After the wise decision to abandon the story arc of
2006’s laborious Superman Returns and
give the franchise a true reboot under the supervision of Christopher Nolan and
David S. Goyer, fans had hope that Man of
Steel would be the film that finally does for Superman what Nolan and
Goyer’s Dark Knight trilogy did for
Batman. Seeing Zack Snyder, director of the excellent Watchmen adaptation, at the helm certainly didn’t hurt either. But Man of Steel is at best a partial
success in this goal, burdened with an excess of increasingly meaningless
action scenes and too little background to hold them together.
The film opens with an extended sequence set in the
last days of Krypton, starring Russell Crowe as Superman’s biological father
Jor-El and featuring plenty of action scenes of its own. This sequence serves
to introduce the origin of Superman himself, as well as antagonist General Zod,
and the primary McGuffin. The first thing that struck me was this film’s
incredible lack of patience. It’s always providing us with beautiful,
interesting things to look at and almost no time to take them in. This
Kryptonian prelude manages to feel overwritten and underdeveloped at the same
time.
When the movie gets going, it does manage to draw
compelling versions of the Superman cast. Henry Cavill plays the title role
with all the requisite charm and authority, and Amy Adams’ Lois Lane may be one
of the best interpretations of the character yet. There are good supporting
performances too, particularly Laurence Fishburne’s intimidating but fatherly
Perry White. Two of my favorite television actors, Richard Schiff and Tahmoh
Penikett, are also seen, but sorely underutilized. The script also provides
plenty of interesting opportunities for dramatic hooks and variations on the known
Superman mythos. But the film doesn’t seem to care about any of this back story
it introduces, as it pushes aside any chance for real drama or unpredictable
complications in favor of more straightforward action sequences. Superman has
no time to establish himself as a hero, or have any interaction with most of
his supporting cast, because the moment Clark Kent discover the truth about
himself, he inadvertently broadcasts his location to General Zod and the rest
of the Kryptonian refugees, and from there the action hardly takes a breath.
Michael Shannon’s turn as Zod is another missed
opportunity. Shannon is a fantastic actor, capable of playing a rational yet
ruthless enemy. But the plot robs him of any real chance to communicate with
Superman with anything other than his fists, leaving the stakes of their
conflict feeling half-baked. On the occasions when the movie does pause for a
dramatic moment, it’s usually a flashback of young Clark being taught some
formative lesson by Pa Kent. There’s nothing wrong with these scenes per se,
and they’re made no worse by Kevin Costner’s familiar paternal presence, but
Goyer hits the same note too many times, and in the process, misses the
opportunity to have Clark’s character development more relevant to the people
he interacts with in the main story.
Man
of Steel has all the ingredients necessary to be the kind of
superhero epic that stands beside The
Dark Knight or the recent string of quality offerings from Marvel. But it
isn’t that movie, nonetheless, because the filmmakers decided they had time for
more explosions and special effects, but not enough for good storytelling.
