"Man of Steel" review

Too much steel, not enough man.

When the original “Superman” film came out in theaters I was eight years old.  Aside from “Star Wars”, it is one of the most treasured movie-going experiences of my youth.  When my parents and I left the theater, I was so overcome with what I had experienced that I looked up into the night sky.  Over one of the government buildings an American flag was fluttering in the spotlight.  My fleeting glimpse combined with the potency of my childhood imagination transformed that flag for a second into a red cape, and for the briefest of moments, I thought Superman was real.  I believed.  Since that day, I have been patiently waiting for another cinematic hero to sweep me off my feet and fill me with the same hope, excitement and joy that I experienced as a child.

Adulthood brings a lot of changes, and one of the biggest is the loss of innocence.  Despite all the ugliness and cruelty in the world, I still want to believe in something pure, someone like Superman who evokes the warm glow of old-fashioned, aw-shucks Americana. Unfortunately, "Man of Steel" has almost none of this.  The film is cold and grim, and nearly bereft of nostalgia.  My worry over the choice of Zack Snyder as the director was confirmed.  I've seen most of Snyder's previous films, and haven’t enjoyed any of them except for his 2004 remake of “Dawn of the Dead.”  His visual style fit that film perfectly as the shaky cam and frenetic pacing were appropriate for a zombiepocalypse.  Yet this chaotic and grim aesthetic is present through all of his succeeding works and it doesn't fit a Superman movie at all. There are also other major problems.

Superman is a difficult character to update because he is a creation so emblematic of his time.  Though Superman is a child of the thirties, he grew to maturity in the forties and fifties, when American culture was at its apex of confidence and dominance.  The nostalgic aura is what gives Superman his primary emotional and psychological attraction, and this key component is evoked beautifully in a very insightful scene from Joss Whedon's “The Avengers.”  S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Phil Coulson and Steve Rogers (Captain America) are having a conversation about Captain America’s costume.  Cap thinks that his WW II-era outfit might be a little old-fashioned.  Coulson counters by saying:  “With everything’s that’s happening right now and everything that’s going to happen, I think people could use a little old-fashioned.”  I thought of this sentiment often while watching “Man of Steel" because it does very little to evoke the Superman of old.

The scenes of Superman’s boyhood in Kansas are the only ones that provide any emotional connection.  The shaky cam is finally set on a tripod and the characters are given a chance to interact.  However, the fractured nature of the editing between the past and the present breaks up the necessity of showing us how and why Superman grows up to be the personification of truth and justice.  Superman is a simple character, and his story should be told in a simple fashion.  These flashbacks provide brief pauses of warmth, but they are too few to carry us through the headache-inducing barrage of CGI mayhem that comprises the entire third act.

Superman and his enemies beat the crap out of each other for extended periods, but it's nearly impossible to understand what's going on because the editing is so accelerated that the action becomes incomprehensible.  The collateral damage done by the combatants topples multiple skyscrapers, and I was shocked to see so many human casualties ignored.  One of the more clever scenarios in "Superman II" was when the villians discover that Superman actually cares for humans and use this knowledge against him.  In "Man of Steel", Superman is oblivious to the wanton destruction occurring around him, and I couldn't believe that he would allow, much less contribute to such massive loss of life.

   

The original “Superman” film did not try to beat the audience into submission.  It quietly seduced us because it had charm to spare.  It wasn’t just the acting talents of Christopher Reeve and the good-natured yet cheesy atmosphere.  It was that the filmmakers understood the character of Superman.  They knew that he was a farm boy from Kansas who wanted to express his gratitude for having a new world to call home by doing all he could to make it a better place.  Superman had no angst, he never doubted himself, and always knew that what he was doing was right.  Superman never worried whether people would like him; he saved them and let the love come naturally.  Even though he was the Man of Steel, inside him beat the altruistic heart of all of us.