Man of Steel (2013) - Review

If only the film were as good as this Mondo poster.

Director: Zack Snyder

Cast: Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Kevin Costner, Laurence Fishburne

Country: United States / United Kingdom

Rating: PG-13

Run Time: 143 min

In honor of the highly anticipated pseudo sequel/blatant cash grab, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, I decided to revisit Warner Bros' first film in their DC extended universe, Man of Steel. Directed by Hack Zack Snyder of 300 and Watchmen fame, Man of Steel immediately became one of the most divisive superhero films ever made upon its initial release. Unsurprisingly, the film is still divisive years later, with some claiming the film to be a masterpiece and others despising the film to its core for its alterations of the character. While I was one of the people who disliked the film upon its release and have yet to see it since, I decided to give the film a second watch a solid three years later in order to reevaluate my opinion in the wake of Batman v Superman. 

Unfortunately, my opinion still stands. Man of Steel is just as exhaustive, manipulative, and overlong as I remember it to be. Snyder, much like the equally maligned and divisive Michael Bay, knows neither restraint nor subtlety when it comes to his film's thematic implications and action sequences. Not only does the man fail to understand pace, but he also can't grasp that a climax should only last a finite amount of a time, not a whopping 45 minutes in length! Still, even with Man of Steel's immense flaws, the superhero epic is occasionally a shining ray of hope, especially in the form of an incredible score by Hans Zimmer and solid performances by Kevin Costner (The Untouchables), Russell Crowe (Gladiator), and Michael Shannon (99 Homes). Otherwise, Man of Steel has done nothing but remind me of the pains I felt when I saw it the first time.

I honestly forgot all about this amazing prologue by the film's end.

Before I get into the review, I thought that I would explain my history with the Superman character in order to explain my reading and opinion of the film. After all, Superman is widely considered to be the most iconic comic book superhero of all time. In all honesty, I have never been a big fan of the character, although I have never disliked him either. Growing up, I was always a Spider-Man or a Batman kind of guy because I found their characters more relatable, as well as more grounded in the type of realism that I gravitate towards. Therefore, Superman and his invincible powers have always left me distant from him. 

As far as Superman media comes, I was a big fan of the Richard Fleischer Superman cartoons as a child and still am; not because they feature Superman, but because I adore their animation style and old fashioned tales of heroism. As far as live action Superman tales go, I have seen no Superman television series, and only two of the previous theatrical adaptations, Richard Donner's widely beloved, Superman: The Movie, and Bryan Singer's hugely divisive but cute, Superman Returns. Therefore, understand that I myself have a brief understanding of the character, although I am no authority in any way, shape, or form. And now, for the review...

Man of Steel opens up with an immensely memorable and powerful prologue that depicts the fall of Krypton and sets up Superman's origin as an alien on planet Earth. I personally believe that the rest of the film does not stack up to the amount of tragedy, emotion, and excitement on display in the opening 20 minutes. It's truly a Shakespearian tragedy, and proof that Superman's origin is one of, if not the, greatest superhero origin of all time. The opening prologue is unabashedly hardcore science fiction thanks to its fantastical creatures and technologically advanced gizmos, something that I always admire in a studio picture (i.e. see Guillermo Del Toro's Pacific Rim for more unabashed hard core science fiction). For all of the complaints that I am going to lay out against Snyder, I can whole heartedly admit that he knocks this prologue out of the park. 

BTW: big black penises shoot into outer space in this movie.

It's important to note that Man of Steel was produced by Christopher Nolan, the writer and director of Warner Bros' massively acclaimed and successful Dark Knight Trilogy (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises). It was also written by David S. Goyer, the co-screenwriter of Nolan's Batman films. Therefore, it comes as no surprise once Man of Steel starts incorporating numerous Batman Begins-styled flashbacks that bounce back and forth between the present and the past in order to explain Superman's upbringing. It is within these flashbacks that we get the bulk of Superman's adoptive parenting from his Earth dad, Jonathan (Kevin Costner), and Earth mom, Martha (Diane Lane). In all honesty, Man of Steel feels more like a Nolan film than it does a Snyder film with its dark color palette, usage of flashbacks, and brooding characters. There's no denying that Nolan's fingerprints are all over this movie, especially because it operates as a movie long origin story, something that comic book fans have grown immensely tired of.

After the amazing opening prologue and several Nolan-esque flashbacks, the plot kicks into gear once Kal-El/Clark Kent/Superman (Henry Cavil), all grown up and handsome, goes in search of his origins. When he discovers an old Kryptonian ship in the Arctic, he accidentally triggers the reappearance of General Zod (Michael Shannon) and his soldiers. They come to Earth searching for Kal in order to extract the codex, the Kryptonian genome and history of their planet, that Jor-El (Russell Crowe), embedded into his cells upon saving him from Krypton's destruction. What follows is a massive alien invasion in which Superman and the United States Military fight against Zod and his soldiers in order to preserve Earth, or at least what is left of it after Metropolis suffers a nearly post-apocalyptic level of destruction.

