Review: Man of Steel

Out of all the superheroes out there, Superman is my favorite. Always has, and probably always will. Something about the red cape, or the fact that he’s more or less indestructible, he can fly and lift anything he wants, and that he stands for truth, justice, and the American way. But mostly I think it dates back to being a kid and thinking Superman was the shit… and he pretty much is. Which makes me a fan of the original Richard Donner movies and I even enjoyed Bryan Singer’s sequel from a few years back. But as we’re in the era of superhero movies, it was only a matter of time before Superman was tapped again, this time from a new angle. Was it a success? Let’s find out.

MAN OF STEEL is, if nothing else, incredibly ambitious at what it set out to accomplish. On the one hand, it’s a Superman origin story the likes we’ve never seen. This isn’t just a redo of SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE, nor is it s a sped-up version of all 10 seasons of SMALLVILLE. MAN OF STEEL focuses on the origin of Kal-el (Henry Cavill aka Clark Kent aka Superman), the Kryptonian sent to Earth to be a God and show the humans the right way. Perfect casting of Cavill, BTW, as the dude is super jacked… finally, a Superman who’s fucking ripped! We get more of Krypton than we’ve ever seen before, we get more of Jor-el (played superbly by Russell Crowe), and we get more of the struggle an alien like Kal-el has to deal with, both internally and externally, as he comes to terms of who he really is and what his real purpose is. Kevin Costner as Jonathan Kent (Clark’s other dad) is also fantastic in the role. The ultimate all-American dad, right there.

Sure, we’ve seen this basic story before, but not quite like this. Writer David S. Goyer, with the help of Chistopher Nolan, and director Zack Snyder go about telling an origin story of a character everyone more or less knows the origins of in a way we haven’t seen before. MAN OF STEEL, in many ways, is a movie about the relationship between fathers and sons, and what it means to be a dad, what it means to be a man, and what it means to live up to your full potential. This shit is being released Father’s Day weekend? Well played, Warner Bros., well played…

Another interesting angle they decided to do with the whole Superman universe is to reverse the trajectory of the relationship between Clark and Lois Lane (Amy Adams). In this version, Clark isn’t a reporter for the Daily Planet, and Louise learns of his identity before she really even knows who he is. There are little things like that throughout the movie that will make Superman enthusiasts scratch their heads as the movie, at times, goes against everything you thought you knew of the story of Superman. But in the universe of MAN OF STEEL, it makes sense, and it actually plays out quite well.

Is MAN OF STEEL the ultimate Superman movie, the one we’ve all been waiting for? Well, when it’s at its best, MAN OF STEEL is fucking awesome. The fight sequences between Superman, General Zod (Michael Shannon) and his band of Kryptonian criminals are epic, and better than any fight sequence we’ve ever seen Superman involved with before. Maybe because Superman has finally met a group of villains that are as strong as he is. Much of the film is almost like a remake of SUPERMAN II, intermixed with its own original origin story. Sorry Lex Luthor, you’re menacing and all, but you’re really just a balding real estate tycoon that could never, in a billion years, kick Superman’s ass. Zod and his cronies kick the shit out of Superman… which, odd as it sounds, is a good thing. We have to have a Superman that we think might actually lose.

The musical score by Hans Zimmer is epic, the cinematography is unique to this movie and interesting, even if it often feels like a Levis commercial (if you’ve seen the trailer, you know what I’m talkin’ about). Seriously, there are so many moments where I got chills (and in a good way), and most of those chills have to do with the music as it does with the writing and the scene itself. But it doesn’t have the high-gloss look of AVENGERS or even the clean-cut look of THE DARK KNIGHT, which is great. The way it handles characters and iconic images and names from the Superman universe is great, too—low key, not in your face, and almost always just casually dropped. From Smallville to Lana Lane to Perry White to the Daily Planet to Metropolis to LexCorp, all these things are in MAN OF STEEL, but they’re all briefly mentioned and never thrown in your face.

When MAN OF STEEL is good, it’s really good. But when it’s bad… it’s hard to forgive it, and unfortunately, it does a lot stuff that isn’t so good. The action is great… but much of the time, it felt like shit we’ve seen before. There’s a scene in Smallville that felt plucked out of THOR, and the massive “destruction of Metrolopolis sequence” felt like GODZILLA meets TRANSFORMERS 3 meets THE AVENGERS. Actually, a few things about the big finale felt like AVENGERS, whether that’s a good or bad thing, I don’t know… it just is. The editing is choppy here and there, like they had to cut out a good hour throughout and the result is scenes cut in half, and therefore, there are many instances of being thrown in the middle of something that you’re not quite sure what the fuck is going on. It’s Snyder, so I’m sure there’s a 4 hour version out there, waiting for Blu-ray.

The relationship between Clark and Lois feels pretty forced. The two share absolutely zero chemistry together, and they literally meet, something happens, then… they’re more or less in love and their fates are forever intertwined. How the hell did that happen? They’re strangers, they’re in love… just like that. Pretty weak. Also, Zod and his cronies get encapsulated by giant DICKS. No shit, the pods that take them to the Forbidden Zone look like a fleet of COCKS. Why did they do that??? I liked the time spent on Krypton, but for all the effects, the time spent on Earth was still more compelling. I like that Superman’s past is told via flashbacks… actually, zero complains on that front. I found that highly effective, so we see Clark as Superman alongside Clark as Clark, the kid from Smallville. Then there are all kinds of logic stuff that doesn’t make sense. A whole city is being attacked, yet there are always victims running around getting into trouble? What the hell? And of course, the cheese factor. It’s Superman, so I get that it’s impossible to leave the cheesiness at the door as it’s inherent with the character, but everything else about MAN OF STEEL is not cheesy that when the cheesy lines kick in… they’re really out of place.

At the end of the day, I liked MAN OF STEEL for what it was. It’s a good movie… but it’s not a great movie, and definitely not the epic it set out to be. It’s too ambitious for its own good and it tries to fit in too much in a little amount of time. Which is weird, because the movie is way too fucking long and it felt it. All the action, all the flying, all the fighting, and all the tent-pole summer stuff is really fun, but… it’s missing something that sets it below the likes of THE DARK KNIGHT, or even this summer’s STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS. I see this dividing fans, whereas a lot of people will like it while admitting it has a lot of flaws (like me), and others will just all-out not like it. I don’t even know if it has enough mass appeal to do well beyond the opening weekend, making it’s box office questionable, and the impending sequel even more unlikely. I want to see MAN OF STEEL 2, as they set it up for some classic Superman shit, but… we’ll just have to see how it does as the box office.

NOTE: I saw this in 3D. FUCK the 3D for MAN OF STEEL. It’s horrendous. It gave me a headache. I hated every second of the 3D. It’s obviously post-converted, and Snyder didn’t appear to have filmed it with 3D in mind. Superman flies too fucking fast for it to be 3D effective. Save your money, save your eyes, skip the 3D altogether, if you can. See the movie… just not in 3D.

Grade: B-