Man of Steel

Hello dear reader. Below is a short statement, a mission statement if you will. Some of you will agree with it however I suspect most of you will think I’m in the minority. Either way I believe the following to be true and no matter what reasoned arguments you want to throw in my direction my belief is unwavering.

“DC is better than Marvel, FACT”.

I can’t remember a time when I haven’t thought DC was best. As far as I’m concerned Batman and Superman have always been the big boys on the block and despite the fact Marvel seem to be cool at the moment and ruling the roost with multiplex box office takings with offerings like Iron Man and The Avengers, they don’t have a “Big Bad” that’s even in the same league as the Joker. Superman is the original comic book superhero and all that follow do so is the knowledge that he is the archetype and always will be.
Now I know there will be people out there practically beside themselves shouting things like what about the X-men, Spiderman or even the Hulk. To them I say this, for every Wolverine, Goblin and Abomination there will always be a Bane, General Zod and The Riddler to put them in their place. That said I’m all for discussions and debate as long as you understand that I will never think you’re right and may call you stupid pants if you try.

Right now I’ve got that off my chest we can continue…

Back in the summer of 2011 Warner brothers announced to the world that they were going to make another Superman film. This coming after the Bryan Singers largely underperforming “Superman Returns” back in 2006. This announcement was further met with raised eyebrows and scepticism when along with the declaration of a new son of Krypton movie they announced that it would be a complete reboot of the entire franchise. Now a lot of people, myself included, hold the original Christopher Reeve and Richard Donner films in very high regard and any attempt to “re-do” them is was always going to be met with a large amount of complaining and disagreements from the uber fans.
Let’s not forget that reboots and remakes seem to be Hollywood’s go to commodity at the moment. The Spiderman man films had a reboot less than eleven years after the original. Total Recall was another that found itself being brought to the big screen again, twenty two years after Arnold first “got his arse to Mars” and within the next twelve months we’ll have more reincarnations of Mad Max and Robocop to play with. So given that this was a big reboot and seeing what failures had come before, somebody over at Warner Brothers had obviously taken a large consignment of brave pills.

So let’s start at the beginning. Warners knew that once they’d given the green light they’d need to find someone who could handle the responsibility of constructing a summer blockbuster. A director who was competent dealing with an action and effects heavy movie. They originally contemplated the idea of asking Christopher Nolan to pick up the megaphone duties as he had done a damn fine job of bringing Batman back to life but given that he was half way through filming The Dark Knight Rises at the time and that he didn’t want to sign up for another comic book franchise, he declined. He did however agree to stay on as a producer.
They eventually settled on Zack Snyder. He had previously given the world 300 and Watchman. Both of these films had been based on graphic novels so asking Snyder to adapt a comic book hero on to the big screen just made sense. With Snyder in place, Nolan producing and a screen play being written by David S Goyer, who had also had a hand in writting all three Batman films, the building blocks were in place to create the perfect storm.
Next came casting. As a general rule the role of Superman, when it comes to films, has always been given to a newcomer. Christopher Reeve got the honours in the initial Richard Donner films and then Bryan singer cast the little known Brandon Routh in Superman Returns. Synder ended up casting Henry Cavil in the pivotal role. Although Cavil wasn’t an unknown he certainly wasn’t part of Hollywood’s “A-List”. His most famous roles being in the TV series “The Tudors” and the lead in the film “Immortals”. He also just happened to have the squarest jaw this side of the Thunderbirds and more than ample frame required to fill the famous costume.
Snyder then added the American character actor Michael Shannon as General Zod. A role made famous originally by the British actor Terrance “Kneel” Stamp. When it came to Clark Kent’s parents, both here on earth and back on sunny Krypton, Snyder cast two actors who have both played Robin Hood, Kevin Costner and Russell Crowe. Now I’m not sure if this was deliberate but I can say after watching Man of Steel that neither actor was required to wear green tights during the entire film there were no bows and arrows used either. Amy Adams and Laurence Fishburne round out the other major parts in the film as Lois Lane and Perry White respectively.

