I've been cleaning out my archives and discovered that I never posted this review of 2013's Man of Steel. Well, better late than never...
It’s been a few weeks since Man of Steel came out and from what I saw, it was fantastic. The film’s made over $530 million worldwide and yet it’s been panned by critics and viewers alike. I think the trouble was that this Superman isn’t just 'not your dad’s Superman', he’s not really the Man of Steel you remember growing up with.
The Henry Cavill Superman is essentially the New 52 Superman with tones of Superman: Earth One and New Krypton Superman thrown in.
This Superman isn’t quite so concerned about his secret identity. The world’s got more serious problems these days and trying to keep a pesky girl reporter from finding out who you are when the cape comes off is not one of those problems.
Now, does that mean this Superman wants to be found? Absolutely not! But since this Clark Kent is still trying to find his place in this world, he’s more free to run when his powers are reveal to the public then to try and fool the public with robot look-a-likes or blaming swamp gas bouncing off of Venus for what looks like a young man pulling a tractor off Old Man McGregor.
People gave Cavill a bad rap for not separating his Kent and Kal-El personas. But, at this point in Superman’s career he’s always been Clark Kent and only now finding out he’s from Krypton.
The casting is spot on for the most part. Kevin Costner and Diane Lane are the perfect models for Ma and Pa Kent. Laurence Fishbourne is a fantastic Perry White, who does such a great job that you don’t hear people yelling at the screen “Perry’s a white guy in the comics!” With the actor, race doesn’t matter and he transcends the role. Russell Crowe’s Jor-El is quite good, but he’s even better as a ghost acting as the AI tutor to Clark as he discovers his Kryptonian heritage.
The biggest problem I had was with Amy Adams. She’s not bad as Lois Lane, but she’s not great either. I think some of that problem has to do with her acting chops. Fishbourne’s Perry White is black, yet he’s got the role of Daily Planet Editor down pat to which fans have correctly overlooked this. Adams’ Lane is gutsy but she’s just a little too aloof an actress to play Lois Lane as opposed to Margot Kidder or even Teri Hatcher. There’s just a little chemistry missing in that part.
And where the heck is Jimmy Olsen???
Lastly, let’s talk about the villain: General Zod. This Zod has been bred for war and to protect Krypton at all costs. He blames Jor-El for his planet’s demise and since Jor-El is dead, then naturally, the general sees that the sins of the father is past down to the son.
SPOILER- I’d heard how Man of Steel ends and I thought to myself, “Superman doesn’t kill.” But I was happy with the ending because Zod placed Superman in a Kobyashi Maru situation. He could either submit to Zod, thus dooming planet earth or allow Zod’s heat vision to turn a family of four into charcoal brickettes. Superman had to kill Zod, but you can tell he had no choice and thankfully, they show Superman in a moment of pain after everything transpires. They don’t have him shrug it off and fly out into the sunset.
In the end, I was very pleased with Zack Snyder’s efforts and I commend him. Good job. The only problem is now how do you follow up with s sequel. You can’t just focus on Lex Luthor, who thankfully was absent from a Superman film for the first time in history. To focus on a villain any lower than Brainiac or maybe a Luthor/ Brainiac team-up will just be an understatement.
Worth Consuming.
Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.
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