Man of Steel Review: It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a reboot!

Dir. Zack Snyder
143 Minutes
Rated PG-13
Watch Trailer

To say a lot is riding on Man of Steel is a massive understatement.  At this point Marvel is completely dominating the superhero marketplace with their Avengers setup in place for years and years to come, and DC is struggling to maintain the same momentum towards the inevitable Justice League movie.  Man of Steel is the first film, DC's Iron Man if you will, to establish this world unlike The Dark Knight where it would be possible for god-like aliens to fight each other.  Zach Snyder took the demanding task of rebooting a franchise that not only will set in motion likely all of DC's films in the foreseeable future, but also to make Superman relevant to today's audiences after the relative critical and financial disappointment of Superman Returns.  But Snyder is no stranger to taking on difficult projects (as seen with the previously deemed 'impossible to film' Watchmen), and Man of Steel was everything I could've hoped for.  It fires on all cylinders and reinvents Superman into our world without disrespecting his comic book origins, all while delivering non-stop action and even some philosophy along the way.


The structure of the film is a little bit different from what I was expecting.  After an impressively huge opening sequence on Krypton, the film jumps right into Superman as an adult learning to grapple with his powers.  His upbringing with Martha and Johnathan Kent (Diane Lane and Kevin Coster, respectively) is sprinkled throughout the film via flashbacks that I felt flowed extremely well and actually made both the present and past scenes feel more poignant.  Snyder was the perfect choice for this film, often showing Superman in ways we've never seen before.  The way he is introduced to his powers as a child, then told to "make the world small" by his mother, is undeniably cheesey, but it worked so well for me.  The whole idea that Superman is restraining himself for the good of humanity is also handled well (and the striking visual of Superman in handcuffs is great; knowing that he could easily snap out of them, but doesn't to comfort those he wishes to protect).  Although most superheroes could be seen this way, Superman in particular was always a moral character in a moral-less world, and the film does play with these big ideas to balance the big action setpieces.

Many fans were disappointed by the action, or lack thereof, in Superman Returns, and Snyder heeded the call.  The film is almost entirely action, and the last 40 minutes is pure epic destruction of the highest degree (on a larger scale than even The Avengers).  While it was at times too sensory-overload and the overbearing use of 9/11 imagery grew tiring after a while, it was exhilarating nonetheless, with the amazing visuals, sound effects, and Hans Zimmer's score working together to make this larger-than-life battle take place. Even the way they handled how Superman flies was great; you really felt the physics of it, especially when he sonic-booms into the sky.  The camera movement and the filmic look of the picture is unlike any superhero film I've seen in the past and gives the movie a very rich feel.  If you took Terence Malick, Ridley Scott, and Chris Nolan and combined them, you'd have something close to Man of Steel's aesthetic.  The tone was captured exactly right, and I think that's something that Snyder always does well, even in his worst pictures.

But every film has its Kryptonite, and to Man of Steel I believe it's David Goyer.  If anything feels off its his script, where the dialogue just isn't as witty or snappy as you'd want, and people talk in ways that don't work in reality.  The actors themselves are all great, from Henry Cavill's charm and conviction as the titular man of steel, to Amy Adam's more journalistic portrayal of Lois Lane, to Russell Crowe as Supe's dad.  But there are just one too many "dumb" moments; like when a loudspeaker cuts off Lois before she can call him Superman, or when a female army officer says he 'looks kinda hot,' it hurt to watch.  Or when he went the opposite route and completely went overboard with the whole Jesus thing.  At times I thought the God-complex of Superman was brilliant (with Kevin Costner's Kent at least), but during the scene when Superman talks to a priest and there is a stained glass picture of Jesus right above him wearing what looks like a RED CAPE, it's disgusting that they would even go there.  Plus he does the whole crucifixion pose at least twice.  I enjoyed the broad arc of Man of Steel (likely thanks to Chris Nolan, credited with a "Story By" credit), but some of the major plot points of the film went sour because they felt weird.

Don't get me wrong, I loved the film.  Chris Nolan's guiding hand can definitely be felt here, and his input quite possibly is what saved this movie from Goyer.  For some reason the critics, although initially positive, are going after this movie, with only 57% positive reviews (to put it in perspective Superman Returns has 75%), but I thought this was amazing blockbuster entertainment.  I bought into the story and the morale behind Superman (despite the fact that he inadvertently caused billions of dollars worth of damage), and the action was so damn fun and looked great.  I could watch Lawrence Fishbourne run away from a collapsing building any day.  It's different from the Superman you know, and maybe from the Superman you were expecting, but it's a great summer movie that was a quick and exciting 2.5 hours that just flew by.

Rating: B+