Random Access

Wednesday – 26 June 2013 Thursday – 27 June 2013 Friday – 28 June 2013
I finally saw Man of Steel Monday night.

Many of my friends who saw the movie – and know that I am a Superman fan – were kind enough to not spoil the movie for me. They also asked that I give them my opinion of the new film when I saw it.

Here it is.

In the same way that I did for Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen Suckage, This is going to be a two-part review:

1. The first part will be more of a synopsis and spoiler-free.
2. The second part will be more in-depth.

Consider yourselves duly warned.

Part One: Synopsis
I liked this movie.

That said, it is not your father’s (or your grandfather’s) Superman. It’s a modern retelling of the tale. One that’s not campy or that contains a ludicrous land-grab plot by the villain. The movie presents a man on a quest to determine who he wants to be. And, oh yeah, he’s really strong, too. And he gets to punch things. That’s something you don’t often get to see in a Superman movie/show, unless it’s animated and he’s fighting robots.

The movie is also far more serious and… heavy… in tone than the 70’s and 80’s movies. The premise being: How would people react if a being like this existed in the real world. (Or, at least the silver screen’s interpretation of “the real world.”)

(Possibly 8.5, but I don’t have a half-shield icon…)

Part Two: In-Depth Observations
You’re still here.

That obviously means that you want to know what I thought about different aspects of the movie.

Bully for you.

As I mentioned above, I’m a Superman fan. I have been since I was a kid. Yes, other heroes/teams may have supplanted the Last Son of Krypton as my “favorite,” but I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for him in just about every incarnation that’s come along:

• The Fleisher cartoons of the ’40s
• George Reeves’ Superman in the ’50s
• The New Adventures of Superman/The Batman-Superman Hour in the ’60s
• Christopher Reeve’s Superman of the ’70s and ’80s (There were ONLY Superman and Superman II.)¹
• The Ruby-Spears Superman of the ’80s
• Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman in the ’90s
• Superman: The Animated Series and Justice League/Justice League Unlimited in the 2000s
• Smallville (also 2000s)
• And I should also include the Legion of Super-Heroes animated series of the late 2000s, as well.

And we won’t even go into how long I’ve been collecting Superman comics. Let’s just say “a long time” and leave it at that.

I’ve been looking forward to this movie since it was announced. When Zach Snyder was identified as the director, I was a little leery, but I was willing to give him a bit of latitude since I enjoyed 300, Watchmen and Sucker Punch. I wasn’t sure how his style would work with DC’s flagship hero, but I was curious to see how things would play out.

I wasn’t disappointed.

Zach Snyder brought a new Superman to the screen. He did something that I liked: He showed a Clark who learned at a relatively young age of his heritage and then spent the twenty years trying to figure out what to make of this knowledge. In most previous incarnations of the character, the gap between “Hey, son, you’re really from space” and “Hey, I’m Jor-El, your space-dad” has been pretty brief. In this movie, you watched as Clark tried to find his place in the world. And, even more important, what it cost him to make certain choices as he made his journey.

As to the (major) performers:

• Henry Cavill: I found him to be a solid choice for Clark Kent/Kal-El/Superman. He conveyed the sense of a man doing the best he could to help people while trying to figure out who he was and who he wanted to be. He also had an air of a man who wanted to help, but wanted to stay out of the spotlight. Viewers also got a little insight into what it cost him every time he saved someone — having to drift from place to place, being leery of using his powers openly, out of concern/fear of how people might react.
• Amy Adams: I’ll preface this by saying that I’m a fan of hers and was quite happy to hear that she was cast as Lois Lane. David Goyer gave me the Lois I wanted to see: A capable, unafraid to get her hands dirty reporter. She was dogged in her pursuit of the mystery man who acted as guardian angel to so many in many different places. I appreciated that she wasn’t just in the movie to be rescued from falling helicopter (which is actually one of my favorite scenes from the 1978 movie) or caught in an earthquake; she was in the thick of the action. And held her own, in a couple of cases.Even Margot Kidder, Lois Lane from the ’70s and ’80s movies, even liked Ms. Adams’ performance:
  

  “I thought [Man of Steel] was wonderful and I thought that young Amy Adams was just terrific. I wanted a lot more of her, I wish they had more scenes for her.”

• Michael Shannon: I know that many people are familiar with him from Boardwalk Empire; I do not count myself among them, so I didn’t know what to expect. I quite enjoyed his performance as General Zod. I like that they gave him more motivation than “Son of our jailor, we will hunt and kill you.” Zod was, in my opinion, fully realized as the leader of Krypton’s military. He was the epitome of the quote “The villain is the hero in his own story.” Everything that he did was due to his breeding, caste and training:
  

  No matter how violent, every action I take is for the greater good of my people.

  I found him to be a worthy adversary for this Superman, possibly even more so than Terence Stamp‘s Zod. Possibly. I’ll have to rewatch Superman II to make a fair call on this one.

• Russell Crowe: I wasn’t sure how I felt about him being cast as Jor-El; he can be kind of hit-or-miss for me. I think that this role was “hit.” And, as much as I love the ’78 movie and Marlon Brando, his Jor-El just seemed… too old… to have an infant son. Crowe seemed more believable in the role of father to a newborn. He also conveyed the sense of a scientist who realized that his world was doomed and wanted nothing more than his son to have a chance at life… even at the cost of his own. I even liked his take on the Jor-El simulacrum in the Kryptonian scout ship.
• Kevin Costner: This was another hit-or-miss casting choice for me. I was hopeful when I heard his voiceover in the early trailers for the movie. I also noted that a lot of my friends were leery of a later trailer when he told a young Clark that maybe he should have let the students in a bus crash die. I didn’t take that as a failure of morality on Jonathan’s part. I saw it as a father trying to protect his son from public scrutiny and possible government intervention. I think that Clark summed it up, rather nicely in this quote:
  

  My father believed that if the world found out who I really was, they’d reject me… out of fear. He was convinced that the world wasn’t ready. What do you think?

