Starring: Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon
As their home world of Krypton is being torn apart, Jor-El
(Russell Crowe) and Lara Lor-Van (Ayelet Zura) dispatch their infant son,
Kal-El (Cavill/Dylan Spayberry/Cooper Timberline) away from the planet and to
Earth, where he grows up in Kansas under the name Clarke Kent. As an adult,
Clarke moves from town to town, occasionally involving himself in incidents
that reveal his incredible powers that go far beyond any human’s. This causes
him to attract the interest of journalist, Lois Lane (Adams) and later, his
lineage causes him to confront General Zod (Shannon), a fellow Krytponian
banished by Jor-El.
Man Of Steel is effectively a reboot of the Superman film
franchise, based off of the iconic comic series by DC Comics. The line of films
that precede Man Of Steel goes back to the 1978 film, simply known as Superman,
by Richard Donner. Whilst Donner’s work has often had a comic book stylisation
to it that lends itself to a Superman adaptation such as The Goonies (1985) or
Ladyhawke (also 1985) (although an element distinctly lacking in one of Donner’s
most famous films, The Omen (1976)), Snyder has a different edge to his work,
that still suits the comic book aesthetic Superman, but opts for a deeper, less
cartoonish portrayal of Superman. Whilst this worked wonders for Christopher
Nolan (Man Of Steel’s producer and co-writer with David S. Goyer) and his
directorial work re-establishing Batman in the Dark Knight Trilogy (2005 – 12),
Superman is of a different stylistic ilk. Not so much grit, moral ambiguity and
shadows, more idealistic, moralistic and straight-forward. It’s when the film
tries to give shape to Superman that the pacing falls apart, slowing the film
to a crawl. The film feels more comfortable when dealing with the action,
blazing along at a far brisker pace and with the occasionally impressive
set-piece. Snyder, a director associated with popcorn-munching action
blockbuster fare, shows his stylistic trademarks here, even with an early shot
being somewhat reminiscent of 300 (2006) (you almost expect star Henry Cavill to
scream, “This! Is! KRYPTON!!!”...okay, it’s not on Krypton, but I couldn’t
resist.). Cavill does a good job, both being a distinctive face as well as
mirroring past portrayals of the man of steel (especially Christopher Reeve)
and his American accent is wholly convincing, meanwhile Amy Adams makes for an unexpected,
but satisfying, casting choice in Lois Lane. The film is incredibly flashy,
often to its detriment and it isn’t very original, but if you like Zack Snyder’s
work (and I confess, I’m not a fan) and want to see his take on Superman, this
really is the expected culmination of Snyder and Superman.
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