Man of Steel Review

                                   

I’m not going to lie; I’ve been a fan Superman all of my life.  To me, he will always be the gold standard of what every superhero should be.  What has made him such a great character over the years really has little to do with the number of superpowers he has (though admittedly it doesn’t hurt) but his unwavering moral compass and his strong sense of right and wrong.  Do to my said love of Superman, I probably ended up hyping myself for Man of Steel more than I have for any movie with the exception of the Harry Potter series.  However, despite my incredibly high expectations, for the most part Man of Steel did not disappoint. 

As anybody familiar with Superman’s (Henry Cavill) origin story might expect, the film opens on his home planet of Krypton which is on the brink of destruction.  Superman’s father Jor-El (Russell Crowe), resigned to his planet’s fate saves his infant son Kal-El by putting him in a rocket headed for Earth and infusing him with the planet’s codex in an effort to preserve their race.  Meanwhile, General Zod (Michael Shannon) in what he feels to be a last ditch effort to save what’s left of their planet attempts a coup and apprehend the codex that Jor-El had just taken.  His plan however, ultimately fails and shortly before the planet’s ultimate destruction, he and his co-conspirators are sentenced to the Kryptonian jail the Phantom Zone.  Young Kal-El eventually makes it to Earth where he is raised by his adoptive parents Jonathan (Kevin Costner) and Martha Kent (Diane Lane) in Smallville, Kansas and named Clark.  On a side note I have to say that in this version Jor-El is a total badass. 

The best thing about Man of Steel is also the movie’s kryptonite so to speak and that is the way the supporting characters are written.  Man of Steel shows not only how Clark is affected with trying to cope with his powers but possibly more importantly how it affects the lives of the people around him.  Perhaps the most obvious example of this is Clark’s adoptive father Jonathan Kent who in a major departure from most of his comic book portrayals (or any other medium for that matter) strongly discourages Clark from using his powers in public out of an understandable fear that the world will reject him.  By his own admission he is making things up as he goes along which is also understandable since both he and Clark are in rather uncharted territory.  

Superman’s perpetual love interest Lois Lane (Amy Adams) also goes through some significant changes in this version but in my opinion they are made for the better.  Most versions of Lois make the audience wonder if she will ever figure out Superman’s identity even though the only real effort he makes to disguise himself is by wearing a pair of glasses.  In this version, she thankfully proves to not be a complete idiot which is more than I can say for some of her other interpretations.  While on assignment in the Arctic for the Daily Planet she is rescued by Superman after being injured in a cave containing another Kryptonian spaceship.  She’s smart enough to realize that even though nobody may know exactly who he is, that this probably wasn’t the first time that he’s saved somebody using his powers.  She is able to quickly trace his origins back to his hometown of Smallville, and in the process Superman joins Batman and Green Lantern in the group of superheroes that are hilariously inept at keeping their identities secret.


As good as I find the development of Man of Steel’s secondary characters it leaves the picture with one significant drawback.  The problem with all of this is so much screen time is spent developing these characters that there’s not much room left to properly develop Superman himself.  The only aspect in which he is allowed to fully develop as a character is in his constant feelings of being isolated from the world.  Due to his alien heritage and Pa Kent’s constant warnings of how the world will react to him makes him question if he has any place in this world.  This effects Clark well into adulthood as he basically becomes a drifter and taking assorted odd jobs wherever he can get it but never really staying in one place for long.  While there isn’t anything wrong this, we never really see him overcome his insecurities enough to make a fully convincing transition into hero (at least not as good as the Christopher Reeve version).    

While not what I would classify as perfect, Man of Steel is a solid opener to a promising series which is good since I hear they’re already hard at work on a sequel.  

Grade: B+