[06/16/2013]
IMDB Link to Man of Steel
Being quite disappointment with the bomb fest called “Star
Trek Into Darkness (basically a mindless action film with little substance) See"Star Trek Into Darkness" movie review, my expectations of a
substantive yet fun action film this year seems nil. After watching “Man of Steel” twice this
weekend, I was not disappointed. My
faith of a descent summer film is still alive.
Now for those who expect a Superman movie similar in
style that to the older Christopher Reeve films, you will be disappointed. The writers of the Dark Knight trilogy (David
Goyer and Christopher Nolan) along with Zack Snyder directing made an excellent
reboot of a comic book character that has been on life support for some
time. This Superman story is grittier
and more realistic than prior incarnations, but is still not as dark as the
recent Batman films.
Both Superman and Superman 2 delivered the
son of Krypton as a more traditional “boy scout” hero. Superman 3 is pretty
much a Richard Pryor (SNL) comedy film, while Superman 4: The Quest for Peace can be watched
through the eyes of the Mystery Science Theater cast. Superman Returns
emphasized Superman more as a secular Messiah and was too romantic, trying hard
to link itself to the original Richard Donner films. Brandon Routh’s performance as Superman is so
wooden, making Al Gore’s personality more like William Shanter.
Man of Steel emphasizes Superman as an alien to this
world – both as a young Clark in Smallville as well as an adult, trying to find
his purpose in life. How does he fit
with humanity? Will humanity accept and
trust him? Can Superman cope of being a
man living in both worlds – Krypton and Earth?
And that to me is refreshing to this character, instead of dragging out
the old clichés of traditional Superman incarnations.
Another aspect of this film that I really respect is
that the story gives reasonable explanations for the motivations of all of the
major characters. You really see Krypton
and the Kryptonians a new and refreshing perspective. Yes the traditional origin story of Superman
has been altered, but these alterations have enhanced the Superman, and DC,
universe instead of making them cartoon characters of themselves. Remember that J.J. Abrams!
You will understand reasonably why Jor-El (played brilliantly
by Russell Crowe) did what he did in transporting his son to Earth. You will understand reasonably why General
Zod (played brilliantly by Michael Shannon) opposes Superman, instead of the cliché
motivation “I want to rule Earth!”
There is some substance in this action comic book movie.
During his Smallville years, you can understand why
Clark’s adopted parents (Kevin Costner as Jonathan Kent and Diane Lane as
Martha Kent) are over protective of him and how their values impact Clark as an
adult.
Regarding actor performances, all of the major actors
were excellent. But I believe that
Russell Crowe was at his best. Amy
Adams interpretation of Lois Lane I appreciate. Her character is strong and intelligent yet
vulnerable. She is not portraying Lois
as the arrogant, reckless, and somewhat snobby New Yorker type that has been
done by Margot Kidder or even the animated series version. Henry Cavill as Clark Kent is a good
performance. I would still have liked to
see more character development as himself, but a significant amount of his
character development was done as a young Clark Kent – so I will give Henry a
pass. Michael Shannon as General Zod is
an adequate performance, yet he was not hammy as the villain. He was not the simple minded villain you
would see in traditional settings. And
at last, the use of the military was done quite well, especially my main man
Christopher Meloni (Law & Order:
Special Victims Unit) as Colonel Nathan Hardy.
The film can be divided into three sections: (1) The peril of Krypton (2) The character
development of Clark Kent, and (3) The confrontation between Superman and the
Kryptonian invaders. The re-imagining of Krypton in the first
section was done quite well, even though I did see some flashback scenes of Star
Wars: Attack of the Clones and Star
Wars: Revenge of the Sith. I liked the somewhat Ridley Scott’s Alien and Prometheus look of Krypton and its
technology, instead of the Richard Donner “angelic crystal” look. The Kryptonians are truly alien.
The character development of Clark Kent was very reminiscent
in style that to Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins, where flashback are utilized
a lot. The editing of those scenes was
done nicely. I like that approach of
showing you the origin story instead of the literal boring style.
The confrontation was fabulous. I finally saw Superman be Superman. We don’t see the slow flying maneuvers done by
Christopher Reeve and Brandon Roth. In
defense with the Christopher Reeve films, they were stuck with the limitations
of the special effects technology of that time, but there is no defense with
Superman Returns. The fighting scenes
with Superman and the Kryptionians are intense and awesome, making even the
action scenes from The Avengers look quite tame. You know from these scenes that Superman is
powerful – no doubt about it. However,
you see a limitation of Superman that is greatly needed for the character. What’s the point of Superman if he can defeat
everyone, or whip around the Earth to set things straight? His limitations are realistic and do not come
from green rocks from space. Plus there was actual suspense in many of
these action scenes. They were not
mindless action.
There was a big concern about Zack Snyder as the
director, but those concerns are minimized.
You will not see the slow motion special effects that you see in 300 or the
Watchman. I will have one complaint in
his cinematography. He had too much
shaky camera shots and needed to tone them down. But overall
Snyder’s direction is pretty good. I
think having a great script and leadership by Christopher Nolan really toned
him down, so that this movie is not reduced to a video game.
Overall this is a great summer blockbuster movie with
some measure of substance for a comic book movie. Yes this is not Citizen Kane but it was not
intended to be so. This comic book movie
I believe stands up to the Christopher Nolan Dark Knight trilogy as well as
Marvel’s Avengers, X-Men 2, and Iron Man.
This is by far the best of the films so far this year, despite what many
critics are saying now.
It is pretty obvious now the direction of DC Universe
– gritty and serious, while the Marvel universe is more comic book and more
campy. Now seeing both “Star Trek Into Darkness”
and “Man of Steel”, my faith is a good Justice League film in 2015 is much
greater than Abram’s Star Wars film in the same year. DC
rules – sorry Marvel. Superman is back
on track for once.
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