Director: Zack Snyder
Starring: Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon
Running Time: 143 Minutes
Extras: Featurettes ‘Strong Characters’, All Out Action, Krypton Decoded, New Zealand: Home of Middle Earth and Superman 75th Anniversary Animated Short.
Superhero movies are a bit like London buses, you wait a few years then suddenly six come along in the space of twelve months. Hearing that Christopher Nolan was co-producing MAN OF STEEL gave me some hope that this might be a good ol’ dark, anti-hero movie. It was quite dark, and my ranking for the film is really more for effort. It was trying to be BATMAN BEGINS, but for me is let down by the casting and script.
It starts off well enough on Krypton, explaining the context and why little Kal-El must be sent to earth, and for the first half an hour I can forgive Henry Cavill’s slightly wooden, strong but silent characterization of Clark Kent. Then he finds out that he’s an alien, and starts to harness his powers, and even then, still strong and silent. You hope Cavill will give Clark Kent some depth and character, and whilst we see him develop somewhat, he doesn’t seem to make his decisions with any sort of conviction. From childhood he’s conflicted, which you obviously would be if you were a super strong kid who turns out to be the savior of the world. This continues into Zod’s invasion, where he pretty much tells Clark that he has to hand himself over or else the human race will be wiped out. His decision was this deep, life-changing choice. Maybe it’s because unlike a couple of other superheroes, he was born like that, not a “self-made” superhero like Iron Man or Batman, making his decision seem small in the grand scheme of things.
Amy Adams is so disappointing as Lois Lane. She was boring, and just seemed out of place in the film. The dialogue between her and Cavill was dreary; they didn’t bounce off each other and she appeared in way too many scenes just for the sake of it.
There were some positives, the special effects are impressive and Superman doesn’t wear red tights and/or underwear. Cavill looks the part of the dark hero at least, and his superpowers were explained scientifically, so when he was flying around you know that it’s because he can manipulate gravity, as opposed to “he’s flying because he stuck his arm in the air”. We jump back and forth from the present to flashbacks, which works and young Clark is actually quite impressive- more convincing than adult Clark at times.
This movie had so much potential, and it was almost there, but there were too many cringeworthy lines. MAN OF STEEL tried to capture adults but with its explosions and stiff dialogue and for me, the ideal audience would be kids. Regardless, I doubt it would stop anyone from going to see BATMAN VS SUPERMAN.
MAN OF STEEL is out on DVD and Blu-Ray now.
