"Man of Steel"
Rated PG-13 (Pow! Kablam!)
Directed by Zack Snyder
Written by David S. Goyer and Christopher Nolan
*** 1/2 out of ****
I'm kind of rusty at this, so, patience, please.
If I were to have a complaint about "Man of Steel", it would be that Zack Snyder is, surprisingly, not a subtle director. More on this later.
It's 2013. EVERYONE knows Superman's origin. Writers David S. Goyer and Christopher Nolan recognize this. Their depiction of Krypton is, however, much different than Richard Donner's or John Byrne's. Think Cloud City, but have it be designed by the team that did the second "Riddick" movie. Speaking of that, when are we as a culture going to move beyond the School of Funny Hats Science-Fiction Costume Design? Seriously.
OK. That looks like two complaints. But that was more of a general critique of the industry as a whole, not of this movie.
Anyway, Krypton is destroyed. Jor-El (Russel Crowe) saw this coming. So did General Zod (Michael Shannon). They disagree over the best way to save their people. Jor-El is given a bigger role than the one I recall Brando having in Donner's original "Superman". Zod, of course, is evil.
Duh.
So, Kal-El lands in Kansas (slipping under NORAD surveillance somehow. One more reason to increase NASA's funding.). He's raised by Ma and Pa Kent near Smallville. Kevin Costner was just perfect as Pa Kent. On the other hand, after seeing her in "Unfaithful", I just can't accept Diane Lane as a small-town farmer's wife. Damn.
Kal-El is re-christianed (Ha!) Clark, and is raised as a typical small-town kid. One thing that the crew does very well is show, for all intents and purposes, the worse case of ADD ever as Clark's powers emerge. Ma is Clark's anchor, and Pa is Clark's... mentor? Conscience? They both clearly love their adopted son, and want him to be the best person that he can be, but, to have to raise a being that is, for lack of a better word, a god... That's an unenviable position.
Clark (Henry Cavill) spends his 20s living the life of TV's "The Incredible Hulk", wandering from job to job, moving on when his abilities are revealed, eventually getting a job with a cargo company contracted by the military which has found... A Thing.
Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane (Amy Adams), who has been embedded with platoons before and is already a Pulitzer Prize winner, is dispatched to the Arctic, where The Thing has been found. Journalism! ensues. Discoveries are made! Action setpieces happen!
And they are amazing.
I don't think that there is an American director working right now that is better at constructing action sequences than Zack Snyder. Michael Bay is, in some circles (not mine), regarded as an avant-garde genius. Seriously. "Transformers" hurt by brain to look at. Far too much geometry for my visiual cortex to process. Snyder maintains a VERY clear focus. Buildings are collapsing, debris is flying, stuff is blowing up real good, but there is no waste on the screen. Nothing is distracting you from a) the action or b) the story.
"The fights?" you may be asking. I don't know. I'm not you. "What about the fights?"
Oh, lordy.
Wow.
You saw "The Avengers". Don't lie. The movie made more money than God last year.
Remember Hulk vs. Loki?
Make that last longer than one very short scene. With equally-matched opponents. And goddamned A10 Warthogs. And Lawrence Fishburne as Perry White.
You feel the hits connect. Force and mass accelerate. And it is glorious. It looks, sounds and feels completely RIGHT. These are gods fighting.
I'm burying this next bit.
I'm so straight it's boring. I'm pretty damned vanilla. But, oh my god, Henry Cavill without a shirt. Oh. My. God.
I did not expect to like "Man of Steel" as much as I did. I new that Snyder was a more-than-competent director, and Nolan has his fingerprints all over this movie. I want to say that they knocked it out of the park. I want to say that it ranks up there with "The Dark Knight".
But!
But, Snyder is not subtle. Nor is Nolan.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe (Iron Man/Captain America/Thor/Avengers, not Spider-Man/Fantastic Four/X-Men) has made changes to the lore of its heroes. I'm fine with the changes as long as they make sense. Kubrick's "The Shining" is VASTLY different from King's novel, but they are both good enough to be judged on their own merits.
You may have heard or read on the internet or seen things on the tv about an... equivalency? Cross-cultural metaphoric symbol switching?
Superman = Jesus.
WRONG!
Superman =/= Jesus.
Superman = Moses.
Why would a couple of nice Jewish boys like Jerry Seigel and Jerome Schuster make a Jesus character? That's dumb. You're dumb for thinking that.
