The Man Of
Steel. Superman. Kal-El. The Last Son of Krypton. The Big Blue Boy Scout. Sent
as a baby by his parents to seek refuge from his dying home world, young Kal-El
is raised by humans Martha and Jonathan Kent as their own son, Clark. Gifted
great power by Earth's yellow sun, the young Kryptonian becomes Superman, a
hero and an incorruptible symbol; fighting for truth, justice, and the American
way. You know this already. This is well-trodden ground. Any film trying
to re-tell Superman's origin story desperately needs to add something new to
surmount the overwhelming sense of familiarity. Man Of Steel fails
miserably.
Man of
Steel copies Batman Begins' structure of front-loading its opening
hour with prologue mixed with flashbacks, but whilst in Batman Begins
Bruce Wayne's flashbacks were prompted by his conversations with Ducard, and
used Bruce's relationship with his father to explore Bruce Wayne's own psyche,
in Man Of Steel Clark Kent just wanders around by himself, remembering
his childhood. He doesn't actually have a conversation with anyone until 25
minutes after his first appearance. This bizarre decision robs the flashbacks
of any context, because the adult Clark has no-one to discuss his memories
with.
Therefore
we learn about the young man and his father, but nothing about the man he has
grown up to be. It's a fatal problem, as we're left with a blank page where our
lead character should be.
Furthermore,
whilst Kevin Costner is perfectly cast as Jonathan Kent, Clark's adoptive
father, there's way too much of him. The very fact that he's played by Kevin
Costner tells us everything we need to know about this character, and his
character is given no space to develop beyond this despite his significant
screen time.
This first
hour kills the film. It's overlong and almost entirely redundant, and the rest
of the film, when the plot actually starts, feels rushed by comparison. Scenes
lurch drunkenly from one to another without impact or suspense, and it feels
like whole chunks have been cut out of the film to make it fit an already hefty
243 minute running time. Key plot points are introduced and then discarded
(much is made early on of the potential impact the discovery of alien life
could have on society, but once Superman is revealed to the world the reaction
of society is never once shown or discussed), and some of the plot holes boggle
the mind.
With so
much time devoted to the prologue there's no time to get to know any of the
characters we are then expected to care about once the actual plot kicks in.
This problem is compounded by several poor casting choices. Russell Crowe
delivers an enjoyably tough, if ultimately unconvincing take on Jor-El, but Amy
Adams singularly fails to muster the required bolshiness to convince as Lois
Lane and Laurence Fishburne is a painfully timid and bland Perry White. These
are all fine actors, but they each get so little to do except run and shout
that their performances have to be judged against the original comic book
characters. On that basis, they fail.
Michael
Shannon, as the villainous General Zod, fares little better. Shannon normally
has a commanding presence, but the the film's attempts to give him credible motivations
founder under director Zack Snyder's weirdly selective ADD disorder. An early
opportunity to explore Kryptonian society and give his motivation a proper
underpinning is abandoned in favour of an extended chase ripped straight off of
Avatar. Zod's actions therefore make little sense and he ends up seeming
even more ludicrous than Terrence's Stamp's portrayal (and not in a good way).
The one
thing that isn't rushed are the action sequences. With the exception of one
stand out, four-way Kryptonian smackdown that consciously echoes Superman II,
all succumb to the Transformers CG overkill syndrome. Most blockbusters now end
with 25 minute CGI cartoons and Man Of Steel is no exception. There are
so many explosions and buildings blowing up that I estimate the civilian death
toll must have been in the tens, if not hundreds, of thousands (this, of
course, is not commented on) and yet it's devoid of tension because the main
character's invincible and the other characters are all just cyphers. Superman
gets thrown through something and then someone else gets thrown through
something and something blows up...
At the
time of writing I finished watching it 111 minutes ago, and I already can't
remember what happened. It's that boring.
Rating:
1/5
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