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| "Like Jesus, the "man of steel" surrenders himself to authorities at age 33. Photo: Warner Bros. |
“It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s Superman!” is never uttered
in the new Superman reboot called “Man of Steel.” And that’s not all that
different this time around. Zack Snyder
took great pains to create a different movie than what we have been to used to
seeing after the 2006 “Superman Returns” snooze-fest. Taking a cue from the
Dark Knight series and getting a little help from Christopher Nolan himself,
Snyder created not necessarily a darker story, but a much more serious one.
Many changes abound as well. Lois Lane is redhead, Perry
White is black and Jimmy Olsen is a girl. In fact, the Daily Planet and the
city of Metropolis take a back seat in the storyline. Lois Lane figures out who
Clark Kent really is right off the bat. There is no Lex Luther. The man of
steel is only referred to as Superman once, he no longer wears red shorts and there
is not a single phone booth. But the
biggest change of all is that this piece is just so serious. Somewhere down the
line, someone forgot to tell Snyder that comic book movies are supposed to be
fun. Gone are the simpler storylines of catching a bank robber. Superman is
such a Debbie Downer, that there is no way that the Avengers are ever going to
invite him over for poker any time soon. At one point, Lois points to Clark’s
chest and asks,
“What’s the S stand for?”
“It’s not an S. On my world it means hope.”
“Well, here, it’s an S.”
That pretty much sums up the humor. “Man of Steel” is more
like eating vegetables. It’s good, but you’d rather be eating something a
little sweeter.
“Man of Steel” is also full of lots and lots of exposition.
The first half hour of the film takes place before Clark Kent, then known as
Kal-El, is even born. We learn more than we’d ever want to know about the former
Krypton narrated by Kal-El’s father, Jor-El (Russell Crowe). Jor-El has words with General Zod (Michael Shannon) about
the state of the planet and banishes him into space. It’s too late though. The
planet blows up anyway and Ironically, Zod and his pals survive.
Later, Jor-El appears to Clark (in a hologram or something)
to explain his son’s destiny with another long story and a new wardrobe. Then
later when Zod finds Clark, he too has a long story to tell. Enough already.
For an action flick, it takes a long time to get to the action and when we do,
it’s mostly of blurs and explosions.
Fortunately, themovie does get Superman right. Henry Cavill
does a fine job of portraying the world’s new savior. Like Jesus, he surrenders
himself to the authorities at age 33 destined to live out the life his father
has planned for him. Raised as a human, Clark learns how to control his anger
and becomes a beacon for goodness often sacrificing himself for the better of
others. His earthly parents, Martha and Jonathan Kent (Diane Lane and Kevin
Costner) hide the superbaby’s spaceship from Clark and raise him as their own.
As he ages, he struggles with super hearing and x-ray vision. Unlike many young
boys fantasy of being able to see through women’s clothing, Clark can see
through people’s bones, which is a lot more frightening.
It can be debated if Amy Adams was miscast in the role of
Lois Lane or if the writing is to blame. Adams can usually do anything. In the
past, she has been seen as a princess, a cook, a boxer’s wife and a nun. She
has co-starred with Muppets for crying out loud, but she is no Lois Lane. There
are virtually no spark between her and the superbeing, and yet, we’re supposed to
believe that there is.
Overall, “Man of Steel” is overly long presenting a story that
looks good, but no one asked for. There is a glimmer of hope though as the
ending shows promise of what a sequel could be and what this film should have
been. (Originally posted on Examiner.com)
