I’ve been looking so forward to this movie for so long, I guess maybe my expectations became inflated without my realizing it. Admittedly, I’m a Marvelite, but DC characters have a special place in my heart as well, as I love comics in general, but also love characters from both of the Big Two, Superman being one of them. So I was really hoping this would be DC’s Iron Man, but to be honest I don’t think it’s going to happen.
Man of Steel is a good movie, don’t get me wrong, I pretty much enjoyed myself through the entire thing. But after it was over, I felt like something was missing or something was missed and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.
To begin with, Snyder wastes no time jumping knee deep into the action with both feet. We get a different (modified) version of Superman’s beginnings on Krypton, watching his birth—the first naturally born child on the planet in thousands of years. And as we all know, Krypton is dying and so Jor-El tries to convince a high council that there’s only one way to save their kind. Enter General Zod, who declares martial law, basically, and all hell breaks loose at that point. There are fights, baby Kal-El is launched into space, and Krypton faces its inevitable end. The next time we see Kal-El, he’s in his late twenties to early thirties.
Yeah, that’s how we learn about his childhood, through flashbacks, which was fine with me, but I can see why some weren’t too thrilled about it. But that’s tom-ay-toe vs. tom-mah-toe nitpicking and really not worth worrying about.
The second act covers Clark Kent’s travels as he waits to learn what exactly it is he’s supposed to do, highlight by the flashbacks mentioned earlier, and we get a good look at how someone with powers like he possesses might feel a bit awkward about his place in the world, so that was pretty nice, and well done in my opinion. But then we get to the part where he discovers the true origins of his kind, where he’s from and what he’s meant to do, and that’s when things start getting rushed. Just a bit. Almost to a convenient fault.
No, seriously, as the second act draws to a close and the third is about to kick things into overdrive, things really start happening fast—the action, the explanations, and the motivations.
I think the main issue with the story is probably cramming too much into it, such as Zod’s ultimate goal, which when revealed is understandable and somewhat relatable, but given the scope of his plan it was probably too much too soon. I won’t spoil it here, but they could have just as easily gone with some sort of delusional revenge angle—“Your father dissed me, now I’m going to diss him!” or something like that. Again, Zod’s endgame totally makes sense; I just think they should have saved it for a sequel down the road (but not the next one).
Another thing Snyder brought into the mix (and which we heard/read about prior to the movie’s release) was the grounding of Superman’s abilities, such as lifting buildings (or entire islands) and whatnot. In the movie, Supes gets hit by .50 caliber bullets and is knocked back, which is as it should be. Superman’s skin is virtually impenetrable? Fine. But he’s so stout that the impact doesn’t even cause his body to flinch or twitch? Come on, man, work with us here. But in Snyder’s vision, Supes does in fact get pushed around a bit. And then, for some inexplicable reason, Faora gets shot at almost point blank range and doesn’t so much as blink! What happened to the grounded reality? But that was the only think noticeable, so it falls into the nitpicking category.
Give me a second while I close that drawer…
Moving on, the look and feel of the film is fantastic, so Snyder strikes again on that front. Love him or hate him, the guy knows how to cut an angle on a scene with few peers, especially when building up to a main point/moment. As far as I know, some liberties were taken with Jonathan Kent’s demise—if you didn’t know that Pa Kent passes away before his adopted son, Clark, dawns his red cap, you’re in the wrong room—but the way it was shot and laid out for us was heart wrenching, in a soft way that formed a lump in my throat (which turned out to be my heart). And the action? Man, Snyder nailed it for how getting into a fight with Superman should go down. There were some scenes drawn out a little too far, but no one was falling asleep when everybody on screen was gaming up!
Remember those seemingly slow motion fight sequences between Superman and Zod and his accomplices, in the Donner film? Well, this ain’t your daddy’s Superman movie, trust me. That was some of the best CBM action I’ve ever seen, period.
As for the performances, Henry Cavill absolutely threw his hat into the ring for Best Superman Ever, though I won’t go so far as to say he is the best. Sounds like a good time for a poll, right? Amy Adams was okay as Lois Lane, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say she nailed it. Margot Kidder was much closer to what I was expecting, in my opinion, but in Amy’s defense she didn’t have near as much to work with as Kidder did. And Michael Shannon’s General Zod, what’s there to say…he owned it. While watching him work his magic, never once did I think about “Kneel before Zod!” Not once!
At the end of the day, I think what the movie might have been missing was just a little more levity, like during the flashback scenes when Clark’s powers started to kick in, as a little kid. Instead of going with the “Look at his expression when he realizes he can see through his teacher’s clothes,” we get the horrified expression of a kid that realizes he can see everyone’s bones around him and hear things being whispered in the next room. That would probably have gone down better if they’d taken the lighter angle, instead of the horrified angle. Or at least start off light and then go dark, because when Ma Kent talks him down, it was very touching. That being said, this was one of the most straight-forwardly bleakish tales of a major iconic superhero that I’ve ever seen, and that’s what probably left me feeling a bit awkward when it was all said and done.
I was hoping I’d feel like Man of Steel was a 5 out of 5 movie, but after seeing it I feel like 4 out of 5 is more accurate and could see why some might go so far as to call it at 3.5 out of 5. Different strokes for different folks, I suppose. Regardless, I’m going to go back and see it again, because this is exactly how I felt about Captain America: The First Avenger, after seeing it the first time. But after the second time, and then the third, my appreciation grew with each viewing, to the point that I now consider CA: TFA highly recommended.
Like I said earlier, I’m a Marvelite and make no apologies for it, but I want to see WB/DC succeed as well, and Man of Steel has a solid chance to make that happen. Is it the best CBM ever? Not in my opinion, but that’s just me. Is it good enough to warrant making a sequel, eventually a World’s Finest and ultimately a Justice League movie? I think so, but at this point it’s going to come down to box office receipts, or so we’ve been told.
And if that’s the case, I think we’ll be seeing a JLA movie sometime in the next 3-5 years, which works for me.
I’m Citizen…