Review: "Man of Steel"

The granddaddy of comic book super heroes is back on the big screen in director Zack Snyder's Man of Steel, starring Henry Cavill as the last son of Krypton. After 75 years of history with the character, we all know the basic story: Sent from his dying home world as a baby, Kal-El crash lands in Kansas and is raised under the Earth name Clark by farmers Jonathan and Martha Kent. As an adult, Clark goes to work for the Daily Planet in the great city of Metropolis, where he falls for plucky Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, Lois Lane, and defends humanity as "Superman." While this incarnation hews closely to that, the film stands confidently as a singular new vision for modern moviegoers.

Working from a story by The Dark Knight Trilogy masterminds, Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer, Snyder fleshes out much more of the Kryptonian elements of the lore than in any previous movie or television version. The opening scenes feature Russell Crowe as Superman's father, Jor-El, a scientist at odds with both the politicians on his planet and the leader of their military, General Zod, played by the ever-intense Michael Shannon. This section of the film is tightly crafted and quickly brings the viewer up to speed on how Krypton's culture works, what tensions exist, and who the particulars are. Visually, it's beautiful to look at, and the rest of the film never quite manages to equal it in splendor. Of course, Snyder remembers to jumpstart the action here also, with Jor-El fighting off Zod's guards and racing across the sky on something that looks like a cross between a dragonfly and a dinosaur -- apparently, action runs in Superman's family. And by the time baby Kal-El rockets off into the cosmos, there's a much better motivation for Zod to pursue him than simple revenge.

The story jumps forward to a 33-year-old Clark Kent, who has already left home to find his way in the world. Flashbacks provide insight into his childhood and introduce us to Kevin Costner and Diane Lane as the Kents. These scenes are handled extremely well, with Costner and Lane as reliable as ever; the two boys who play young Clark at different ages are also very good. One particular scene at Clark's school is just brilliant -- an idea that makes perfect sense, but hasn't really been done before -- something that becomes an important point later in the film. As adult Clark travels around, saving lives and trying to stay anonymous, we're introduced to Amy Adams as Lois Lane, who is in the arctic reporting on the excavation of an unknown object by the U.S. government, which turns out to be an ancient Kryptonian spacecraft. The two characters cross paths at this point, and Clark has to save Lois' life, which will prompt the reporter to begin the task of tracking down her mysterious do-gooder. Meanwhile, inside the ship, Clark is greeted by a holographic Jor-El, who is waiting to answer all the questions that he's had his entire life.

By the time Zod shows up on Earth looking for Kal-El, we're ready and waiting to get to the action. Unfortunately, while the action scenes are epic in scale, they're executed in a fairly generic, repetitive fashion. It's not bad, but it's mostly just Kryptonians colliding with one another over and over in locations that don't help distinguish one scene from another. Also, Snyder uses shakey-cam when it's not necessary, making characters too blurry during some of the super-action. While it's not as disorienting as something like The Blair Witch Project, I can't help wondering why the director abandoned the use of speed-ramping (slow-motion during the quickest parts of the action), which he became famous for using in his previous films, 300 and Watchmen. Even though I'm not the biggest fan of those films, they absolutely reveled in their comic book imagery, and if there was ever a character that could have benefitted from that type of larger-than-life approach, it's Superman. At one point, Jor-El even mentions to Kal-El's mother that, "he will be a god to them." So, where's the god-like awe in the action?

Now, I'm not one to criticize a filmmaker for blowing up a few buildings in a comic book film -- death and destruction is inherent to stories with super-powered characters. I should mention, however, that if you are turned off by what is popularly termed as "9/11 imagery," the last hour of Man of Steel may make you uncomfortable. I was more concerned that they spend so little time attending to the human element. Superman saves lives in the film, but Metropolis gets half demolished, and Snyder and his writers choose not to show us much in the way of an evacuation, or even acknowledge a civilian death toll, which makes the violence meaningless, like a video game. And while the effects work is top notch, there are still times when it looks a lot like a video game, too.

In general, the cast is very good, and there's solid work by all the supporting players, including Crowe's turn as Jor-El, Laurence Fishburne as Perry White, Richard Schiff as a government scientist, Harry Lennix as an army general, Christopher Meloni as a hard-nosed army colonel, and Antje Traue as Zod's trusted commander. As mentioned earlier, Costner and Lane help hold down the emotional center of the film as Ma and Pa Kent, and Ayelet Zurer makes the most of her limited time as Kal-El's mother, Lara. But, the film rests on the capable shoulders of Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, and Henry Cavill. Adams, who seemed like perfect casting after her sassy performance as Amelia Earhart in Night at the Museum 2, does a nice job with this updated version of Lois Lane. How Lois interacts with Clark/Superman is different from what viewers will be expecting and may even disappoint some fans. It will no doubt be praised as a stronger version of the character than we've previously seen, but while I agree the character comes across as a more credible reporter, she's not quite as spunky as I imagined. Michael Shannon does a nice job of walking the line between duty and fanaticism with his version of Zod, who is genetically engineered to be Krypton's protector. When he first arrives on Earth, he's not intent on killing Kal-El; he's searching for the means to begin a new Krypton, and it's nice that he's not just a mustache-twirling bad guy hellbent on ruling the world. Last, but not least, is Cavill. With his dark hair, blue eyes, large frame, and chiseled features, he looks exactly like Superman should. As written by Nolan and Goyer, however, he's not necessarily the cut-and-dry "boy scout" version of the character -- he has some angst. Cavill does a good job with this more tortured version of the character, but like the handling of Lois, some things about this Superman may rub certain fans the wrong way.

I have stopped short of comparing Man of Steel to any other specific version because I think it's important to look at this as a stand alone project. It isn't easy, especially with so much history and with so many other versions out there. But, instead of sitting here typing about how much I miss John Williams' score, or how much better the Lois-and-Clark dynamic is between Noel Niell and George Reeves, I'd rather give these guys a fair shake and think of the Superman mythos in broad terms. How does this movie work based solely on what Snyder, Nolan, and Goyer have created? Pretty well, actually. Yes, they change some things, and it's been Nolan-ized with a more serious tone (very, very serious when it comes down to the final moments between Superman and Zod -- parents should use caution when considering bringing anyone under 13), but those reinventions seem to make sense. This is an entertaining movie about first contact with an alien race from the point of view of the alien. It just happens to be a Superman movie, too. And although it falters slightly in the second half, there's much more good than not-so-good, and the final scene is a perfect place to leave viewers before the inevitable sequels.