Movie review: Man Of Steel

REVIEW OF THE WEEK: Hopes were high for Man Of Steel, which hits cinemas today. Just like Batman, Superman was crying out for a makeover. But does it work?

REVIEW OF THE WEEK: Hopes were high for Man Of Steel. Just like Batman last decade, Superman was crying out for a makeover to make him matter again.

Therefore it was encouraging news to learn that the creative nucleus of the now-celebrated Dark Knight trilogy were on-board Man Of Steel.

The influence of filmmaker Christopher Nolan (credited as a key producer here) and screenwriter David S. Goyer is definitely responsible for all that is good about the new movie.

Nolan and Goyer have a story with all the narrative scaffolding needed to rebuild Superman from the red boots up.

However, the duo’s refined intentions are eventually overpowered by the rash impulses of director Zack Snyder.

What should have been the Superman we had to have is now a Superman we will have to grudgingly settle for: a long, and rather laboured mashup of the compelling and the compromised.

The film opens strongly, shrewdly reducing key elements of Superman’s famous origin story to its bare essentials.

A baby named Kal-El is born on the doomed planet Krypton. His father, the noble scientist Jor-El (Russell Crowe), jettisons his boy across the universe to save the infant’s life.

Krypton implodes, ending the lives of all occupants. Except for the military madman General Zod (Michael Shannon) and his cadres, recently banished from their home planet for crimes against the state.

There will be more — much, much more — of Zod and the gang later on in Man Of Steel.

Film Review Man of Steel

In the meantime, we are swiftly shuffled forward a few decades to meet the adult Kal-El (played by Henry Cavill), now an Earthling trading under the alias of Clark Kent.

The Clark we’re clocking here is still in the process of harnessing his super powers. It will be his gradual development from haunted loner to focused saviour that fleshes out much of the tale told by Man Of Steel.

If you isolate the story of Man Of Steel from the picture’s other trappings, there is little to truly gripe with. Pitching the character of Lois Lane (Amy Adams) as a crack investigative journalist is something of a mistake, but perhaps a necessary one if plans for a franchise proceed.

What is most important is that Kal-El/Clark’s arduous quest to control both his internal demons and external prowess is handled deftly.

By the time Zod and company arrive on Earth to confront their fellow Krypton exile, the stage is set perfectly for one heck of a mega-smackdown.

Even when it is revealed we have not seen the very last of the very dead Jor-El — now his son’s ghostly mentor via some tricked-out hologram technology — the audience remains well and truly on Team Kal-El.

And then? Well, an overblown, overlong final act forgets all about giving us a Superman transformed.

Instead, all we get is a Superman Transformer-ised.

Superman

Kal-El’s extended face-off with Zod — a skirmish that will leave the city of Metropolis close to ruin — will not let up, nor make much sense.

Compared to the similarly-themed finale of The Avengers, this slick, yet slogging shambles of a climax is a bum note to be ending on.

The core acting triumvirate of Cavill (very straight), Crowe (very ironic) and Shannon (very mad) remain on the right page throughout.

It’s just a shame the director threw away the playbook at such a crucial stage of the game.

> Man Of Steel [M]
Rating: 3/5
Director: Zack Snyder (300)
Starring: Henry Cavill, Michael Shannon, Amy Adams, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Russell Crowe.
"Polished start, then the rust sets in"