Adam Reviews: Man of Steel (2013)

This is probably the most frustrating superhero movie I have seen since Batman Forever. But where Batman Forever had no idea what it wanted to be with both production and story,Man of Steel has its production down to a fine polish. It looks grey and gritty and full of falling buildings, like a desaturated Transformers finale. But its joyless bastardization of the character and inconsistent story are all over the place when it comes to content.

The movie’s most consistent feature is the direction by Zack Snyder. It’s by no means good but it holds solid through the whole movie. The color tones are brown on Krypton and grey on Earth. While it was probably intended to reflect the worlds’ two suns (red and yellow respectively), they not only don’t match but don’t serve the planets well, either. Krypton simply looks like a future extrapolation of 300 and Earth has a clinical sterility and lack of life, even in landscape shots. There’s very little tonal shift between an arctic expedition and New York City. That, combined with Snyder’s obvious comfort in cutting things like music videos, leads to a plodding feel. The overly long and ineffectual punch-fest of a finale does nothing to lift this tone.

In fact, it’s so joyless that I don’t even get the sense that Snyder is excited about the paycheck, let alone actually making this movie. There’s no banter or conversation between characters. The one “joke” I can recall comes at the end and is possibly a bit sexist. The whole time we’re told that Clark/Kal/Superman loves his adoptive planet and that’s what drives him to do good. His flashbacks are a bit sepia-toned and always about him being comforted by his parents for being teased or a “tough, teachable moment”. Sure, these are parts of a childhood, but at no point does Clark ever have a moment of fun. He never enjoys life here. He simply survives from one moment to the next and periodically assists others in surviving. Even in Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies, we have casual banter between Alfred and Bruce, in fact creating some of the only moments in the later films when the character allows himself to transition from his alter ego back into his civilian state of mind.

In Man of Steel, we don’t even get to see if Henry Cavill is a good actor. He can hit the somber tone of this movie, but he’s akin to a singer holding a single note. Is there range? We’ll never know from this. Michael Shannon does have emotional range in this movie. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have a good dialect coach. Watching his scenes on mute would do him better service since his slightly nasal Eastern seaboard tone undermines his presence constantly. This is strange because I looked it up and he seems to be from Kentucky, but perhaps this is a manner of speech he picked up for Boardwalk Empire and has not let go of. So instead of commanding orders, he sort of sneers and meows them out.

While it may sound like nitpicking, the internal rules of this world are completely inconsistent. Supposedly, Kryptonians get their powers on Earth from the yellow sun’s radiation, but it’s a major plot point that it’s actually from our atmosphere. This switches back and forth a few times. Likewise, we are told and shown that when not on Earth, Kryptonians are similar in abilities to humans, yet we see some arriving and are immediately jumping through buildings and tearing apart “indestructible” metal that originated on Krypton. Their technology also sometimes requires shade from our sun to work but mostly is just fine in direct light. As for the Phantom Zone, the parallel dimension that Krypton uses as a prison? It’s apparently in constant direct contact with this dimension so I’m not sure how far away and secluded it is supposed to be.

And then there’s the character of Superman. Superman is (supposed to be) a metaphorical story of an immigrant Jew. Escaping a war torn and desolated world of no hope (Nazi Germany), parents sacrifice everything they have for their child to leave and have a better life. Once in this new land of America he keeps his heritage a secret, practicing what he knows of his past and trying to balance assimilation and keeping true to himself. He comes from a culture that prizes knowledge of the sciences and goes into a career dealing with education, knowledge and words. He hopes for a day when he can come out and reveal his cultural past but in the meantime toils away to prove himself to his new adoptive homeland. He belongs to a minority that is escaping persecution and is visually indistinguishable from the majority. He is separate by choice and seeking a balance of identity and unity.

In Man of Steel, he’s Jesus. That’s it. He’s Jesus Christ, martyr and savior. That’s about as much of a bastardization as one can come up with. There are already articles circulating about this but I’ve avoided them all. I’m sure, not being Christian, that I’ve missed a number of reference points but I noticed enough. He’s explicitly 33, and has been on Earth for 33 years. He strikes the “sexy crucified” poses. A lot. He’s a miracle birth by his home world’s standards, being their first biological birth in centuries. And then there’s a painfully obvious scene that takes place between Clark Kent and a priest in a church. The shot/reverse shot framing is so that the priest has a cross over his shoulder and Clark has a stained glass image of Jesus on his for every single shot. He talks about how his father has given him to this planet and he’s here to help humanity. He knows that he must give himself up to Zod in order to save humans but isn’t sure that humans are able to be redeemed. I was groaning in the theater but afterward was told this is essentially the story of Jesus in Gethsemane, especially since the people he turns himself in to and trusts then hand him over to General Zod. Don’t worry, he forgives those people before he’s taken away. Just in case this wasn’t enough religion (and the wrong religion for the character at that) one of Zod’s minions is fighting Superman and gives a tiny monologue about how he was born without purpose but, since Kryptonians are bred and grown with a purpose to fill in society, she’s the result of evolution and evolution will always win. She’s then beaten unconscious by the personification of creationism. Subtle, Snyder. Very subtle.

With all of that out of the way, I didn’t leave the theater in a rage. Sure, I lost respect for Nolan since he gave this the green light, but I never expected much from Snyder and was thus only slightly surprised at the depths of the low points in this film. I did manage to pick out a few pleasing bits amidst the wreckage. I think that the darker but absolutely sincere Jon Kent was new and very well done. At one point, Clark saves a busload of children from drowning and Pa Kent says that he needs to remain in hiding, possibly even to the extent of letting those classmates die just to protect the person that Clark will one day become as long as he remains free and secret. While this seems incredibly harsh, his motives are shown to be noble when he makes Clark stay away as he sacrifices himself for Clark’s secret. Keeping his adopted son well and safe from captivity isn’t just his priority, it’s his life’s mission. In this case, Clark is not a foil to Zod’s single-minded devotion to his cause; Jon Kent is. The other thing I enjoyed was how they didn’t make Lois Lane an oblivious idiot when Clark comes to work for the Daily Planet and not recognize him. Those two points were refreshing and handled very well.

So what do I take away from this movie? That Zack Snyder doesn’t understand Superman or movie construction. The only other possibility is that this darker, grittier Superman isn’t supposed to embody “truth, justice, and the American way” but a new set of American ideals. That of “sponsored consumerism, bible-thumping morality, and rampant xenophobia”. Which, actually, might be the case. I just read that Man of Steel has broken the record for number of consumer product sponsorships, with over 100 corporate contracts. Now that Superman is shilling for the National Guard, Hershey’s, Carls’ Jr., Warby Parker, Gillette, Walmart, Sears, 7 11, Kellogg, Nokia, Hardee’s, and Chrysler,  maybe he’s no longer a symbol for America, but a logo.

Rating: -3.5 on a scale of -5 to +5
Post Script: the film would have garnered a -1.5 but the offensive religious points separately earn a -5 so I averaged it out to about a -3.5