Man of Steel (FILM REVIEW)
Man of Steel
Film Review
by Kam Williams
Superman’s Roots Explored in Riveting Reboot of DC Comics Series
To my generation, Superman was just “a
strange visitor from another
planet” who was “faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive
and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound“ in “a never-ending battle
for truth, justice, and the American way.” But in this age of information,
audiences want to know a lot more about a superhero’s backstory.
Furthermore, what passed for special
f/x on the original TV show were cheesy flying sequences in which support wires
were plainly visible to the naked eye. And the underwhelming fight scenes
generally ended when the bumbling villain with little imagination ran out of
bullets and threw his pistol at the Man of Steel’s chest in sheer frustration.
Over the intervening years, Superman
has been revived twice on television (Lois & Clark and Smallville) and five
times on the big screen. This sixth film version stars Henry
Cavill in the title role opposite Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Russell Crowe as
Jor-El, Laurence Fishburne as a black Perry White, and Rebecca Buller as a
gender-bent Jenny, not Jimmy, Olsen.
Director Zack Snyder (Dawn of the
Dead) has ostensibly envisioned Man of Steel as a reboot of the storied
franchise, given that plans are already in the works for the character to
reappear in an adaptation of DC Comics’ Justice League slated for 2015. Thus,
like a lot of other origins tales, this episode devotes considerable attention
to an explanation of Superman’s roots.
The picture’s point of departure is
Krypton where we find the parents (Crowe and Ayelet Zurer) of the planet’s
first naturally-conceived child in centuries secretly sending their newborn on
an otherwise unmanned spaceship headed to Earth. This development doesn’t sit
well with genetic engineer General Zod (Michael Shannon), a megalomaniac in
charge of deciding which of Krypton’s bloodlines are allowed to continue, and
this renegade’s definitely isn’t one of them.
The rocket crash lands in the
cornfields of Jonathan (Kevin Costner) and Martha Kent (Diane Lane), a kindly couple who proceed
to raise the baby as their own. Of course, Clark
isn’t like other boys, and he does his best to harness and hide his
superpowers, although they occasionally come in handy like when he rescues a
school bus full of students that’s sinking in a river.
The plot thickens when aliens arrive
from Krypton with annihilation in mind. Not surprisingly, they’re led by none
other than the diabolical Zod, who commandeers the mass media, spouting typical
invasion malarkey warning the “People of Earth” that resistance is futile. Not
if Superman has something to say about it.
At
this juncture, the action the kids have been waiting for finally kicks into
high gear, with a spectacular battle royal replete with dizzying technical
wizardry and acrobatic dexterity mercifully replacing the pretentious dialogue
laced with lots of pseudo-scientific babble. Ultimately, good triumphs over
evil, ala the American way, and Superman survives to defend truth and justice
in upcoming sequels and spinoffs.
A righteous, riveting relaunch leaving
no doubt that, even after 80 years, you still don’t tug on Superman’s cape!
Very Good
(3 stars)
Rated PG-13
for profanity, sci-fi violence and intense action sequences
Running time: 143 minutes
Distributor: Warner
Brothers
To see a trailer for Man
of Steel, visit:
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