establish superheroes as the biggest genre of the decade: director Zack Snyder, the man who brought 300 [2007] and Watchmen [2009] (a work long considered to be unfilmable) to the screen, producer Christopher Nolan, the director of The Dark Night Trilogy (2005-2012), a series of films that became cultural phenomenons and pushed the genre to new levels of artistic respectability, and writer David S. Goyer, one of the main creative forces behind The Blade Trilogy (1998-2004). Disappointed with the box office returns of Green Lantern (2011), DC’s last superhero film that didn’t prominently feature a man who dresses like a flying, nocturnal mammal, Man of Steel was designed to be the last test to see whether or not a DC character could helm not only its own franchise, but the weight of an expanded cinematic crossover universe akin to the one created by Marvel Comics. Early box office results look promising. But how well does the film portray Superman’s mythos?
Man of Steel is yet another retelling of Superman’s origin. Snyder moves us through all of the requisite story beats like they were the Stations of the Cross: launched from a doomed planet named Krypton, the infant Kal-El lands on earth, is raised by a kind Kansas couple as mild-mannered Clark Kent, discovers his powers, and becomes Superman. Perhaps in an effort to keep such a familiar story fresh, Snyder reveals most of the details about Superman’s childhood in flashback. We see how his mother taught him to focus and control his powers when they first manifested during an elementary school class. We see how his father tempered his stern instructions about keeping his powers a secret with promises of a greater destiny. These scenes, some of the best in the entire movie, give practical and convincing explanations for Superman’s indefatigable compassion. While many miss Christopher Reeve’s warm, perpetually smirking interpretation of Superman, Henry Cavill gives us a man haunted by his responsibilities yet guided by a single-minded determination to help others. It is a convincing performance that rises above many other actors’ attempts to make superheroes “realistic” or “relatable.” Cavill is well-balanced by Amy Adams’ performance as Lois Lane. Adams’ Lois continues in the grand tradition of tough, go-get-’em reporters who have served as Superman’s love interest, partner, and soulmate over the decades. If there is one criticism to be leveled towards this Lois, it is that she is not featured nearly enough.
The other true revelation of Man of Steel is Michael Shannon’s performance as General Zod, a criminal from Superman’s home planet determined to retrieve a codex containing the sum of Krypton’s knowledge that was stashed away in Kal-El’s spacecraft by his father. Shannon had equally huge shoes to fill in matching Terence Stamp’s performance as Zod in the first two Superman movies as Cavill did with Reeve’s. Yet he succeeds in capturing the over-the-top mannerisms and wild-eyed fanaticism that made the character so endearing to generations of movie-goers. His band of outlaw Kryptonians are reminiscent of the Ancient Romans in their imperialistic dispositions, rabid militarism, and flair for the dramatic. Indeed, Zod’s ultimatum against earth for the surrender of Kal-El and his subsequent plans to terraform it into a new Krypton are chilling and vengeful. Why doesn’t he just find another planet to terraform with his spaceship capable of traversing the cosmos? We suspect it is because of a grudge against Kal-El’s father for his betrayal at the beginning of the film when he refused to join him in his rebellion against Krypton’s leaders.
This leads to the film’s main problem: its narrative verbosity. We are given Superman’s origin not once, but twice. The film opens with a lengthy sequence where Superman’s father, Jor-El, walks us through every step of Krypton’s destruction and Kal-El’s salvation: his appeal to Krypton’s leaders, his dismissal, his battle against Zod, his dispatching of his son to the stars, his death, and the end of his planet. Then these events are related in full again to Superman when he discovers a Kryptonian scout ship. These segments easily add on 20-30 minutes to an already lengthy final run time that tests its audience’s patience.
But the film nevertheless manages to provide an satisfying and compelling origin for the Man of Tomorrow. Unlike more recent superhero films like The Dark Knight Rises (2012) and Iron Man 3 (2013), Man of Steel doesn’t suffer from game-breaking plot holes (although why General Zod demanded the surrender of Superman and Lois Lane is left unexplained). Here is a film with a film and cohesive grasp on a story that has become an indelible part of American mythology. Many have balked at this new realistic interpretation of Superman which is deliberately reminiscent of Nolan’s Batman. After all, the entire point of a man who can fly and smash through steel buildings is that it isn’t realistic. Superman is supposed to be a character who will never let us down, who will always win, who will always find a way to make everything right in the end. But real life isn’t a comic book. There isn’t always a perfect solution that will leave everyone alive, healthy, and happy at the end of twenty-two pages or a ninety minute run-time. But Man of Steel preaches that while the world is mired in pain, evil, and suffering, mankind is still worth fighting for. And not only are we worth protecting, but every single one of us is a Superman on the inside. Man of Steel offers a practical message of purpose and hope for our troubled times. This isn’t our parents’ Superman. This is a Superman that we need even more.
8/10
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