(SPOILERS AHEAD...)
My feelings toward Man Of Steel were mixed when the it was announced that Zack Snyder would direct it. His 2004 Dawn Of The Dead remake and 300 - his first comic book adaptation - are both watchable films but hardly classics and Watchmen, another comic-to-film translation, was reasonable but too slavish to Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' source material to work on the screen.
In Man Of Steel's favour was the fact that David S Goyer and Christopher Nolan - the men behind the Dark Knight trilogy - were the catalysts for this Superman reboot, with both creating the story, Goyer scriptwriting and Nolan producing. It was these names that piqued my interest and for Nolan to produce a Snyder film meant that at least he had some faith in the latter. The fact that actors like Russell Crowe, Laurence Fishburne and Amy Adams signed on was further encouragement. Henry Cavill also looked right as Superman in early promo shots, without appearing to steal Christopher Reeve's style, as Brandon Routh had done in 2006's Superman Returns, Bryan Singer's belated sequel to Richard Donner's Superman II from 1980. Singer kicked ass with his previous comic-book adaptations, X-Men and X-Men 2 but his Superman was disappointing. Could Snyder do better?
Yes and no. Whilst Man Of Steel is an overall better film than Singer's effort - not to mention any movie about the Big Blue Boy Scout since 1980 - it is clearly Zack Snyder's attempt at a Christopher Nolan film. This is both literally, given Nolan's actual input, as well as figuratively, in terms of style. We get a fragmented origin story, mostly told through the orphaned hero's memories, where he lives an itinerant existence before truly finding himself and his place in the world, just in time to face an enemy from his past. The film's title doesn't appear until the end credits, either, when it could just as well have said Superman Begins.
Man Of Steel keeps up Snyder's reputation as a CG-loving visual stylist. The effects are almost all well executed, except for the rare case of jerky, obviously computerized super-people. The look of the film is cool and goes to great lengths to differentiate itself from Richard Donner's majestic Superman - The Movie (1978), even though it lacks the granduer of the earlier film. The opening scenes on Superman's home planet of Krypton, particularly some of the landscapes and flying creatures, were rather reminiscent of Avatar. The look and purpose of the Genesis Chamber - where new Kryptonians are created, was ripped straight from the human battery pods in The Matrix, with the Neo vs. Smith final fight in The Matrix Revolutions an obvious reference for the climactic, city-levelling battle between Kal-El (Superman's proper Kryptonian name) and General Zod.
Some shots are ruined by wobbly camerwork when it should be slower pans and tracking shots to capture the beauty of a spaceship orbiting the Earth, for example. Snyder is also guilty of replicating the lens flare prominent in JJ Abrams' Star Trek films, particularly during shots with Earth's sun - presumably to highlight that our hero's powers are drawn from it. The influence of Abrams' films extends further, with Zod's World Engines reminiscent of Star Trek 2009's villain Nero's anti-matter drill, although Zod's weapons of mass destruction have a cooler sound effect and don't need to be attached to a ship to work - it is one in itself.
The Engineers' technology in Prometheus also seemed to be an influence, perhaps fittingly, given the suggestion that Kryptonians - like the Engineers - seeded life throughout the universe, possibly on Earth, too. What if they exist in the same universe? The Engineers create the original Alien, whom Superman has fought in the comics before? What if the Engineers seeded life on Krypton? What would a battle between an Engineer and a Kryptonian look like? We'll probably never know. The Engineer's design ethic is of course inspired by HR Giger, who designed the Alien, giving it a very sexual look and the the pods used to imprison Zod and his soldiers early on looked distractingly like flying dildos, so there's a slight theme, there - very slight.
Previous Superman films have depicted Kal-El as a messiah figure and Man Of Steel is no exception, although here, the religious symbolism is laid on with a trowel. Kal's 33 (Christ's supposed age when he was crucified) and during a scene where he seeks spiritual direction from a priest, there are stained glass depictions of the crucified Christ right behind him and later on, Kal mirrors Christ’s pose on the cross, after being told by his father - or a (holy) ghostly version of him - that 'you can save them all, Kal'. OK, we get it - Superman is an allegory for Jesus.
