#david s goyer

At least he punched someone in this one.

Man of Steel is Zack Snyder’s take on the Superman franchise. It is better than its predecessor by Bryan Singer, but doesn’t even come close to Nolan’s Batman, in terms of quality. As far as I am concerned this is as good as it’s going to get for Superman, for it is a decent starting point, and it has the potential to only get better.

The film opens on a planet known as Krypton in which a renowned scientist urges his leaders to cease their drilling for it is draining the planet’s natural resources and will eventually lead the planet to ruin. During his tirade a General by the name of Zod unleashes his fury on the leaders due to their negligence on the governance of Krypton and stages a military coup to try and save Krypton and preserve its ways. The scientist otherwise known as Jor-El has conceived a child through natural ways, when Krypton has at this point turned childbirth into a function in which children are literally grown in vast underground fields. As Krypton is laid to ruins Jor-El manages to evacuate his son to planet Earth. Man of Steel, follows Clark Kent as he embarks on a journey to find out about his origins. Throughout his journey he runs into obstacles that remind him of his youth, as he bottles all his anxiety from discovering he is not of this planet and has incredible abilities; he learns to be more human from his foster parents and with the help of Lois Lane.

I can’t say much about this film, for its magnitude and pressure to perform was projected onto the audience. I am not quite sure what it is about it, but the film reeked of desperation; perhaps, it was the similar dark undertones it borrowed from the successful Dark Knight franchise or maybe it was its overwhelmingly large budget…in either case the film felt disenfranchised as it chugged along its long duration pulling its audience from one theme to another.

One can tell that Snyder (director) and Goyer (writer) both wanted to bring another side of Superman onto the big screen, but the with the amount of story that needs to be told in order to make a reboot successful, proved to be no easy task and the weight of that pressure is shown for barely any development is placed upon the love story, and Superman’s flashbacks with his foster parents are overtly heart wrenching in content, but with no actual connection with its audience. The film just felt like I was given a highlight reel of Superman’s origins.

Much of the film is mired in short sequences of up close shots and quick flashbacks to set the tone for the upcoming scene. It felt like I was being presented a beautiful piece of cinematic art with the annoying director’s commentary forcibly playing in the background.

The characters were presented in a rudimentary fashion for we get the obligatory tough guy with good intentions who is un-trusting of superman but eventually comes to terms with him after his life is saved. Lois Lane annoyingly gets into trouble more frequently than needed and is shown to be a tough no “bullshit” character, but sadly it ends there, for her hard nosed behavior constantly places her into dire situations, for an example she wanders into a cave in the middle of the night, oh and that cave happens to be in the Arctic…why on earth would you even venture out at that time of night? Laurence Fishburne is also in this movie, and his acting just felt unmotivated.

Michael Shannon as Zod was great for his stoic presentation created a moral conundrum; being an antihero, he was conditioned to think and function in one way, and when the audience realizes he is doing a lot of his actions through a lack of choice, in turn creates a moral conundrum for Superman. His choice, albeit the hard one is made clear as he chooses the human race over his own people.

Aside from the lack of substance in this film’s drama, the action sequences were entertaining, as an array of superhuman feats were portrayed in a barbaric fashion. Superman and his enemies wail on each other relentlessly in an almost pointless battle of superpowers, but the CGI fight choreography is still really cool.

Choice is the real theme of this film, as Jor-El wanted to create this option for his son, creating a sense of uncertainty. Superman, although gifted with superhuman abilities must also bare the weight of the hardest choices, creating a balance. The religious argument comes into play here as Jor-El wants a better future for his son, a future in which he is gifted with the power to choose his own destiny and to do this he sends his only son to Earth. Doing so, shifts the balance of power in his favor for Kryptonians apparently flourish in the Sun’s radiation granting them powers. Superman becomes Earth’s savior at the age of 33, coincidentally around the same time Jesus was crucified. It’s up to you to decide the filmmakers intents on this one, because I am not touching this argument with a 10ft pole.

Overall, Man of Steel was a real testament to Zack Snyder’s ability to take profound content and just barely scrape away with a decent film. It felt like the weight of its production budget and the pressure to perform weighed down its content and felt like everyone involved was on auto pilot—regardless of who’s in this film none of the actors could save it. Studios need to learn that churning these superhero movies out the way they do is not a good idea for its becoming very apparent that they are in it for the money, and are exploiting its fanbase. Norrmally these facts are well hidden through marketing but now its just too obvious as the market is flooded with this shit.

¾

-DK

Happy ninth anniversary, Man of Steel! As always, I remain hopeful that we’ll see this version of Superman on the big screen again someday soon!

So much love for Henry’s Superman this Superman Day! WBD needs to bring him back!