The casting of the film is quite excellent, with mostly everyone perfectly embodying their roles despite the lackluster direction or script they had to work with from Snyder and Goyer. Cavil, more or less a newcomer at the time of the film's release, is very good as Superman, although he portrays a far more foreboding and dark Superman than any to come before him. Gone are the days of color and joy, as seen through Donner's heartwarming Superman adaptations and Christopher Reeve's iconic performance. Nowadays, everything tends to be dark and foreboding, which is a shame as it has been quite a while since 9/11 struck and sucked all of the fun and violence out of blockbuster cinema. Regardless, Cavil makes for a solid leading man, and I for one fully support him as Superman. Although, he is never exactly referred to as Superman in the film, just saying.

Supporting performances by Costner as Superman's Earth dad and Crowe as his Kryptonian dad are without a doubt the biggest take aways of the film. Each embodies a different type of parenting style and sacrifices themselves for Superman's well being. Lane is fine as his mom, Amy Adams is decent as Lois Lane, and Shannon is solid as Zod, a surprisingly well defined and highly motivated villain. The only characters who barely make an impact on the film are the employees of the Daily Planet, as few of them get any screen time and easily could have been left out of the picture altogether. I still laugh every time at the scene where Metropolis has already been under attack for over ten minutes, and Perry Mason declares, "Okay everyone, we are leaving," as if they all had to wait for his instruction. Trust me, I would have been out of there at the sign of the first attack. Unfortunately, Man of Steel is nothing but down hill from there.

This was me towards the end of the film, nearly asleep.

Man of Steel features oodles of flaws that make me grind my teeth. Here is a list of everything in the film that rubs me the wrong way: the overly digital action is shot in a particularly shaky manner, the color scheme of the entire film is drained to pure desaturation, the attempts at humor are lame and unnecessary, the entire film is overly manipulative and thinks it is important, the thematic implications are overtly obvious (i.e. the Christ stuff), the product placement is horrendous, and a majority of the film's action scenes, almost all found within the final hour, are boring.

Once Man of Steel moves into its final hour, the entire picture crumbles a part and turns into what I like to call a "third act build up film" of the worst kind. A "third act build up film" is a film that saves all of its action, energy, and special effects for the very end in order to send off everyone on a high note, almost as a way of thanking the viewer for sitting through the awfully slow and dull first half of the film. The worst offenders of this kind include all of Michael Bay's Transformers films as well as Mission: Impossible II (note: successful films of this style; The Matrix, District 9, Hard Target). If you were mistaken, you might think that Man of Steel is a Bay film in and of itself with its immensely long finale, extensive alien invasion, and strong military presence, albeit more mature and deadly serious in comparison to Bay's canon. 

In all honesty, the final hour of destruction and sci-fi violence featured in Man of Steel is one of the most exhausting and grueling experiences in cinematic history. While one may find themselves invested in the initial attack in which Superman fights two of Zod's soldiers in Smallville, all investment and dedication to the picture goes out the window once Zod unleashes the world building machine upon Metropolis and partakes in one of the most devastating depictions of disaster movie destruction ever to grace the screen. Man of Steel might be the only superhero film to turn into a full blown disaster film by its end, which is not exactly what I go to superhero cinema for, to be honest. 

However, just when you thought the film's onslaught of action was over, Snyder saves Superman's penultimate showdown with Zod for the very end of the picture, thereby stacking three massive computer generated set pieces back to back with no breaks in between them. I have to confess that viewing Man of Steel a second time honestly felt like a homework assignment. By the time Superman and Zod started to fight, I got up and started to do things around the house as the film played in the background. You couldn't pay me to be invested in that overlong fight of super powered heroics and villainy. The film had already exhausted all of its energy by the conclusion of the alien invasion. That another fight scene is saved for the end of the picture truly baffles me. Without a doubt, Man of Steel's finale is a complete and honest to goodness endurance test if there ever was one.

Me = On the Left / Snyder = On the Right

It's a shame that Snyder's Man of Steel is such a lopsided picture undeserved of Hans Zimmer's honest to goodness masterpiece of filmic music and heroic motifs. Say what you will about Zimmer as a person and a composer, but the ensemble of music compiled for this picture almost makes up for the plentiful story problems. There are a few moments of cinematic greatness in the film, such as Kal's birth, his discovery of his origin, as well as his first time flying, that benefit from the sheer emotion of Zimmer's excellent score. But alas, that is only a few scenes, and scenes aren't enough to save an entire picture, let alone one that is half dominated by a single epic action sequence.

At the end of the day, Man of Steel is one quarter Shakespearian tragedy (the fall of Krypton), one quarter superhero origin story (Supes growing up on Earth), and two quarters alien invasion movie (Zod's attack on Earth). To be honest, I only find one half of this film, the first half, to be tolerable and engaging. The second half is nothing but torture for me. While I respect other people's opinions about the film, there is simply no way that I will ever come to believe that Man of Steel is a masterpiece, let alone in my life time. As for the haters and detractors, I'm all ears. Unless 9/11 inspired death and devastation is your cup of tea, stay away from Snyder's Man of Steel.

Rating: 4/10 - One of the most exhausting and overlong superhero films to date. Moments of raw emotion from several great performers and Zimmer's score shine through the mess though.

Franchise
Man of Steel (Zack Snyder, 2013)
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (Zack Snyder, 2016)