Zack Snyder’s directorial career started out with his 2004 remake of “Dawn of the Dead” that was a breath of fresh air in a stale genre, sorry about that I couldn’t think of another way to describe his remake. Subsequently Snyder’s work has been fair to midland, hitting rock bottom with 2011’s “Sucker Punch“, one of the rare movies that I was bored with and wanted to leave the theater.
When it was announced that Snyder would be the director of the Superman reboot, I had my doubts. Then there were the previews and Jimmy Skoudras thought it looked like a Terence Malick film and I agree with him with some of the visuals of clothes lines, butter flies caught in chains, Hans Zimmer’s muted score consisting of a couple of key behind some type of ambient noise, the trailer was capped off with one fantastic visual of Superman flying breaking the sound barrier.
After seeing “Man of Steel” at least it isn’t “Sucker Punch” however the third act did feel like a “Sucker Punch” that almost ruined the whole movie. I will give credit where credit is due, to Snyder, writer David Goyer & executive producer Christopher Nolan. I liked some of the visuals, that I was initially concerned about in viewing the trailer.
“Man Of Steel” borrows heavily from other properties, which is both good and bad in trying to re-establish the Superman mythology. Like Richard Donner’s “Superman” “Man Of Steel” opens up on Krypton, this time around Jor-El (Russell Crowe) is talking to the rulers of Krypton who are all dressed like Padme’ from “The Phantom Menace”. Krypton’s core is compromised threatening everyone on the planet, that falls on deaf ears of the council.
The meeting is interrupted by General Zod (Michael Shannon) attempting a coup, wiping out the council. Jor-El & Zod both want Krypton to survive, but with different points of view for its survival.
The Coup is thwarted Zod is sentenced along with his cohorts not to be jammed in a cramped diamond shaped mirror, but in a customized sarcophagus designed by HR Geiger or something out of “Alien”.
before he is put into said sacrophegus, he is enveloped in some sort of goo, that is from “The Matrix” after Neo Takes the blue pill, or the goo could be from “The X Files” your choice. As we all know the planet is wiped out there are a handful of survivors, Kal-El flying in his own ship, that has a decent design, & Zod & his cohorts.
The world of Krypton is amazing, there are different creatures, including something that Jor-El flies on that is something out of “Avatar” I don’t mean that as a negative, Jor-El is trying to retrieve the Kodex, which is the DNA of all of Krypton’s residence.
Along with the planet eroding from within, there is a war that is honestly pretty cool for the few seconds that we see of it.
I liked the fact that after the first act we meet Clark Kent working on a fishing boat, rocking a beard, and trying to stay anomynous, it was good fun, the first ‘feats of strength’ piece involved an oil refinery fire. Clark provides the rescue before being blasted into the ocean with the first of many overtly Christ like poses.
While Clark is knocked out, we are taken back to Smallville, and Clark is now in grade school, he is having what I can best describe is a sensory depravation attack, he begins to see people with his X Ray vision, his heat vision is starting up as well. The only person who can calm Clark down is his mother Martha (Diane Lane) Clark has questions as to who he is his Father Jonathan (Kevin Costner) is reluctant to answer but eventually does.
One thing, that could’ve been omitted from the story was the death of Jonathan Kent, it was taken directly from “Spiderman” with the Ben Parker, story line, but without the “With great power comes great responsibility” line.
After the explosion Clark is running around in ripped pants looking like a combination of the Hulk & the Wolverine,
I didn’t mind this I actually liked it, the soundtrack lit up with the Chris Cornell single “Seasons” and it is a solid scene before his next job as a bartender, where he encounters a drunken truck driver, who will have a heck of a time explaining to his insurance company & employers what happened to his rig.
Lois Lane (Amy Adams) is dispatched to the Artic Circle, using an injunction so that she can see what the Canadian & US Government have found buried beneath the ice. Also there is Clark who somehow someway sneaks onto the base and heads towards whats buried in the ice.
This sets off a chain of events for the rest of the movie, Lois suffers a cut, that needs to be cauterized, Clark obliges, she proceeds to write the story that her boss Morpheus his self (Laurence Fishburne) Perry White refuses to publish, she leaks the story to a gossip website. The Lois Lane character in this movie is infinetly better than Kate Bosworth from Brian Singer’s flawed yet sometimes decent “Superman Returns’ with the flaw being Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane, I like Kate Bosworth, from “Blue Crush” she is fantastic in that film, however she was wrong, for Lois Lane.
With the incident in Anartica, Clark finds out about where he came from, what he can do, up to this point we haven’t seen Superman fly, he makes a grand entrance, flying doesn’t come natural to him yet, he is William Katt in “The Greatest American Hero” once again I don’t mind this, Clark’s escapade into learning to fly is quickly corrected.
From this point on in the movie, everyone had to go with the story, I really liked the time, that showed Clark hopping from job to job trying to find out who he is, if the movie had been that I would’ve been ok with it.
Once Zod arrives on earth looking for Kal-El, the movie doesn’t initially fall apart, Zod is viewed by everyone as a threat, which he is & the bottom goatee he grew over the years is really a poor choice, especially with that combo of his hair.
The entire second act is Zod & his crew arrive on earth to retrieve Kal-El, Clark obliges somewhat, turning himself in to the US Government. The gear used by Zod once again is from “Prometheus”
what I liked what the producers did with Krypton, is show that they are a flawed people, who aren’t immortal, they make choices without thinking things thru.
Zod isn’t looking for Kal-El he is looking for the Kodex, that he intends to use to get Krypton restarted, the earth is a near match for Krypton, & since they are already here, they will go ahead and try to take over, the earth.
Overall “Man Of Steel” at times delivers, and it is great and fantastic, whether it will hold up or not remains, to be seen. Snyder’s visuals were solid, there is 3/4’s of a decent movie, and I think Snyder did the best job he possibly could.
According to IMDB a sequel is already underway, what I liked about “Man of Steel” is that Kryptonite is never introduced, Lex Luthor doesn’t want to do a land swap, in the Superman canon, this movie stands on it’s own, that is up until the third act, I really wish that alternatives, could’ve been discussed, the movie was supposed to be released for Summer 2012, it was delayed, if they had pushed it back another year to iron out the third act, I would’ve been all right with that.
Rating 2& **1/2 Stars out of 4.
Take52 