Superman has issues. It’s 2013 and while the “Man of Steel” is still faster than a speeding bullet and more powerful than a locomotive he’s also more conflicted than my chubby ass in a cupcake shop.
The idea of coming at Superman at a new angle is a not a bad one. In fact it’s a necessity. Bryan Singer’s 2006 reboot “Superman Returns” stayed too close to the Christopher Reeves version of the 70s and 80s and felt stale and lifeless because of it. Too much homage and reverence for its predecessors makes for a pointless exercise. The idea is a good one but the execution is fumbled as the conflict is too one note and beat to death. What will mankind do as their beliefs are shattered? How will humans react once all they think is true turns out to be wrong? What will people think? Once the fifth different character poses this same question for the twelfth time it hard not to yell at the camera “Just get to it!!!”
The angle here is that this is an origin story about Superman becoming Clark Kent and embracing the humans around him. But in an attempt to humanize the alien from another planet, Superman loses some of his appeal and becomes too much like the rest of us. That’s no fun.
Not there should be any surprise that this is the end product. “Man of Steel” is directed by Zack Snyder (the man behind the dark and brooding heroes in “Watchmen”) and produced by Christopher Nolan (the man behind the dark and brooding hero in the Dark Knight Trilogy). The same approach is used here but unfortunately a flawed Superman does not work as well as a flawed Batman.
So I misspoke at the beginning of this review. Superman doesn’t have issues; he has issue. Singular. And the filmmakers, working from a script by David S. Goyer, never flesh it out and take too long to get to the good stuff.
But they eventually do. After about an hour and a half of clunky story, Superman starts flying and fighting and you will get some of your money’s worth in terms of spectacle. But that’s about it.
Until then you have to wade through some pretty dense story that feels as convoluted as the plot to a “Transformers” movie. We start on Krypton, a planet doomed. You know most of this part: Jor-El (Russell Crowe) knows the planet is going to pop and decides to send his son to Earth with hopes that he will survive. This time around, though, Snyder fleshes out the world and Krypton is given a history and other creatures that share the planet with the humanoids. Cool stuff. But then we start talking about the Codex and learn that Krypton is a planet populated by bio-engineered beings that are harvested in an underwater field pulled right out of “The Matrix”. The heavy plot begins to bog things down right out of the gate.
On Earth we meet up with Superman (Henry Cavill) as he is wanders, searching for his destiny. Cavill does a solid job and is physical perfection to don the suit. No fake muscles needed to pad the pecs as Cavill has piles of real ones. As he works the odd job and tries to control his true nature we see his past through sporadic flashbacks that never catch any rhythm. Lois Lane (Amy Adams) is an investigating journalist that stumbles upon what stands in for the Fortress of Solitude, a crash landed spaceship from Krypton buried deep in the Arctic ice. There never is a moment here where Lane does not know Kent’s true nature, no disguised by glasses thing going on.. Eventually baddie General Zod (Michael Shannon) turns up and forces Superman to reveal himself to the world that he has made his home. They fight and destroy more skyscrapers than have ever been captured on celluloid before. You think “The Avengers” destroyed a lot of skyscrapers? You ain’t seen nothin’!
There are some interesting elements that drive home the notion that Superman is an All-American Hero. Krypton is a planet where people are pre-engineered to be what the government wants them to be. Sounds like communism taken to the next level and I don’t think this will play well in China. Kal-El is the first natural born child in centuries. He represents freedom, democracy. Truth, Justice and the American Way. It is an interesting theme but much of what surrounds it is dull and boring. Not every superhero needs to be struggling through life’s problems. I think The Joker asked the question and Nolan needs to take it to heart: “Why so Serious?”