Man of Steel
Zack Snyder
David S. Goyer, Christopher Nolan
143 min.
Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Diane Lane, Kevin Costner, Russell Crowe, Antje Traue, Harry Lennix, Richard Schiff, Christopher Meloni, Ayelet Zurer, Laurence Fishburne, Michael Kelly, Rebecca Buller, Christina Wren
PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence, action and destruction, and for some language
When you look at films like 300 and Watchmen, it’s hard to believe a director with such visceral style, yet devoid of literary capabilities could craft a mainstream picture like Man of Steel. Zack Snyder is maturing, but still has a long way to go before adulthood.
For 75 years, Clark Kent and his alter ego Superman have been a major part of American culture. A good-hearted, crime-fighting alien from the planet Krypton who acts as caregiver for the weaker people of earth. In various forms from comic books to television, Superman has gone through many visages in that time with the likes of George Reeves and Christopher Reeve making the most iconic and acclaimed turns as the caped Kryptonian. Henry Cavill has the physical carriage and handsomeness to carry out the role and with a few films to mature as Clark, he might even be able to stand side-by-side with those greats. However, his development as a central figure of popular culture needs a bit of refinement and less matter-of-fact stoicism.
Taking audiences back to Kal-El’s origins, Snyder takes a strongly crafted screenplay by longtime superhero writers Christopher Nolan (who resurrected and darkened by Batman franchise) and David S. Goyer (the Blade films and Nolan’s Batman trilogy) and adds a stronger sense of pathos than any of his previous outings. Examining the relationship Clark has with his loving father, we’re panged with remorse at the inevitable demise of Costner’s concerned patriarch and filled with sorrow on a pair of other occasions. Snyder also sloughs off his excessive visual style for a more conventional picture. There are still some amazing visual sequences, but they are more subdued than anyone ever thought Snyder could be.
Picking a confident, but appealing Lois Lane proves a difficult task and while Teri Hatcher and Margot Kidder are fine specimens, Amy Adams has a much richer career supporting her casting in the role. While she acquits herself well, Kidder remains the litmus test against which all incarnations must be compared. Kidder was a mixture of smart, savvy and sensitive that Adams can’t quite master. Her character comes off a tad abraisive at times and if the screenplay hadn’t worked hard to force Lois into Clark’s arms, I couldn’t have imagined they would be a match. Had they made their relationship a bit more adversarial and not revealed his identity to her so early in the proceedings, it might have made for an intriguing through-line for future films.
Taking on a role perfected by Terrence Stamp, Michael Shannon finds any piece of scenery he can and chews it with absolute relish. Shannon is a terrific actor when the role calls for something a bit more nuanced, but here he falls into the same trap most actors do when giving voice to a villain of measurable importance. Like Benedict Cumberbatch in Star Trek: Into Darkness, Zod is given so little depth that his pontificating and sneering make for a detestable villain with no measure of believability. Shannon tries to do what he can with the role, but he’s called on more frequently to scream at his enemy than to reason with him. This plays into my growing displeasure with modern movie villains. The audience so needs someone to hate and despise that they are given an incredibly facile amount of soul where their defeat is cheered, but the complexity of their anguish or solitude is left entirely unexplored. Antiheroes have begun to fill this void more than complex villains have. I’d like more like Catwoman and the Penguin from Batman Returns and less of the General Zod’s that we’ve been getting.
Costner adds a level of humanity I haven’t seen from him in some time while Russell Crowe as Kal-El’s father Jor-El turns in the same tired performance we’ve seen countless times before. While it fits well within the framework of the production as it’s presented, it seems like a perfunctory role that may have been extended far beyond what was necessary for the film. Fishburne is fine as Daily Planet’s editor-in-chief Perry White, but he’s given so little to do it’s questionable why his character even made it into the film other than for a completists’ sakes. Diane Lane is satisfactory as Clark’s adoptive mother, but she seems like she’s acting in a completely different film, one that’s a touch more humanstic than bombastic.
And bombast is where Snyder’s film fumbles. Here’s a filmmaker that, in spite of his past films’ lack of plot and capable dialogue, Snyder has shown a visual skill that few directors possess. When given to style over substance, he has a tendency to ignore that which makes movies great. Here was an opportunity to push back against the criticism and give us a Superman that was not only well-written, but also visually spectacular. There are moments of inspiration, specifically the massive core-through terraforming beam, but much of the rest of the film is so devoid of splashy exuberance that it could have been made by any director. While I appreciate an advancement for Snyder in terms of maturity, giving into the studio model so vociferously is disappointing.
That said, Snyder has shown an advancement in ideas and concepts and has crafted a film that’s far more interesting as a storytelling vehicle than it is as a superhero vehicle. Yet, his childish side gets the better of him in the excessive destruction that permeates the final reel. Here’s a city threatened by a force which it has never seen and no matter what our Man of Steel does, thousands of innocent lives are lost and untold destruction ensues because he can’t stop Zod sooner or more effectively. Here’s where the audience’s predeliction towards carnage is catered. While a city in peril is a fascinating concept, when the destruction itself becomes more than just a set piece, it takes on a life of its own. It becomes excessive and brutal to a point where credibility is diminished. Of course, a film like Man of Steel struggles with credibility simply from its basis in comic books, there comes a point where you have to say too much is too much.
Since the 1970’s, films that feature heavy swaths of destruction have been increasingly popular. Films like The Towering Inferno or Earthquake have spawned countless imitators and those disaster films have slowly seeped into modern action filmmaking. There was a time when a potboiler like The French Connection didn’t have to depend on wanton destruction to sell tickets. Yet, as the cathartic joy of seeing familiar places crumble to dust settles in on younger audiences, the normative response has been to employ as many explosions as possible and an equal level of property damage.
There are examples in recent cinema where a central premise can be so consuming that the explosion that sets off the chain of events depicted becomes secondary to the premise. Source Code should be held up as an example of how to make a film without resorting to annihilation to exhilerate and titillate the audience. Zack Snyder may not be the director to push forward that kind of concept. After all, many of his past films have been excessively violent and stylistically so; however, here he’s beginning to resemble the workman directors like Michael Bay who aren’t as concerned with plot as long as there’s plenty of bombs and explosions.
Man of Steel had a decent amount going for it in its retelling of Superman’s origin and while it doesn’t have the level of depth and commentary that something like Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, it’s an entertaining, sometimes lighthearted film. It should have no problem pleasing general audiences even if it feels a bit hollow and too self-reverential at times.
Guarantees: Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Visual Effects
Potentials: Original Score, Production Design
June 27, 2013
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