  In thinking about it later, I also think that part of it may have been him thinking of it in terms of “Perhaps it was their time” or  “We don’t know if that was part of God’s plan.” And, the scene where Jonathan died? It was just a different spin on the same situation in my eyes, only this time it was Jonathan showing that he was willing to sacrifice himself to protect his son’s privacy and life.

• Diane Lane: I don’t feel that the audience (or, at least, I)  really get to see enough of her Martha Kent. That notwithstanding, I think that she had a fantastic scene – hinted at in the trailers – when she was trying to calm Clark down after his powers got the best of him in school. You could believe that she was a mother who loved her son.
• Laurence Fishburne: Good casting, as if that really needed to be said; I just wish that he had more screen time.

I am aware that many people didn’t like the fact that Clark spent most of the movie figuring out who/what he was going to be. I think that many people expect a Superman who always knows what to do and act accordingly.

This wasn’t that man.

And I think that this is one of the things that stuck in peoples’ collective craws.

I, on the other hand, was alright with seeing a conflicted man. Even a conflicted Superman. Why? Because it allowed for growth and maturity, even in the compressed timeframe of the movie. Clark had to choose not only to accept his Kryptonian heritage, but also to live up to the potential that his both of his fathers saw in him. Did I think that he completed that journey in this movie? Possibly not, but I think that by the end of the movie he was a lot farther down the road than most people give him credit for.

Now let’s get to the elephants in the room: I know that many people were surprised and even disappointed that this movie gave us:

1. …not only a Superman who killed, but also
2. …a Superman who left A LOT of collateral damage in the wake of his fights with Zod and his lieutenants and the seeming nonchalance of the loss of life.

To the first point: It’s not the first time that Superman has killed.

Mull that one over. I’ll give you a few moments to ponder it.

Still here? Good. Okay. As I said: This wasn’t the first time that we’ve seen Superman kill someone. There are three incidents that came pretty quickly to mind when I thought about it:

1. At the end of Superman II, Superman dispatches General Zod and Non in the Fortress of Solitude, after depowering them; Lois is the one who takes care of Ursa.

   NOTE: Apparently, in the Richard Donner cut of the movie, the villains weren’t killed, but were taken into custody by the Arctic Patrol. I will have to watch this to determine the veracity of this.

2. In the Post-Crisis on Infinite Earths DC Universe, Superman killed a parallel universe’s version of General Zod, Zaora, and Quex-Ul.
   
   
   These three Kryptonians destroyed the Earth that they were on, killing all humans in the process. When they learned of Superman’s home dimension, they vowed not only to find it, but to conquer/destroy it as well. Doing the math, Superman realized that they were serious in their threat and decided that he would act as judge, jury and executioner.This wasn’t without any cost, however. Upon returning to his home dimension/Earth, Superman started having what was effectively a mental breakdown. It even went so far as him creating third persona… one that neither Clark nor Superman was aware of. (He got better, though.)
3. Doomsday, the beast that slew Superman was also killed – for a while – by the Man of Steel.
   
   

Since I knew that I wouldn’t be able to see the movie opening weekend, I tried to avoid as many spoilers about it as possible. Despite this, I couldn’t help but hear things about “the controversial ending.” I remembered that Zach Snyder had said that there was no Kryptonite in the movie. With that in mind, I more or less guessed what would/might happen.

So, fast forward to me in the theatre, watching the movie’s climactic battle… and there it was: Kal-El vs. General Zod, with Zod making his final declaration that the battle would only end with one of them dead. A few times during the fight, Superman tried to sway Zod’s thinking and convince him that he could live with/among the humans. But, Zod was having none of it. He went on to threaten the family in the train station and effectively say that there was nothing that Superman could do to keep him from slaying them.

As Zod bore down on the family, Kal-El killed him.

It was his last resort.

You could see in the look of anguish, tinged with rage, on Superman’s face that it was far from the option that he would have chosen. You could see that it cost him a little piece of himself to do it: With Zod’s death, Kal-El lost his last living contact with his people… and would have to live with the fact that Zod died by his hand.

As for the second item, the destruction of property: Give. The. Man. A. Break.

He’d been “Superman” for all of, what… two minutes²… before Zod and company started smacking him around? And let’s face it, it was the first time – EVER – that he’d fought anyone in his proverbial weight class. I’m not sure that he was prepared for the level of ruthlessness that he faced in Smallville. Also, he was kind of busy getting beaten down not just by Kryptonians  – bred and trained to be soldiers – but the U.S. military, as well, so he might have been slightly distracted.

I might allow for the argument about the destruction in…? of…? Metropolis, however. You would think that knowing that he was fighting someone who was just as powerful as he was, he might have led Zod off to a more remote location for their showdown. And, yes, there possibly should have been some points deducted for kissing Lois in the middle of the downtown Metropolis wasteland, too.

While some might say that it was a case of “too little, too late” when we see Superman trying to save the family in the Metropolis train station from Zod’s heat vision, we did see him try and save people earlier in the movie. Most notably on the oil rig and on the school bus.

So, in the final analysis, I will say that the movie wasn’t without flaws, but it was an enjoyable bit of cinema.

And there you have it.

Namaste.

¹ – Anyone who says that there was a III and/or IV is lying to you. They. Never. Happened. Period. Full stop.

² – Okay, longer than two minutes, but you get my point.