Man of Steel

Many would argue that Man of Steel was a shocking disappointment of epic proportion. And they would be right. The first time I saw Man of Steel was on the big screen, and I remember turning to my friend immediately after and expressing profanities about the film that I shan’t repeat – they weren’t pleasant to say the least. Now we could start pointing fingers and naming names, but ultimately it’s not the fault of any one person. Many people blamed Snyder for the faults in the film, naming him as ‘Hollywood’s worst auteur’. I agree that Snyder is part of the problem, but it also goes further back than just the director. Part of the problem should be attributed to the guys that wrote the screenplay; namely David S. Goyer and Christopher Nolan. I’m not usually one to criticise either Nolan or Goyer, no one is after The Dark Knight. But they made a mistake on this one. The problem is they tried a different take on Superman, and attempted to make a darker, much more brooding man of steel, but let’s face it, it’s Superman, he’s more of a straight-cut good guy than anyone else out there. He is quite literally the incarnation of good when it comes to protecting earth and its people. I understand that they were just trying to make the film different and unique from what had already been done. But people don’t want different, they want Superman. You know what they say; ‘If it ain’t broke don’t fix it’.

For an origins story there feels to be a lack of the ‘origins’ that we were promised. Apart from the – actually quite beautiful – sequence that the film starts with on Krypton, where we get to see Russell Crowe kick some Kryptonian arse; and a couple of flashbacks to Clark’s childhood, where he realises he’s far from Earths definition of ‘normal’, we don’t get a lot. All we end up with is a combustible planet, and a handful of childhood capers. In theory this obviously seemed enough, but in practice it feels rushed and weak. It’s almost as if they got halfway through shooting all the important origins points of the film, and then Snyder got bored and decided to shoot a fight scene instead. This leads on to the other thing that helps to ruin what could have been an extremely good film, the fight scenes. Every single fight sequence is far too long and far too destructive – not a sentence I ever thought I’d say, I’ll be honest. It just becomes boring and ridiculously repetitive extremely quickly; Superman gets thrown through a building by bad guy, he then punches said bad guy through 2 buildings and so on and so forth, like an overly destructive Chuckle brothers sketch, with Superman and Zod ‘to me, to you-ing’ each other through Vancouver, until all that’s left is dust and rubble. The only reason we’re still hanging around is to see if Clark gets the girl. After all this we finally get to where the film gains some depth, and Clark has to make the ultimate decision – although, let’s be honest, we all saw it coming.

I would love to conclude this here and say that this is all I have to say on Man of Steel, but I can’t. I started off by mentioning that this was my reaction the first time I saw Man of Steel, but since then I’ve watched the film many more times, and I have to admit – grudgingly I might add – that every time I’ve watched it I’ve loved it a little bit more. I’ve come to the decision that the film is beautiful in its own right. While Snyder may not be renowned for his ability to weave complex storylines, or amaze with unbelievable plot twists, there is one thing he can do better than most; make films that are simply visually beautiful to watch. Snyder’s skill as an auteur when it comes to the use of CGI, and the standard of cinematography is rivalled by none. He had already proved this in 300 and Watchmen beforehand – both very different films, yet both equally visually stunning – but he really stepped it up in Man of Steel. Each shot is beautifully framed and composed, from the sequence that depicts Krypton’s demise, to those shots on the icy plains where Clark discovers his heritage and dons the cape for the first time. Even the demolished city at the end is magnificent – and I’ve never seen anyone use so many sun flares so effectively. However it isn’t just the visual aspect of the film that they got right, the casting was also as near to perfect as you were ever going to get. It isn’t just the dizzying array of big Hollywood names that make the cast as impressive as it is though (although it does help having both Russell Crowe and Kevin Costner as Superman’s Kryptonian and Human fathers – respectively – along with Laurence Fishburne as the editor-in-chief of the infamous Daily Planet). The best casting choices by far though were those of Superman and his main nemesis in the film, General Zod. Superman was played by the relatively unheard of Henry Cavill, who, with his sculpted cheekbones and chiselled jaw line, along with his impressive physique is every bit the Superman that we know and love. It’s not just his impressive appearance that’s reminiscent of Superman as the comic book character that he started off as. Cavill manages to show sides of Superman that audiences had never even thought of before. He managed to show sides of Superman that gave the character a bit more depth in comparison to earlier representations of The Man of Steel. It isn’t just the passion to protect the human race that’s important about Superman. It’s also about: his love for his parents (the Kryptonian and human ones, although he only really has a relationship with the human ones); his hardships trying to fit-in to a world where doesn’t seem to belong; and – possibly – most importantly, the responsibility he feels he carries for the future of his race. Cavill portrayed these perfectly, and it’s for this reason that he will undoubtedly play Superman in any sequel or amalgamation that may follow (here’s looking at you Justice League). On the flip-side of the good vs evil spectrum we have Zod, masterfully played by Michael Shannon. Shannon gives us everything we expect from Zod. He portrays Zod as being the epitome of evil – although arguably so if you look into his reasons for his actions. With his menacing looks, and a glare that almost rivals that of Woody Harrelsons’, Shannon more than qualified for the role of Zod in terms of physical appearance. But with Zod it’s more than just looking evil and menacing. His sense of purpose and false righteousness when it comes to protecting Krypton is one of the more important aspects of Zod. And Shannon gets it just right, going all scarily Super-Kryptonian on Superman and a lot of innocent buildings. Shannon also shows Zod’s calmer and more passively aggressive side (which has a tendency to be far scarier than his outwardly-aggressive-completely-maniacal destructive side) mostly in conversations with Kal, in which we don’t see his true, often horrific, meaning until the very last minute.

There’s no point watching Man of Steel with high expectations waiting for it to be on par – or even close – to any of The Dark Knight trilogy, that was never going to happen. But it shouldn’t just be discredited immediately because of its overly long fight scenes, and poor attempt at an origins story. Each shot is visually beautiful and unique, and there are some great performances from some amazing actors. Why don’t we give Snyder a break for once?