MAN OF STEEL

"It's not an S.  On my world it means hope." -Superman

How exactly does one make a good Superman movie? It's a question that has perplexed Warner Brothers ever since they gave Richard Donner the pink slip (in the form of a memo) in the late 70's.  Superman in general has a great mythology, but it doesn't have the most interesting superhero (remember that scene from Kill Bill Vol. 2?).  For answers, they turned to David S. Goyer, a guy whose adapted more than a few comics to screen, slapped Christopher Nolan's name on the production and gave flamboyant visual stylist Zack Snyder the camera.  Surely this one would deliver the goods, right?  Thing is, Superman, the most popular comic book ever, has been running on empty for a long time now.  How did it get to this?  Are these problems fixable?  Does the world really need Superman?

Director Richard Donner was setting up a comic book franchise long before it became the norm. Him and his screenwriters had talked about doing a long series of Superman movies. To kick everything off, they started filming two movies simultaneously from one massive script by Mario Puzo (The Godfather), re-written by James Bond writer Tom Mankiewicz to take out the camp (irony?). 80% of this project was complete when they ran out of money and time, so they quickly finished the first film, moved the original climax planned for Superman II over to the first one and, in 1978, waited for box office receipts. It was a hit, but since the producers hated Donner, they fired him and replaced him with Richard Lester, a man who didn't know a thing about the comics. Lester re-shot many scenes contributing to the uneven tone of the film. He also began the slow process (sped up in Superman III) of putting lots of camp back into the script.  We'll never know what would have happened if Donner had continued on with these movies...

"My son, never trust The RZA."

In 1978, director Donner made you believe a man could fly.  So what did he do right that others did wrong? One thing he valued most of all was verisimilitude.  This was apparent in the hustle and bustle of Metropolis and the Daily Planet, the time spent on Superman's origins and childhood, etc.  He was able to bring this story to life and make it feel real.  Let's not forget too the way Christopher Reeve KILLED it in the dual role of Clark Kent and Superman. And though Mr. Reeve gave it his all in Superman III and IV, the series had become a parody of itself and the momentum was clearly lost.  But as Superman said to Lex Luthor "See you in twenty, Lex." at the end of IV, sure enough he returned about twenty years later...

"I can see Warners losing money from here."

There is a vast difference between Bryan Singer's approach to Superman than Goyer/Nolan/Snyder.  Singer chose to remain very close to Donner's original story.  Too close in fact.  He made sure it had the same rousing score from John Williams (good move IMO), the same basic villainous plot by Lex Luthor (not as good), and lots of callback dialogue and scenes.  Singer played it safe, trying to please everyone.  The reason the Star Trek reboot can get away with callback dialogue, especially in INTO DARKNESS, is that we are exploring alternate characters, but here we are treated with a movie that isn't quite a reboot and only partially a sequel.  Audiences wanted more.  It's too bad to, because the few things that were new, were actually very interesting.  What would the repercussions be of a "superkid" on Earth?  What would they have done with New Krypton?  Though it made some decent money, Reboot Part 1 (Super Donner) was considered an epic fail.  So now, with a smaller, but still massive budget, all the chips are once again on the table.  Reboot Part 2 (The Dark Steel Begins) is a true reboot of Superman, going back to the beginning and exploring (and massively expanding) the world of Krypton.  Goyer and his team did their homework and basically took everything that worked from the previous films and put it into Man of Steel, cranked up the action scenes to eleven (-ty billion), put the title card at the end (all the best movies do that) and called it a day.  So is the world ready to accept THIS superman, or will he be cast out once again, as his mom predicted?

"I WILL FIND THE 5 PEOPLE WHO SAW PREMIUM RUSH!"

WHAT I LIKED:

As previously stated, the mythology is the most interesting thing from the Superman universe.  Goyer knew this and spent a lot of time fleshing out the history of Krypton.  The movie opens on this lavish, dying world, full of mysterious tech, advanced weaponry and flying friends...it all makes for a great, epic opening.

Superman - Henry Cavill definitely fits the part, but it's hard to give a full assessment on him just yet as we don't really see the dual Kent/Superman thing that much. The most interesting parts are the flashbacks to his childhood. These little bits really add something.  Sometimes you forget this guy is actually an alien from a different world, but here we really see how much Kal-El struggles with his different, vastly superior senses.  You see the bullies, the fights with his dad, and finally you see him don the cape and learn to fly for the first time.  Cool.

Lois Lane - No trouble with the curve here, Amy Adams kills it as Lois. The filmmakers took her character in a different direction than I expected, but it makes it all the better in my eyes.  I love how she gets in on the action!  The problem with Bosworth's Lois in 2006 is that she didn't come off as very smart or kind.  Is this really the woman that an alien would fall in love with and be willing to die for?  Really???  I didn't believe it.  Adams...yeah, I can see that better.

General Zod - The best bad guys are the ones that have real purpose, the ones who think they're good. You understand why Zod is doing what he's doing, just as you understand Jor-El's choices to stand against him.  Goyer really did a good job not making these guys bad just for the sake of being bad.  Kudos.

Other likes: Former Battlestar Galactica actors in supporting roles.

                  The little Easter eggs during the final fight with Zod.

"Our productivity might increase with a Happy Working Song."

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:

This is just too dang long. The final fight with Zod mostly doesn't need to happen. Or, it could have happened, but shortened down to just the conclusion of the fight (which is brilliant). Superman probably inadvertently kills another thousand people during their building-overturning battle.  Oops.  And that's the biggest thing for me: in a movie about a protector/savior figure, a lot of people die.  I could have gone without seeing so much desolation.  The deaths aren't graphically shown, but most of Smallville is flattened and many skyscrapers in Metropolis go down.  We get it Snyder, these guys are epic.  It's gonna take at least a decade to clean this mess up.  Obviously there needs to be some casualties when fighting against an evil like this, but this is overkill.  Keep the moral dilema for Kal-El, but ditch all the loud CGI.  It would have been far more effective (and cheaper).  LESS IS MORE.  You don't need to destroy half the planet to make the villains menacing.  You don't need to top The Avengers (see: impossible)...

Zach Snyder is very good at making pretty pictures (like Michael Bay), but sometimes the pictures are short on logic. I get that he's trying to convey certain feelings and symbolism, but it has to all make sense in a real world context.  Some parts just feel silly, like Superman's birth scene.  Was she giving birth to an elephant?  This is kind of explained...but it's still overdone.  Also Supes saves a lot of people from falling to their deaths...by catching them while flying at about a thousand miles per hour.  Surely, he would have snapped all their necks.  I was also starting to predict Snyder's documentary-style zooms (and occasional double zooms).  Style shouldn't distract from the substance and here, it does.

In the end, did Goyer (and team) succeed?  I'd say partially.  It's hard to make Superman as interesting as, say, Iron Man.  Kal-El generally has it together emotionally and earthlings aren't really a problem for him to defeat.  In a world with Superman, there (ideally) wouldn't be many problems.  What this movie succeeded to do was give him some pain.  Not just from his father, but from how they make Zod an understandable villain.  Would you really want to defeat the last of your kind, especially since he's just doing what he feels is best?  Goyer created a rich mythology with many avenues to explore and many more characters to develop.  This new take on Superman offers a lot of potential.  Now the question becomes: do you want to wait 7 years for another reboot, or do you want this series to continue on as is?  It may not be super, but Man of Steel gives the franchise hope.  And in that regard: it's an S (Well, it looks like one).

-Starbase 133