The film's story centers around the salvation of Kal-El, son of Jor-El (Russell Crowe), the planet Krypton's most brilliant scientist. Warning the Kryptonian high council that the depletion of natural resources on the planet will lead to it's destruction, he is ignored. Meanwhile, Krypton's military leader, General Zod (Michael Shannon), stages a coup that lands him and his conspirators a one way trip to the Phantom Zone, an alternate dimension that is used to imprison criminals. To save his son, he and his wife send the boy to planet Earth, where the atmosphere will support him. However, the combination of less gravity than on Krypton and the yellow sun will give him powers that will defy comprehension. Baby Kal is sent off in time to be saved. Krypton is destroyed. On Earth, we follow a more adult Kal (Henry Cavill) and flash back to a younger one as well (played at different ages by both Cooper Timberline and Dylan Sprayberry). Because of the destruction of Krypton, Zod and his fellow para-military villains are freed and his has set his sights on finding and destroying Kal-El, in a personal vendetta against Jor-El.
Henry Cavill as Superman in "Man of Steel"
A great deal of the film's story is set away from the city of Metropolis, which is a staple of the Superman universe, much like Gotham is to Batman. The fact that we don't really see much of Metropolis until the second act was something that I thought was a breath of fresh air and reminiscent of "Superman: The Movie."A large portion of action takes place at the Kent family farm and downtown Smallville. This is where the production got a little carried away with product placement. When Zod finally returns to Earth, he chooses to engage Kal-El in one of the places he holds close to his heart: Ihop. Well, more specifically the Ihop located in Downtown Smallville. When they finally break free, I was relieved that the scene would finally continue and the the filmmakers had gotten their sponsor's 15 minutes of fame portion out of the way - when they crash into a Sears. Who knew that Smallville, what's supposed to be a small town in the heartland of America had so many places to shop?
Adding to the film's epic scope, is the discovery of a Kryptonian scout ship frozen in ice. Kal manages to get get on to the crew working the find using a false identity, something he'd been doing for ages, living a nomadic lifestyle moving from job to job. This was yet another new take on the character that I felt is what was needed. For so long, we've seen Superman stand for all that is right and also, live what is right. He had a good job, home, and kept his head down as Clark Kent (a name given to him by Jonathan and Martha Kent, his Earth parents played by Kevin Costner and Dian Lane respectively). Instead, we see Superman as a dirty, bearded, and homeless man with seemingly no happy ending in sight. Anyway, back to that ship that just so happened to be in the ice. Ace reporter Lois Lane from The Daily Planet, Metropolis' top newspaper, is covering the story when she encounters Kal.
Michael Shannon steals the show as General Zod.
Talk about no chemistry. Amy Adams was great as Lois Lane when she argued with her editor Perry White (Laurence Fishburne) or was out doing research trying to find the mysterious identity of the man she met in the arctic. But as soon as she begins to interact with Cavill as Superman, any spark to her character is lost. The two have absolutely no chemistry together and the film suffers for it. It seemed as though Adams was not the first choice for the role of Lois, nor the last, but she doesn't seem to be the right fit for it. This is indeed a really bizarre aspect of the film because every actor in it besides Adams feels perfectly cast.
However, the saving grace of the film are the performances of Michael Shannon as Zod, Russell Crowe as Jor-El, and Kevin Costner as Jonathan Kent. All three actors added so much depth to the dialogue which they spoke that their appearances on screen made me feel like I was watching the comic book characters brought to life as opposed to a live action adaptation of them. Shannon steals the film, outshining everyone, Cavill included. His performance as Zod was scary, dark, and full of conviction. As Krypton's military leader, his job and sole purpose in life was to ensure the survival of Krypton and its citizens. He failed. So naturally, he's pissed. However, something happened that I wasn't expecting. In act III of the film, in which the final conflict is reached, I felt for Zod. There was something I wasn't at all expecting to happen.
That leads me to my next point: the movie's final confrontation and climax. I will not address the final battle between Zod and Ka-El in "Man of Steel" due to a major spoiler. Instead, I will post a new entry discussing the ending of the film and what it could mean for our character. The final battle is a great way to sum up the experience of watching this film: It's loud, violently edited, and too over-the-top. Ironically enough, I'd say that in the process of saving Metropolis and the rest of the world, Superman actually destroyed a lot of it. I'm not kidding. The city is left in ruins. Zod delivers a final commentary to Kal in a gray field of rubble before throwing Kal through more buildings. Building fall on top of buildings, jets crash into city streets, and hundreds run for cover, all as Hans Zimmer's rigidly over-produced score blast through whatever speakers were unlucky enough to be used by you to watch the film.
Things aren't going very well in the city of Metropolis.
I don't understand how anyone would accept Superman after pretty much wiping the city clean off of the face the Earth to supposedly "save it." The script is long and it suffers from David S. Goyer attempting to create a modern Iliad. Superman is the stuff of legend for today's young generations (the case could be made that superheroes are the Greek Gods of today) of kids, but the Phoenix must rise from the ashes right? And it does. At its heart, "Man of Steel" is a story about first contact. What if suddenly, the existence of extraterrestrials was confirmed and one of them had been living among us all along? The film does explore these topics in subtle and not so subtle ways. With Zack Snyder, who in my opinion is the worst director our there today, at the helm, the film is too long, too effects heavy and uninspired to warrant a second watch, but contains the seeds of what will hopefully lead to far more interesting Superman stories. As expected, a sequel to the film was announced not long after "Man of Steel" opened, confirming that the creative team needed to get Superman's origin out of the way to move on to bigger story arcs:
5/10
- Rated PG-13
- Directed by Zack Snyder
- Written by David S. Goyer
- Story by Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer
- Runtime - 143 minutes
- 7.4 of 10 stars on IMDb
- 56% on Rotten Tomatoes
- Man of Steel on Blu-Ray
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