Jerry Siegel initially conceived Superman as a Nietzschean Übermensch
with telepathic powers bent on world domination. He was a ruthless,
terribly bald villain whose first appearance came in the short story
“The Reign of the Superman” in Jan. 1933. Later, with the help of artist
Joe Shuster, Superman was reimagined as a dashing hero with superhuman
strength and abilities. His looks were modeled after Douglas Fairbanks,
the actor best known for playing Robin Hood and Zorro during the silent
era. In June 1938, Superman—as we know him—debuted in Action Comics #1.
The
children of Jewish immigrants, Siegel and Shuster are believed to have
fashioned their tale as a cultural assimilation saga modeled after the
plight of the American Jew (which may help explain Jerry Seinfeld’s
extreme fandom). Man of Steel, the latest cinematic take on Superman helmed by Zack Snyder, portrays the “Last Son of Krypton” as Christ.
Man of Steel opens on the planet of Krypton—an alien realm that resembles a cross between Avatar’s Pandora and Star Wars’
Cloud City. Lara Lor-Van, played by the Israeli actress Ayelet Zurer,
is in labor. Bathed in celestial light, and with her husband, Jor-El
(Russell Crowe), looking on, she gives birth to their son, Kal-El. Since
Krypton is dying, Jor-El plots to send his newborn to a far-off planet,
and settles on earth. “You will give the people an ideal to strive
towards,” he says. Meanwhile, General Zod (Michael Shannon), the
planet’s military chief, is organizing a coup. After alerting his wife
via pin art intercom, flying a dragon, and recovering the “Codex” that
contains all of Krypton’s knowledge, including gene coding that would
ensure the Kryptonian race’s survival, Jor-El manages to ship off his
son, while Zod and his co-conspirators are captured and banished to a
“phantom zone” black hole—all before Krypton explodes. This 19-minute
sequence is far and away the most impressive part of the film, thanks to
Crowe’s poignant turn as the noble, loving father. It’s a rare slice of
humanity in a film that will soon devolve into a loop of bodies
crashing through buildings.
The
plot then jumps ahead to the present. Kal-El (Henry Cavill) is now a
33-year-old man (see: Christ) by the name of Clark Kent working on a
commercial fishing vessel, still unaware of his true identity. When an
oil rig bursts into flames, Clark saves the day, propping up the
crumbling structure and allowing the trapped workers to fly to safety.
It’s here where we’re not only introduced to Cavill’s jacked bod—let’s
just say he looks the part—but also the influence of screenwriter David
S. Goyer and executive producer Christopher Nolan (who shares story
credit). These early scenes of Clark exploring the wilderness—and
occasionally flashing back to his childhood traumas—recalls Goyer and
Nolan’s previous DC superhero project, Batman Begins.
“ In Man of Steel, there’s no clue as to why this brooding, relatively humorless alien wants to save these people, aside from the fact that his daddy told him to.
”
Clark and Lois Lane (Amy Adams), a no-nonsense, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for The Daily Planet,
are drawn to a NORAD outpost in the arctic overseen by Col. Hardy
(Christopher Meloni) and Dr. Emil Hamilton (Richard Schiff). There,
Clark discovers a Krypton ship trapped in ice—a stand-in for the
Fortress of Solitude—where he communicates with a hologram of Jor-El,
who fills him in on his people’s history, and his mission. And with
that, about an hour into the film, Kal-El transforms into Superman,
sporting an updated suit and cape.
After
Zod and his acolytes are unfrozen and return to earth to kill Superman
and retrieve the Codex—which will allow them to rebuild Krypton “over
the skulls” of the human race—the film devolves into an endless string
of people being hurled through buildings. While the CGI is impressive,
there is nothing illuminating about these scenes as far as plot
exposition or character development goes—it’s just chaos. And, while
Michael Shannon is an enormously talented actor, his Zod is decidedly
one-note. He just yells. Constantly. He’s closer to Ares, the Greek God
of War—right down to his ridiculous bowl cut—than the deliciously
eurotrashy version played by Terrence Stamp in Superman II.
And while Man of Steel combines
the origin story from Richard Donner’s iconic 1978 film version with
the Zod storyline in that film’s sequel, it sacrifices many of those
films’ most important elements in the process. Superman doesn’t moonlight as a journalist at The Daily Planet,
and Lois Lane uncovers his otherworldly origins early on, so there’s no
intrigue concerning his secret identity, which added to the duality of
his character. Also, since there’s not much flirtation between Lois and
Clark before she finds him out, their relationship is nonexistent; you
have no idea why these two are drawn to each other. In the original
films, Clark was a bumbling journalist who overcompensated for his
inherent lack of human DNA by acting like a lovable klutz, while Lois
was a cagey journo who viewed him as a total goof, and the opposites
attracted. Here, Superman isn’t human at all. Not only is the
relationship with Lois M.I.A., but he also has precious few friendly
interactions—or dialogue, period—with the people he’s sacrificing
himself for. The comic book Superman—and Christopher Reeves’ famous
portrayal—saw him saving folks with a wink and a smile. A part of
Superman always got off on being the hero, the protector, the “god” to
these people. In Man of Steel, there’s no clue as to why this
brooding, relatively humorless alien wants to save these people, aside
from the fact that his daddy told him to.
It’s also become readily apparent that Snyder, known for the CGI fantasies 300, Watchmen, and Sucker Punch, has become a bit blinded by the wonders of CGI. Man of Steel’s final
third is almost exclusively high-octane action sequences of buildings
being destroyed—usually by having someone hurled through it (I can’t
stress this enough, it’s constant). And we’ve seen this footage
countless times before, in the Transformers films and most recently, The Avengers.
Even
the flashback scenes to Clark's early days growing up in rural Kansas
raised by Jonathan (a touching Kevin Costner) and Martha (Diane Lane),
are punctuated by loud, destructive events—a school bus crash, an
outrageous tornado scene, etc. At 143 minutes, and with a $225 million
price tag, Man of Steel feels overlong and overdone. Hopefully, they’ll pull back a bit in the already-announced sequel and focus a little bit more on why the heck this world’s worth saving.
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