Modern Movie Monday: Man of Steel (2013)

Modern Movie Monday: Man of Steel (2013)


Plot Summary

As the planet of Krypton crumbles, General Zod (Michael Shannon) stages a coup as concerned leader Jor-El (Russell Crowe) and his wife send their infant son Kal-El (Henry Cavill) to a distant world called Earth. While the young child travels through space with an object containing the DNA of his home planet, General Zod and his cohorts are sentenced to an eternity in a black-hole prison. Named Clark and raised by kindly farmers Jonathan (Kevin Costner) and Martha Kent (Diane Lane), young Kal-El lives in fear of what might happen should his neighbors learn about his extraterrestrial origins, eventually exploring the world in search of himself. In time, Clark's travels take him to a frozen tundra, where the American government has discovered an 18,000-year-old anomaly buried deep in the ice. Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane (Amy Adams) has just come to investigate when, after venturing out with her camera, she has a profound encounter with Clark. Convinced that his presence on Earth is proof of life on other planets, Lois finds her attempt to publish the story thwarted by her boss Perry White (Laurence Fishburne), who rejects it outright. Later, the airwaves are hijacked by General Zod, who threatens to obliterate the human race if they fail to hand over Kal-El within 24 hours. Forced to embrace his otherworldly origins for the first time in his life, Clark Kent dons the special suit from Krypton and prepares to take a stand against an enemy far more powerful than any he's ever known.

Since just about everyone has seen this movie there's no need to go into too much in story detail. Let's get to the nitty gritty. If you're looking for a great action movie that has tons of SFX and destruction than this is easily a **** star movie but herein lies the problem. This isn't just some "action movie", this is a Superman movie. The biggest failing of this film can be summed up in one word:

Tone

This movie halfheartedly tries to work within the framework of what Superman is all about. The first half of the movie does a reasonable job of exploring Clark's journey of self awareness and what his role in the world could be but then once he puts on the suit the movie almost completely chucks it out the window in favor of explosions and crazy destruction. This is all viewed from the prism of ultra-realism which immediately sucks out the bright, hopeful, appealing to the better sense of Man that Superman embodies.

The story men for this movie (Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer) wrote this in the realistic way of how would humanity react to an otherworldly being who lives among us and then they go and throw in alien invasion tropes on top of it when Zod and his crew come to Earth demanding Kal-El give himself up to his custody. This is all well and good if it didn't take itself so bloody seriously and have such a dark atmosphere. There's literally only two instances in this entire film where there's tongue in cheek dialogue/feel and in the 2nd instance it's just totally ludicrous and stupid. (The "I think he's kinda hot" scene) Hell, even Superman in costume comes off badly. They try to show he's good and well meaning by having him ask people "are you ok?" after saving them in the midst of hell literally breaking loose. Henry Cavill delivers the line so limply that it comes off as almost insulting and/or patronizing. That's not to say Cavill did a bad job in the role because he was actually pretty good. I really enjoyed seeing him interact with his mother and father. Hell, the scene where he activates Jor-El's consciousness avatar and meets him for the first time is done with an understated style that suits the character.

The other problem is this, for all the "realism" this movie aspires to it contains a completely one note villain. First, let me at least give Michael Shannon his due, he really nailed it with his portrayal of Zod. He definitely makes Zod a menacing and driven figure who will do what it takes to bring Krypton back to life and when he's defeated by Superman and the military he goes insane with rage to the point that Superman has to violently end Zod's life or else he'll kill a family with his heat vision.  The problem is that there's a missed opportunity here. Zod could've been easily made to look somewhat sympathetic yet they chose to go with the MUAHAHAHAHA evil tact. We could've had scenes of Zod trying to appeal to Superman's curiosity about his home world and people which would give Supes a moral quandary. He could help to bring Krypton back to life but would he do so if it meant destroying Earth? It's brought up in the film but through the lens of an ultimatum rather than a "we could bring Krypton back but we must destroy the Earth" whereupon Supes would try to get Zod to look for a way for them to co-exist with humanity. This would set up the tension/conflict in a believable way rather than Zod just screaming for the Codex and being hell bent without trying a more peaceful solution.

There's more that I don't like such as Lois Lane knowing without a shadow of a doubt who Superman is. That completely destroys the fun cat and mouse game of "I think I know you're Superman" "Oh no you're wrong Lois" kind of interplay that could've been fun to watch between Cavill and Adams at least for one movie before she finds out definitively. Instead, the neat love triangle human comedy of Lois loves Superman but thinks Clark is a dweeb doesn't even get a chance to manifest itself. It's one of the great aspects of Superman on screen especially in the old Christopher Reeves films with Margot Kidder. 

Let me end on a positive note though, the first half of this movie is very strong as we get flashbacks of Clark's life interspersed into the film. These flashbacks often relate to what's going on or the themes that the movie WANTED to convey such as Clark needing to hide his powers because of how humanity would react to him vs his wanting to do good for people. This tension between wanting to help and hiding his powers is beautifully illustrated in the scene where Jon Kent dies. Clark could've easily rescued his father but because he trusted his father's words about being hidden it costs the elder Kent his life.

The SFX is just mind blowing and I love how Kryptonian technology is shown to be this geo-organic kind of thing where it seems they can manipulate everything on a global scale and use it as tech. The fight scenes are incredible with the rag doll type effects and the use of speed. It gives the proceedings a violence that makes the viewer "feel" the pain that's being dished out. All in all, the people that did the SFX did an amazing job.

Sadly, the tone and feel of this movie just isn't right for Superman. If this was some kind of pastiche completely divorced from Superman than this is easily a **** star movie but as a Superman flick it's only **. I REALLY hope that WB/DC takes the opportunity with the Batman vs Superman movie to compare/contrast the personalities and philosophical outlook of both characters rather than keep it uniformly gritty. Grimdark works for Batman but it's not a great way to portray Superman. Unfortunately, I think the influence of Nolan may be hurting the DC filmed universe though i've heard that Goyer's script for the follow up is being doctored up by the guy who wrote Argo so there's hope for some freshness and a different focus.