Man Of Steel

MAN OF STEEL

Director : Zack Snyder

Year : 2013

Genre : Superhero

Rating : *1/2

Out of all of the mega budget blockbuster films released this year, one has surpassed all others in both anticipation and expectation. It is of course Zack Snyder's 'Man Of Steel', the latest Superman movie. It has been 7 years since Bryan Singer disappointed fans and critics with 'Superman Returns' and lovers of the iconic superhero were ready for a complete reboot of the franchise. And I was one of these people; I am a huge fan of Richard Donner's 1978 'Superman' and while the 3 sequels that followed weren't as fun or as action packed, I still enjoyed them immensely. This is due mostly in part to Christopher Reeve's portrayal of Clark Kent and Superman and also the comic book style that Donner and subsequent directors had taken with the source material.

Now for the latest entry in the canon, we have Zack Snyder taking up the mantle of director and the creator of 'The Dark Knight' trilogy Christopher Nolan as producer. The idea of Snyder, a terrifically visual director and Nolan, a cerebral and intelligent filmmaker teaming up was almost too good to be true and the promise of an action packed, fun and entertaining Superman seemed to profess to be real. Unfortunately, given a budget of a quarter of a billion dollars, a lifeless script and an overuse of shoddy CGI, 'Man Of Steel' is a crushing disappointment. It is an overlong, boring, badly acted and unbearably loud movie that fails to expand it's characters beyond their most basic conventions, throws visuals at the screen just for the fact that the filmmakers thinks it looks good and relies too much on nostalgia and reverence for the eponymous protagonist. The end result is a tiresome and sometimes infuriating film that proves the truth in the maxim 'less is more'

'Man Of Steel' tells the well known story of Kal - El, a young boy who discovers that he is an alien from a distant planet and has powers beyond that of any human being. However, when General Zod comes to Earth to kill him, Kal - El must become the Man Of Steel to protect the planet from inevitable extinction.

Christopher Nolan is probably the most perfect person to produce a 'Superman' reboot due to his own directorial success with 'The Dark Knight' trilogy; films which are often recognised as the greatest superhero movies of all time. Unfortunately, Zack Snyder was chosen to direct the 'Superman' reboot and here is where the many problems begin. Always more interested in visuals rather than substance, Snyder makes good looking but emotionally vapid films and many of his works such as '300', 'Watchmen' and the awful 'Sucker Punch' are admittedly beautiful to look at but are completely lifeless and dull as stories. This is the reason why I think that he was the wrong choice for directing this film as Superman has always been about the characters and their interaction with the world around them. Reducing them down to their most basic levels, Snyder fails to expand their characterisations and concentrates more on the fighting scenes and visuals. In 'The Dark Knight' trilogy, the action was always secondary to the characters and Nolan would spend time with each so we could become involved in their arcs and want to learn more about them. Here, Snyder replaces interesting characters and emotional arcs with overlong action scenes that really tire both the eyes and the ears.

Henry Cavill plays the eponymous Man Of Steel and fails to bring any of the humanity of Clark Kent or the alien nature of Kal - El to the screen in anyway at all. I didn't believe him in either role and I felt that the transition from Clark to Superman seemed very rushed and messy. While we do get an interesting backstory involving his adoptive family and the death of his father, Snyder fails to explore the supposed humanity of Clark and rushes to get to the scenes that everyone wants to see; Superman flying around and using his supernatural powers for good. However for me, I have seen Kal- El flying dozens of times on film and TV and I wish that Snyder had taken the time to show Superman learning and honing his powers rather than just taking off and suddenly becoming a hero. His love interest is of course Lois Lane played by the mercurial Amy Adams and just like Cavill, she is given little to do and her character seems forced and barely developed. The romance between the two seems completely limp and only seems to be included in the movie purely for the fact that everyone knows that Superman and Lois Lane fall in love, it wouldn't be a true Superman film if they didn't get together by the end. However, the supposed romance isn't developed or explored in any way at all and the two have little to no chemistry. It is only at the end of the film where they both kiss that we really realise that the two had feelings for each other, even though no evidence is shown throughout any of the film.

Michael Shannon plays General Zod and if you read either my 'Premium Rush' or 'The Iceman' reviews, you will know that he is one of my favourite actors working right now. He is able to bring an intensity and passion to every part he plays and makes his characterisations both memorable and deeply psychological. He does his best playing the iconic Zod but due to the overuse of rubbish CGI, we barely see the actual Shannon on screen. He becomes a computer generated character which might have Michael Shannon's face pasted on and to me, this detracts from the the terror or the dread that we should feel when he appears. The real Michael Shannon is a hugely intimidating figure, the CGI Michael Shannon is a bunch of lifeless pixels that couldn't harm a fly.

The climax of this film is 40 minutes of Superman and Zod just punching each other into skyscrapers inevitably killing thousands of innocents along the way. I always thought that Superman stood up for humanity and would do anything to protect Earthlings from evil and death. In 'Superman II' which also has Supes and Zod fighting in the city, we see that the hero is aware his surroundings and endeavours to protect the onlookers as well as defeat his enemy. In 'Man Of Steel', he is clearly a one track minded alien who doesn't care about anything else but hitting his enemies in the face and destroying buildings. Who cares that thousands may be injured, as long as he can look like a hero to the few who survives. Oh, and he may also get a kiss from his boring love interest if he is really lucky. He might save one family from being lasered to death, but in the face of the inevitable demise of probably hundreds of thousands of innocents, 4 people doesn't seem like much of a victory. This hugely unethical route they have taken with 'Man Of Steel' really frustrated me and by the end of the fight scenes, I was ready to throw something at the cinema screen. It becomes almost repugnant to watch and added to this Hans Zimmer's intrusive and overbearing score, 'Man Of Steel' is nothing but a migraine - inducing, dull and stupid movie that adds nothing to the lore of Superman or expand it's source material.

For fans of Superman, 'Man Of Steel' may be the movie you have always been waiting for. It is a much more mature approach to the character and with the help of Snyder's affection for astonishing visuals, it is a good looking, action packed blockbuster. For me, a fan of Richard Donner's 1978 classic, 'Man Of Steel' is nothing more than a waste of a quarter of a billion dollars and showcases what is so wrong with modern blockbuster cinema. With the help of a huge marketing campaign and a newsworthy budget, 'Man Of Steel' has pulled in nearly half a billion in three weeks and has become the second highest grossing movie of 2013 so far, only beaten by 'Iron Man 3'. When I went to the cinemas to see this last week, I was joined with a completely full auditorium who were all eager to see what Zack Snyder and Christopher Nolan had created. By the end, 25 people had walked out and the rattle of paracetamol tablets was echoing around the room. Mutters of indignation met the end credits and the disappointed faces of those leaving really angered me. Snyder and Nolan have let their fans down and while I couldn't give a monkeys about the career of Zack Snyder, I expected more from the usually reliable Christopher Nolan. Disappointment is not the word, hatred may be more appropriate for my feelings towards 'Man Of Steel', one of the worst movies of the year.

''Is it a bird? Is it a plane?''
No, it's a giant turd of a film burning millions of dollars out of the pockets of the world!