Superhero films in the 2000s are a bit
like what I imagine grunge music was like in Seattle in 1990; a boom
inspired by some stand out examples of the genre followed by a whole
heap of underwhelming nothingness.
Every comic book hero seems to have
been rebooted this decade. Hell, there is even a Hercules film
pencilled in for next year with Dwayne Johnson starring. I'll leave
you to make pre-judgements on that one yourselves.
However, Man of Steel is the reboot of
the big guy. The man. Superman to be exact.
As such, there automatically comes with
a hope it will deliver a standout alternative from the general
dredge and with Christopher Nolan on production, the expectation rises.
The film explores the formative years
of Kal-El/ Clark Kent/ Superman, all-American hero, played by
Jersey's own Henry Cavill, who kind of resembles George Osborne's
beefed up cousin, only with less laughs.
We see how he grew up from a boy
blasted to Earth from his doomed home planet Krypton by parents ultra-British Russell Crowe and Ayelet Zurer where he grows from a shy,
retiring child afraid of his powers to a bit of a boring man with
arms the size of foundry chimneys.
Dubbing him boring is of course unfair on Cavill as
the role demands that despite wearing a Zorro-style cape and a suit that
totally isn't spandex but might as well be spandex, some base form of
dull decorum is required, a bit like a hench Spock.
Its not that he plays the character
badly, on the contrary, just the character itself is so boring.
This isn't the only character issue.
Amy Adams' Lois Lane veers from
intrepid, gritty reporter for the Daily Planet in the opening half hour of the film to screaming damsel in
distress in quicker time than you can say “comic book style cliché".
Superman's nemesis General Zod is,
however, a perfect imagining of the villain by Michael Shannon; cold,
calculating, but not necessarily evil, more a victim of his own
circumstances.
Man of Steel suffers from the same
problem every big budget action film now has in trying to outdo the
previous big budget action film by adding more carnage and explosions
until it resembles a clashing of a scrapheap and a fireworks factory
inside a tumble dryer.
In a similar vein, the climatic fight
scene between Superman and Zod resembles the long-running joke in
Family Guy of Peter Griffin fighting the Giant Chicken in the sense
it is scripted, extended and essentially a oneupmanship contest for
who could throw their opponent through the most amount of
skyscrapers.
Its not only the climatic scene which
is like this, its every scene in which Superman fights a fellow
Kryptonian just this was the final scene, the highlight of the movie.
Mix it up a little bit!
In that sense I suppose it was a
suitable ending for the film given what had gone before, but rather
aptly given the content, its only suitable crashing right through the
other side of pointless and gratuitous.
Another similar recurring course it
follows is looking into the backstory of the hero to find out what
makes him fight for justice and all that malarkey (turns out its
Earth-dad Kevin Costner and a love for the glorious cornfields and
other assorted attractions of Kansas).
Every superhero film now makes their
champion into a broody, sullen, world-weary individual – as well
they should be what with all the pressure they're presumably under
for being the world's go-to-guy– but Superman is historically the
cheesiest of all the comic book heroes so it basically feels like
painting him with an emotion brush for the pure sake of it.
And then he's still dull and a bit of a
drone. Some work.
All in all, Man of Steel isn't a bad
film. Its an interesting if not riveting reboot of a classic story
and so given the current state of superhero films which it
essentially apes, it is something of a monotone retelling of a story
in a format audiences are now tired and cynical of unless it is truly
remarkable. Which it isn't.
In a way, its something of a triumph as
it leaves the audience wanting it to be longer to add some more
emotional meat to the bones of the plot, but also desperate for it to
be shorter as to have less interminable fight scenes where characters
are basically used as wrecking balls in an amateur attempt at city
planning.
Oh, and don't fork out for 3D. You
shouldn't anyway for any film, but Man of Steel has about as much use
for it as one would wearing the ridiculous glasses out in the real
world.