The film opens on Krypton but instead of giving us just a quick five minutes there and then shifting the story to our little corner of the solar system, we’re given a long and visually striking battle that sets up Russell Crowe's Jor-El And General Zod as enemies. Zod realises that Kal-El, who is just about to catch the 09:30 express space pod to Earth, is the only one that can resurrect his soon to be doomed race, having been genetically encoded with their Codex. This Codex is basically a blue print for all of Krypton’s future unborn. A race of people who are born and raised to fulfil specific purpose, whether it’s as a soldier, a politician or a doctor etc.
We then find ourselves on earth and the first part of the film basically takes us through how Clark Kent was raised and how he became the man he is today. This is mostly done through flash back and after I while I found this annoying. You never really get a sense of cohesion with the story and where it’s going. This is a shame as I’m sure if these scenes were shown in the right order they’d make for a far more compelling story.
Ma and Pa Kent played by Diane Lane and the aforementioned Costner do their best to raise the child that they have found and although they don’t have much time on screen they give Clark his moral centre. Costner actually gives a very good performance and is under used in my opinion.
One of the major things Clark has to deal with as he’s growing up is being bullied and not being able to use his powers to protect himself. This is due to the fact that he has promised that he won’t reveal that he’s different as his father believes the world isn’t ready for that yet. It’s this promise that ultimately causes his father’s demise as he finds himself in a position that only he can solve.

The Second part of the film deals with what happens once General Zod and his merry men arrive on Earth having discovered that this is where Kal-El was sent. Zod gives the people of Earth twenty four hours to turn over Kal-El to him or face the consequences. As Kal-El or Clark has yet to reveal himself or his powers to anyone, other than Lois Lane and we’ll get to that later, he finds himself at a loss as to what to do. He knows that turning himself over is almost certainly a trap but he also doesn’t want anyone to suffer on his behalf. After some soul searching he hands himself over and faster than you could get Admiral Ackbar to pop up and say “It’s a trap” he realises it’s a trap. However he promptly escapes and wouldn’t you know it finds himself right back in the middle of Smallville (small world eh). What follows is best described at a battle. Between Superman, Zod and the US army as they basically make the town “open plan”. Big old Superman wins the day but before you can say “please, General Zod, don’t go and activate a gravity well over Metropolis” he goes and does just that. The main reason being that he wants to start a terraforming process that will turn the Earth in a new Krypton and apparently gravity wells are all the rage when it comes to villains these days.

The Battle in Metropolis is epic and also isn’t short on the obliteration scale either. Whole skyscrapers are raised to the ground and there’s a lot of unseen death and destruction. Although it’s never really mentioned thousands of people must die during this clash and at times it left a bitter taste in my mouth. The original films put people in danger but you knew that Superman would always save the day.
The ending of the film is also slightly controversial as Superman must break his unwritten rule when it comes to taking life in order to save others. This death and the two previous confrontations do go some way to realising why this film has been given a 12A certificate.
However my main problem with the film is not its excessive violence but rather the relationship Lois and Superman have or for that matter don’t have. They are hardly given any screen time together at all but we are supposed to buy their emotional investment in each other by the end of the film. The have a scene at the end where they kiss and it just doesn’t work at all and falls flat. I hope this relationship gets expanded on as and when the sequel arrives as it is the films main failing. The one thing I will say that does work with the Lois and Clark relationship is that because of events we see unfolding during the course of the film, Lois knows that Clark is Superman. I think it’s appropriate that the time has come an investigative journalist can spot that a pair of glasses won’t do much to hide someone’s identity or alter ego.

In closing I would just like to say that despite its problems Man of Steel is a great film. There are issues that I would like to address, such as, how does he shave? But all in all it’s definitely worth a watch. The Score composed by Hans Zimmer is breathtakingly magnificent at times and gives the John Williams music a run for its money. If you do go and see it keep an eye out for nods to things that may come to pass in future films. There is more than one use of the “Lex Corp” sign and the very eagle eyed should also be able to catch a glimpse of a “Wayne Enterprises” logo as well.

If I were pushed to give this a score out of ten I’d say it was a solid eight. Not the best comic book adaptation to come out of Warner Brother and DC but the groundwork has been laid and I think things will get better. Only time will tell…..

Twitter Review:
The original Superhero returns. Underwear missing, action isn’t. Synder, Nolan & Goyer oh my....
#TheClarkKnight

Useful Links:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0770828/?ref_=sr_1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6DJcgm3wNY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlOF03DUoWc