Also contrary to popular consensus, I did not hate Superman Returns. I walked out of the theatre when I saw it first liking it a lot actually. I knew it wasn't fantastic but I didn't think it was horrible. Even as I saw the complaints of it and understood grievances of it, I still remain a soft spot for the movie and besides, at least its not as bad as the Quest for Peace.
The Man of Steel was directed by Zach Synder (300, Watchmen) and produced by Christopher Nolan (Dark Knight Trilogy) Now when everybody saw Nolan was on this project everybody, including me had hope that this would not be the Superman we have seen before. I however saw producer and didn't bring up too much hope to that position as the focus should be more on Snyder. I think he's a good director although Watchmen was not my favorite, and then there was Sucker Punch. The result is something much different than expected.
The past few years Marvel has dominated the Superhero market with their Avengers movies like Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America. All three of these movies and the Avengers have one thing in common in that while they are superhero movies, they are pretty light hearted and very comedic. I think this was a good step for Marvel as Superheroes require a great deal of suspension of belief to continue the illusion provided by the movie. If the audience feels as though the movie relates to how silly a being from another dimension called Asgard who wears a cape, carries a hammer and is named after a norse god, the movie is watchable and thoroughly entertaining.
Man of Steel takes a different approach. Although there are comedic moments, like Superman's first flight, these moments are short lived and are few and far between. Definitely no Richard Prior in this reboot. Furthermore, this movie explores Krypton, a planet similar to Asgard in the sense that a lot of belief needs to be suspended to make it believable. This isn't the first time DC movies have entered a world like this. It happened in the Green Lantern. Martin Campbell tried to do with the Green Lantern what Marvel did with Thor and Iron Man and frankly it fell flat on its face. Krypton is a different story. Its by no means believable but its more realistic, sacrificing bright colors for incredible detail and background. As Kryptons look like humans, its not too difficult to relate to characters like Jor-El (Russel Crowe) or General Zod (Michael Shannon). The world has its own lore and system so you are by no means mistaking them for humans, it just creates a sci-fi world that Superman has existed in before but previous directors have not been willing to go or did not have the means to do so.
The actors were very good. Henry Cavill was stellar in providing a conflicted Superman instead of a bland Christopher Reeves or Brandon Routh. I actually felt that Superman was a little bit more human in this movie and not just simply the defender of truth, justice and the American way of life Jesus he's always been. It was good with Reeves but it's time for Superman to have some more depth to him. I would have liked to see more, but for what I was given this time around, I thought it was good. Amy Adams, I just think its getting better and better for her. There's not much else to say, she pulls off Lois Lane and she pulls it off well. Russel Crowe is awesome. I thought Michael Shannon was very good as well. There are a couple people who say he's not exactly the most memorable villan. I disagree and think he was just as conflicted as Kal-El and though he was evil, you understood why and it made his character make much more sense. There were a couple other supporting characters. Kevin Costner and Diane Lane as Superman's adoptive parents, both of them were good for the part and made Superman's childhood very relatable. Characters from the military were good as well, they had Harry Lennix and Christopher Melony as high ranking military men. Richard Schiff was in the movie and I was a little disappointed cause he didn't really do anything. He just tagged along as the scientist of the movie and had one shining moment. I loved him the West Wing and I thought he could have been a bigger part of the movie. While we're on military characters, damn there were a lot of Battlestar Galactica characters... they weren't important, it was just fun to see. And then there is the Daily Planet characters. They weren't that important so I didn't know their names. All I knew Lawrence Fishburne played Perry White, the head guy at the Daily planet. I also knew that some woman was playing the sister of Jimmy Olson. I only knew this from a previous source. If I had not known that I would have seen the character of Jenny and said, who the hell is that? Her and Michael Kelly's characters were kind of a waste of space and I'm not sure why they had then in there. Hopefully they develop a little bit more, at least Michael Kelly's character, as I liked him in House of Cards.
The biggest complaint I've seen both from critics and friends who have seen it is that Synder kind of overdid it with the over-the-topness of the fight scenes. They have a point, EVERY fight scene has Superman crashing through a building or crashing through a train or something exploding and its not like these explosions happen once and then on with the story, no these fights go on for about fifteen minutes at least. I personally was not bothered by it, I noticed it but I also thought they were really epic and they were fight scenes on a scale that nobody before Snyder had dared to go or just couldn't go with Superman. It was exactly what fans wanted and thats what we got.
And that's a lot of what this movie is. Its the movie we freaking wanted with Superman Returns and didn't get. But its making the franchise totally new. I mentioned before how The Avengers was comedic along with the action adventure of it. Man of Steel is not that kind of superhero movie. A lot of people think that DC is working towards a Justice league movie. If that happens and its anything like Man of Steel, that movie will be nothing like The Avengers. Absolutely nothing. And I'm excited for that. Frankly I'm sick of Marvel taking over the Superhero franchise and I want DC to have a real shot. Yes there was the Dark Knight trilogy but everybody knows that Nolan took that in a totally different direction and sacrificed the comic book feel for a gritty realistic approach to Batman. Man of Steel is by no means realistic but it also doesn't have that comic book feel to it that previous Superman movies have had. Whereas Dark Knight sacrificed comic book feel for realism, Man of Steel sacrifices it for dark mythological elements making the movie grand and almost like something you might see in a remake of Greek myths.
That being said, I think its going to be a very very long time before a Justice League movie as Man of Steel did not set up for it at all. I feel as though this only introduced Superman again and I came out of the theatre saying, this is only the beginning. Character development was the more than previous Superman movies but it was not enough to truly make a standalone movie. Man of Steel needs a sequel to really capture the character of Kal-El. Could this movie have done more? Yes, but for what fans wanted, for what fans deserved, Man of Steel was just that, it brought back Superman in a whole new light, it created the set up for an awesome character, and if the next movie (Please god let there be one) does anything, please give Henry Cavill some more character conflict and dialogue. He can do it, he's a good Superman, let him do it. I think with what this movie provided, its going to be a long time before the Justice league movie and I'm okay with that. That movie cannot be rushed. DC fans deserve something that is thought out and pulled off correctly.
It's obvious that the formula for Superhero movies provided by Marvel movies does not work for DC superheroes. So people like Snyder need to redefine what it means to be a superhero and take it to a totally different place. I saw an NPR article that said that Man of Steel was not a superhero movie and the direction Snyder takes it pulls it into a totally different genre of Sci-fi. Though I see where they're coming from, I think this is simply the start of a new perspective of our caped heroes and I for one am incredibly pumped for the future.
One last thing, one of the biggest complaint I had with the film was the lack of the Superman theme song. This may go against everything I just put in this review but damn, I need me some John Williams orchestra playing that song. The music was great, in fact I may buy some right now. But there was no triumphant theme song playing during it. It probably didn't fit with the mythological side of Superman but I would have at least liked to see a mystic version of it at the end credits at least. I of course can't been too picky and even without it, I loved the movie. Check it out!
