BackFilm Review | Man of Steel
A grim and under-lit affair, the Superman movie reboot goes back to the manual
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Christopher Nolan’s brooding, grown-up reboot of the Batman franchise decisively broke away from previous efforts to film the masked vigilante and gave us protagonists and antagonists whose dilemmas spoke for our troubled, morally ambivalent times. Nolan’s trilogy was justly celebrated as a welcome subversion of the tendency of superhero franchises to uphold the American way and present good-and-evil binaries. In The Dark Knight, especially, helped to no end by Heath Ledger’s anarchist Joker, Nolan muddied the black-and-white waters so successfully that it seemed impossible to view previous Batman movies as anything but frothy, campy entertainment.
Of course, the Dark Knight movies also made truckloads of money the world over—so much for subversion.
What was thought to be a fresh and complex reading of the Batman legacy has now become a recyclable marketing gimmick in the hands of filmmakers and studio heads keen on differentiating their produce from earlier produce. Nolan applies the formula that worked marvels for Batman to the Supermen reboot Man of Steel, which he has produced and which Zack Snyder, who made 300 and Watchmen, has directed. In 2006, Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns reimagined one of the most anodyne of superheroes as an individual troubled by the loss of his one true love. Man of Steel, starring Henry Cavill along with a raft of thespians both present and future, appears to have been conceived on a therapist’s couch. The man with the red cape is fretful and introspective, like the X-Men mutants—at least, that is what the handsome but limited Cavill seems to be trying to convey—and struggles with his true self for the better part of the movie. Superman deals with, in no particular order of importance, his complicated parentage, his extraordinary powers in an ordinary world, and his divided loyalty between the planet he left behind and the one he has grown up in.
A grim and under-lit affair, like much of Nolan’s cinema, Man of Steel goes back to the manual, to the origin of the origins. Russell Crowe, stepping into the Jor-El role immortalized by Marlon Brando, sends his newborn son Kal-El to Earth after dipping him into the equivalent of the magic potion that makes the cartoon character Obelix invincible. Thirty-three years later, Kal-El is trying to be more Clark Kent and less Superman, but his resolve melts when he meets Daily Planet’s Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Lois Lane (Amy Adams).
The Daily Planet is no longer a rag in search of a sensational headline but a New York Times-style newspaper whose editor, played by Laurence Fishburne, is one of several grave-faced characters in a movie spilling over with grave-faced men and women.
Meanwhile, General Zod (Michael Shannon), played memorably in fetish gear by Terence Stamp in the first two Superman movies, has other plans for the superhero and his adopted home. Once again, all of Earth and humanity are represented by Manhattan in New York City. Snyder cynically evokes the carnage of the 11 September 2001 attacks through images of tumbling skyscrapers and terrified people running helter-skelter. He destroys Manhattan’s high-priced high-rises with the viciousness of a disgruntled tenant. The mayhem does have its moments—Superman and Zod abseil down the façades of glass towers and gut several cubicle-dotted offices in their battle for supremacy. It’s enough to warm the heart of any Occupy Wall Street sympathiser.
The movie has ample doses of computer-generated annihilation to keep the average twitchy 12-year-old occupied, but not enough emotional heft to satisfy the adults accompanying the 12-year-old. David S. Goyer’s screenplay works a bit too hard to yoke the timeless fantasy to the headlines. There are passing references to WikiLeaks and the US drone programme; the hand-held and grainy camerawork tries to suggest edginess; the story eschews linearity and constantly cuts back to the past. But to what end? It’s never clear, and literally so during the frenzied video-game influenced action sequences that are especially hard to watch in 3D. We will have to wait for the inevitable sequel and sequels to the sequel to see whether Snyder has other new ideas for the well-worn franchise.
The original Superman movies, especially the first one directed by Richard Donner, chose entertainment over everything else. Donner’s Superman: the Movie (1978), starring Christopher Reeve, might seem childish today, but it was narrated with economy and efficiency. At 143 minutes, Man of Steel is a bloated contraption, with some virtuoso moments and several forgettable ones. Snyder, Goyer and Nolan try to tether the vigilante to concerns on the ground, but the movie works best when he shoots into the skies, defying gravity and logic and transporting viewers into a world that is infinitely more interesting than this one.
Man of Steel released in theatres on Friday
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