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| Mondo Man of Steel Poster by Ken Taylor |
Its been just over a week since I sat down to watch Man of
Steel. There have been many reviews, many thoughts, from people in the
business, previous Superman writers and a very inconsistent and mixed reaction
to whether this was a good Superman film, or a good film in general.
I was extremely hyped for this film, I had exiled myself
from trailers, manicly exiting any room where a TV Spot started playing. I
enjoyed the film, and the first half I really really enjoyed, even the action
scenes in the second half were fast paced and had me on the edge of my seat,
but once the action started I found it very hard to remember much of what took
place apart from a lot of buildings being destroyed.
I stopped thinking of this as a Superman film and instead an
Origin Film, as if I had no knowledge of the character and this was my first
introduction to him and in this regard I feel a great job was done. There is no
denying that there are some incredible performances in this film, Russell Crowe
does a great job as Jor-El, and Snyder’s Krypton is an incredible site and a
great introduction to Superman’s birth culture and origin. Michael Shannon’s
performance as General Zod was admirable, a misunderstood character who is just
trying to save his kind, as was his purpose when he was artificially born. Amy
Adams is not given enough credit as Lois Lane, and we are given a great insight
into the journalistic skills she has, she is after all the only person on Earth
to know who Superman truly is. Both Diane Lane and Kevin Costner put in
memorable performances as Clark’s parents.
The film was well structured to introduce us to the character
of Clark Kent, the Man of Steel, and for me focusing on his history, heritage
and where he came from, focusing on the alien, was important for this first
film to give the audience the understanding of who he is. Being introduced to
Clark through flashbacks while he is State hopping across America keeping
himself anonymous from the world was an effective and easy to watch
introduction to the character. Helping to show how he becomes the man he does.
The most heartfelt scene to me, also the one that made me
most irritated afterwards, was the death of Jonathan Kent, apparently necessary
so that Clark is not shunned by society
as his father believed would happen if they found out what he could do. Clark
and his parents are travelling when a Tornado hits, the Kents and other
travellers seek refuge under the closest bridge but the Kents left the dog in
the car, Jonathan returns to his car to save the dog, in the midst of the
Tornado, he injures himself doing so and from this has no chance of escaping
the impending storm, Clark ready to save his father sees his father tell him
not to from afar and allows himself to be swallowed up by the Tornado. This is
frustrating because Clark really could have done something here to save his Dad,
and to me that is far more important to the character than allowing his father
to die for the benefit of his secret. This being the reason why Clark has
hidden himself from society the way he has.
This leads me to the other controversial moment in the film,
the one I think is far more important and has a lot more meaning than is given
credit for, the end, the final battle between Superman and General Zod, apart from the destruction of 50 percent
of Metropolis, this concludes with Superman holding Zod in a choke hold while
Zod is using his heat vision to corner and kill an innocent human family. At
this point Superman, with the remaining Kryptonians returned to the Phantom Zone,
has the choice of saving the innocent humans or killing the last of his kind.
In dramatic fashion Superman is forced to kill Zod, and there for be the last
remaining of his kind. This is important to me as it shows that Superman
chooses humanity, his adopted species, to protect and not his own. I believe
that this is going to be fundamental for the coming sequel.
Obviously by the end of the film we see Clark Kent in his much
more established job starting at the Daily Planet, working with his new beau
Lois Lane, who as we are aware already knows who he actually is.
Although this
was not the Superman film I was hoping for or expected, as an origin film this
new take on the Man of Steel is something I look forward to seeing develop, and
very much reminds me of what I thought after Batman Begins, another origin film
for regular character adapted for film and well we all know the sequel, Batman The Dark Knight, is considered
the best of that trilogy. So here’s to hoping that this strong first instalment
will lead into an incredible sequel!
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