Gripes aside, Henry Cavill is the embodiment of Clark Kent/Kal-El (continuing Nolan's style of referring to character's costumed alter-egos as little as possible, calling him 'Superman' is so 2006, except in a muted, apologetic way, here). He continues with the current trend of Brit actors successfully taking on American characters - such as Christian Bale playing Batman - making the role his own in a way not seen since Christopher Reeve, although a little influenced by him. In a scene where Kal takes on Zod's World Engine, Cavill briefly looks just like Reeve. His physique is bulkily perfect - the ripped Christ, perhaps - and those piercing blue eyes cast the right notes of 'steel'-iness, empathy, kindness but also an inner loneliness. Who cares if he doesn't wear his pants outside his trousers anymore? His whole suit is Kryptonian underwear! He really convinced me that he was the character, which helped me rise above the film's other problems.
The team of Nolan, Goyer and composer Hans Zimmer did a better job with Batman than Superman, though. Whilst Man Of Steel has some fantastic twists and ideas, e.g. Zod being just a fanatical product of his artificial breeding, serving only 'the greater good', like a fundamentalist bomber might. The dialogue is generally of a lower standard than in the recent Batman films. Poor Russell Crowe as Jor-El is saddled with a lot of it, busting out a version of his Gladiator accent for the occasion. He always sounds like he is about to go into the whole, 'my name is Maximus Decimus Meridius...' speech.
Michael Shannon's generally cool General Zod also gets a few clunkers and not even a 'KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!' Boo! The catchphrase of Terence Stamp's Zod in Superman II could have been a defining line here, like Leonidas' 'This...is...SPARTA!' was one of 300's. Still, Zod, also a shouty military leader like Leonidas, does at least still get to have a scrap with Jor, which unfortunately did not happen between more veteran actors, Terence Stamp and Marlon Brando, playing the same respective characters in Donner's films. Shannon's Zod also confronts Kal-El - their final melee a case of 'let's get this over with' after all the sturm and drang of the World Engines beforehand.
Other niggles were the fortuitousness of the ancient Kryptonian scout ship buried in the Arctic, just waiting, ready for Kal to find and learn all about his heritage, create his super-suit and play a role in the climax. It looks nice but it's no Fortress of Solitude. Kal himself destroys this ship before the end, which, after everything else Kryptonian on Earth having been blown up, leaves Superman as the only relic of his dead people - that we know of. Also, with the whole planet to chose from, Zod's ship - as part of the World Engine with which he plans to terraform Earth into a New Krypton - hovers over Metropolis, seemingly just to place people like Daily Planet editor Perry White (The Matrix's Laurence Fishbone) in peril. Also, why do the idiot Earth soldiers continue to fire at Zod's minions when clearly, their bullets do no harm? Colonel Hardy (Christopher Meloni) even whips out his knife to combat Zod's lieutenant, Faora-Ul (Antje Traue) after he runs out of bullets. Fool!
Hans Zimmer's music is serviceable and unobrusive, with a nice electronic twang in certain parts. It's not as distinctive as his Dark Knight work, however and definitely not a patch on John Williams' iconic theme from the Christopher Reeve films.
As affecting as scenes such as young Clark's interactions with his adoptive parents, Martha and Jonathan Kent (Diane Lane and Kevin Costner) are, none of the more emotional moments quite hit the highs of Donner's 1978 original. In that film, Jonathan Kent dies of a heart attack, something young Clark can do nothing to prevent - 'All those powers and I couldn't save him.' In Man Of Steel, Jonathan and Clark both know the latter can use his power to save Jonathan from a roaring tornado but Jonathan refuses his adopted son's help just because he doesn't want the crowd watching from a safe distance -or the world at large- to learn of Clark's alien nature, then possibly reject him...and Clark accepts this? The crowd have all just survived a tornado strike, are they likely to remember a man rescuing his father using super-speed, especially if the Kents deny it? No one has their smartphone out in this scene, so Clark could easily get away with it but so ingrained in him is his surrogate dad's fear of Clark's true nature being discovered and so strong is Clark's love for him, that he accepts his dad's wishes to stay put. He does this at this stage but has already saved a bus full of schoolchildren from drowning and, after Jonathan's death, goes on to use his abilities to save others too, so it rings false that he does not save daddy.
Despite the script's flaws, though, I was engrossed, thanks mainly to Cavill but also the well-cast younger Clarks, Dylan Sprayberry and Cooper Timberline. Watching Clark get to grips with his alien nature is a joy, particularly in learning to focus his x-ray vision or testing his limits when he learns to fly...and fly he does. I look forward to his further adventures as the Man Of Steel.
