***The Spoiler Light Is On***
Man of Steel (2013)
Oh my, what a film. I
went into the theater with some very high expectations for this film; and was
not disappointed in the slightest! As a
matter of fact, my expectations were well exceeded by this movie, and I will definitely
be seeing it again before it leaves the theaters here.
I was not planning to see Man of Steel at all. I have been repeatedly disappointed by
superhero films time and again; most recently by Iron Man 3. I had pretty much decided to give up on this
particular branch of the genre, but I saw the trailer for Man of Steel earlier
this spring. The trailer looked so good
that I figured I would give this one a try, and I am glad I did.
Everyone knows the basic plot of the Superman saga; Krypton
is a dying planet, Jor-El sends Kal-El to Earth, where the air is less dense,
and the gravity is lower, thus allowing Kal-El to have powers beyond that of
mortal man. Dubbed Superman by Daily
Planet reporter Lois Lane, he faces numerous foes and defeats them in the name
of “Truth, Justice and the American Way.”
The writers and director of Man of Steel do indeed preserve the basic
Superman plot line, but they go for a more serious brand of movie-making
focusing on the stories of the characters and their motivations.
The film opens on the planet Krypton whose population has
overextended their natural resources resulting in the imminent destruction of
the planet due to an unstable core.
While Jor-El meets with the ruling council of Krypton about how to save
their race, General Zod enters the picture perpetrating a coup to take
over. Despite Jor-El’s appeals to Zod to
focus on the problem from a scientific point of view, Zod proceeds to kill
members of the council and take control.
Jor-El sees the futility of his efforts, retrieves the Codex (that which
contains the genetic codes for all Kryptonians), and places it in a small
spacecraft along with his naturally born son, Kal-El, and launches the craft to
Earth. Zod tries to stop the launch, but
is too late. He kills Jor-El and is
captured by security forces and sentenced to a long period of imprisonment in
the Phantom Zone. Finally, Krypton
explodes and releases Zod and his followers from the Phantom Zone. They promptly go off in search of Kal-El to
retrieve the Codex and revive the Kryptonite race.
Flash forward to a young Clark Kent, who begins discovering
his powers, but he doesn’t know what is happening to him. He has x-ray vision and super-strength and is
not sure where it is coming from or why.
After several incidents being witnessed by others, John Kent (Ckark’s
human surrogate father) shows Clark the vessel he arrived on Earth in and gives
him a key which unlocks the powers of devices that appear throughout the movie. This takes place during a series of flash
back and forth scenes showing how Clark grows up. John manages to convince Clark that even
though he has these special abilities, he must keep them a secret for the time
being. The final act that John
demonstrates his belief in secrecy is during a tornado scene where John is
unable to save himself from being killed, but he prevents Clark, who would have
been more than able to save him, from doing so.
This is a very poignant scene.
There are numerous scenes showing the development of Clark Kent as he
grows into the man that would become Superman.
Clark, who is acting as a worker with a military expedition in
an arctic region, discovers a ship that has been buried in the ice for
thousands of years. It was put there by
the people of Krypton in anticipation of their planet’s demise as an attempt to
find suitable places to colonize. This
ship also becomes Superman’s Fortress of Solitude.
In the last part of the film, Zod and his followers finally
discover where Kal-El is because when Kal used the key to activate his
Fortress, it also inadvertently set off a distress beacon that leads Zod to
Earth. A battle ensues between Zods
forces and Superman, while the U.S. Army is trying to kill ALL of the aliens,
including Superman. While downing
several aircraft, Superman manages to save several soldiers including the
commander of the Army forces, who decides that Superman is actually fighting to
save lives and destroy Zod.
Zod separates his ship into two parts that take places at
opposite points on the globe and they begin to send a pulse through the planet
in an attempt to terraform the Earth into a new Krypton. The part of the ship that is parked above
Metropolis contains unborn children of Krypton, but Zod needs the Codex that is
discovered to be contained in the cells of Superman. Superman, in the meantime flies to the other
side of the Earth to destroy that part of Zod’s ship while the military takes
Superman’s ship that brought him to Earth to use as a bomb to destroy the piece
of Zod’s ship above Metropolis. This
strategy works by creating a small singularity (black hole) that destroys the
ship, and swallows up all of Zod’s forces, as well as the seeds of the new
Kryptonite race. This leaves Zod alone
to face Superman in a fight to the death.
Zod tells Superman that it is going to end with either the death of
himself or that of Superman. This turns
out to be prophetic because as Zod declares and begins to carry out his new
mission to eradicate all life on Earth, Superman is forced to snap his neck to
prevent him from starting his genocidal plans with a family. After killing Zod, Superman falls to his
knees in anguish having killed the last of his kind, other than himself.
The movie ends with Superman posing as Clark Kent, a new
reporter for the Daily Planet. Roll
Credits.
There are many reasons aside from the story that has been
reworked and made into a completely new retelling of the Superman saga. First in my mind are the performances turned
in by the actors, especially the lead, Henry Cavill who portrays Superman as an
unassuming character who is working to learn who he is and what his purpose in
life is. Jor-El portrayed by Russell
Crowe turns in a performance that is beautifully done. He not only appears in the beginning of the
film, but comes back throughout the film to help Superman learn and grow as
well as try to appeal to Zod one last time, however unsuccessfully. Kevin Costner as John Kent gives a very
convincing performance as a father who really wants to guide his son right to
the end, finally sacrificing himself to keep Kal-El from exposing himself and
his abilities too early. And finally,
Michael Shannon as Zod was absolutely brilliant in showing that his character
was not just an evil nemesis for Superman, but rather someone who was charged
with preserving his race, and was driven to do his job, no matter the cost.
While the scenery through most of the movie was good, the
CGI created to show the Planet Kryptonite was some of the most impressive and
imaginative to date. There is so much to
see in the vistas created by the CGI team that just that first 40 minutes of
that film would be worth seeing again to see what was missed the first time
around.
If there is a weakness to Man of Steel, I would have to say
that the Character of Lois Lane would be the weak link. I just didn’t think that the writers were
sure of what to do with her and she was popping up n some very unrealistic
places. Her weakest link though was at
the very end of the film when she was introduced to Clark Kent coming in as a
new reporter for the Daily Planet, especially after she had met with Clark’s
mother, and visited with him as Clark in several places in the film. But, this is a Superman move and Lois had to
be in there somewhere.
I would actually say that this was three films rolled into
one with the first part depicting the origins of Kal-El, the destruction of
Krypton, and the story of how Zod was chastised for doing what he was born to
do. The second part is the character
development, especially that of Superman.
And finally the third part that is the battle to either resurrect the Kryptonite
society, or preserve the people of the Earth.
In any case, this is an outstanding movie that runs the
complete gambit of emotions, is packed full of life and death, and consequences
of one’s actions. This is one of those
films that I think MUST be seen in a theater on a big screen at least
once. I viewed in in 2D and didn’t see
very much that would be added by seeing it in 3D, with the possible exceptions
of the CGI work in the first part of the film.
As I mentioned before, I have been very disappointed in the
past with superhero films, but I think that Man of Steel sets the bar pretty
high. I will go as far as to say it is
the best superhero film I have ever seen.
If I may be so bold as to quote myself from a post I made to Facebook
right after I arrived home: “Hey Marvel and Disney, want to know how to make a
great superhero film? See Man of Steel! Now That’s How It’s Done.”
Well, there it is…
QaplaH’
Coming Soon to Jim's SciFi Blog, a book review and some news on my favorite podcasts.
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