Review of Man of Steel (2013) by Thomas D — 24 Mar 2016

In preparation for the upcoming Batman V Superman film, I've decided to revisit a few of each of the heroes' feature films, especially those where they come in direct conflict with one another.

Man of Steel is known to be one of the most divisive films of this century. You either love it or hate it, there's really no in between with this film. I fall on the love side. There are problems with the film as it's by no means a perfect film. But it may be as close as a superhero film could get to being a masterpiece.

Zack Snyder is very much the auteur of this project. Christopher Nolan and David Goyer's hands are definitely in the script and tone, but Snyder's direction is among the most inventive and visually stunning in this genre. Snyder takes the campy tone of some of Superman's previous entries and flips it into a bleak, grim, and destructive story. But it works for the film they were going for. In many ways this is the truest to comics form of Superman we have ever had. Henry Cavill's physique resembles the comics more so than Brandon Routh's or Christopher Reeve's, and he's never been more powerful than seen in this film.

Snyder also crafted an incredibly detailed Krypton for the first 20 minutes of the film, which tended to be one of the many things everyone agreed to be a positive for the film. Russell Crowe and Michael Shannon kick off the film with a great Jor-El/General Zod fight which makes for the centerpiece for the rest of the film as Zod attempts to stop the launch of Kal-El (Suprman) to earth. I loved the way they switched the mythology to make Kal the true last son of Krypton as the first natural birth in centuries. The rest of the film entails Kal's adapting to earth and Zod's search for him.

The heart of the film comes from Kal's earth family, the Kent's. Kevin Costner and Diane Lane play his parents and share some of the best scenes of the film. Again, they flipped the history a bit in the death of Pa Kent being an event Superman could have prevented, but it makes for one of the most emotionally devastating scenes of the film. The relationship between Clark and his mother tend to be my favorite scenes as they are both written incredibly well and heart-warming in feel.

The action and destruction is some of the more controversial aspects of the film with both the Smallville fight and the infamous Metropolis ending. I've always been a fan of Snyder's unique take on action and fight choreography but the destruction is a complaint I can sort of understand. But everyone should remember that this was the first few days that Clark/Kal realized his abilities as Superman. He didn't have time to think about and strategize how he fight the Kryptonians. Give the guy a break. Those Krytponians, however, do give him their best shot, including Antje Traue's ferocious Faora-Ul.

There are moments of Man of Steel that could have been cut down like the Terraforming snake-like machine scene and a few expositional scenes, but the bottom line is that Snyder creating something in Man of Steel that transcends the superhero genre. He gave us one of the more visually stunning and morally thought provoking entries in this genre, and that's an achievement. Hans Zimmer's score is among the greatest for any superhero film, perfectly balancing the grim tone with a heroic center figure. I expect the romantic chemistry between Amy Adams and Henry Cavill to be improved in Batman v Superman and the destruction to be addressed. To me though, Man of Steel is a force to be reckoned with for all superhero films.

+Heroic Zimmer score.

+Visually stunning.

+Intricate story by Nolan.

+Snyder's attention to detail.

+Cavill is the definitive Superman.

+Father figures.

+Diane Lane.

-Romantic chemistry.

-Run-time could have been cut down.

10/10.