A Spectacular Fantasy: Grand, Theatrical, Melodramatic, and Impressive

During a coup attempt led by General Zod (Shannon) on the dying planet Krypton, chief scientist Jor-El (Crowe) sends his son Kal-El, the first naturally born child in centuries, into space in a rocket. The ship crashes on Earth, where the boy is lovingly raised by the Kent couple (Costner and Lane). The parents strive to keep secret their son’s incredible strength and extrasensory abilities. However, when Zod appears on Earth 33 years later, searching for Kal-El, the time comes for Kal/Clark (Cavill) to reveal himself.

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It has always been considered difficult to make films about Superman (at least, interesting films!). A thick-necked, square-jawed, serious, and utterly positive character is hardly tempting for an actor or even a screenwriter. Unlike Batman, by the way. Now that’s a real treat. He has an inner world that can be explored. A vast, dark cave. A difficult childhood, phobias, anger, guilt, discipline. As Christian Bale discovered and wonderfully showed us all, there’s plenty to dig into and get your hands dirty with. Batman gets hurt, bleeds, and breaks. He doesn’t fly, but he falls very stylishly.

But for Superman, reaching cloud nine (literally) is a piece of cake. Bullets simply bounce off his pectoral muscles, which resemble huge boulders. Getting under such invulnerable and morally shining skin is much harder. Yes, like Wayne, he’s an orphan, but raised by a loving couple in the heart of apple pie country. Besides, he’s essentially a god. Yes, he looks like a homo sapiens, but he’s not human. Almost like Shakespeare: if you prick him, he doesn’t bleed. And we strongly suspect you can’t even tickle him!

Christopher Reeve found a way into the hero’s inner world through the image of Daily Planet reporter Clark Kent. Reeve masterfully portrayed Kal-El’s humble, stuttering, clumsy persona. He’s instantly likable, reminds everyone of someone. In short, a normal guy! Henry Cavill doesn’t have that luxury. Screenwriter David Goyer, with the support of Christopher Nolan, has no intention of paying homage to the old films of Richard Donner and Richard Lester or making a pastiche of them. Bryan Singer already tried all this, and despite the many unnoticed merits of “Superman Returns,” the film didn’t resonate with audiences. In the new version of the original story by Goyer, Nolan, and director Zack Snyder, the Clark/Kal dichotomy is not a contrast between a bespectacled clown and a knight in shining armor. Here, the Earthling is opposed to the Kryptonian. A child of two worlds, one destroyed and the other on the verge of destruction… For the relatively green Cavill, the role is very complex, and although he finds some interesting nuances (when the hero first punches Zod, there’s a complete sense that he’s releasing pent-up rage; the boy finally fights back against the bully), his Kal is still somewhat prim and thaws out too slowly. As already mentioned, he doesn’t feel ticklish. The same can be said about Goyer’s script. You’re unlikely to laugh at “Man of Steel.”

Humor and Mentors

Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy was accused of lacking a sense of humor, and unfairly so: a serious attitude to the subject was simply necessary in this particular case. Besides, Batman had Alfred, and Bale’s existential fears were balanced by Michael Caine’s dry humor. There was also the Joker, terrifying but occasionally cracking great jokes, Selina Kyle, and his own “Clark Kent” in the guise of a dim-witted playboy. Surprisingly, there’s less of this lightness in “Man of Steel” than in Nolan’s trilogy. Cavill’s Kal-El doesn’t have partners making sarcastic remarks, but he does have orating mentors: Jonathan Kent, played by Kevin Costner, scolds him almost for having his underwear showing, and the bushy-haired Jor-El (Russell Crowe) begs him to give Earth a chance. His main enemy is General Zod, powerfully and fiercely played by Michael Shannon. Zod, in his black, cosmos-like armor with spikes and a stern goatee, could be an ancient Roman dictator or the last survivor of David Lynch’s “Dune.” He completely lacks the arrogant indifference of Terence Stamp’s character: this Zod does everything by the book and is passionately loyal to his oath. The “noble” intentions embedded in him from birth through eugenics allow him to combine the incompatible without the slightest remorse and go for the destruction of an entire race. He is a worthy opponent of Kal, physically not inferior to Superman, but unlike the vile fat man Lex Luthor, he doesn’t sneer.

Lois Lane and the Seriousness of the Film

It would seem that some levity could be expected from the clever Lois Lane, played by Amy Adams, a quite material girl with hair even redder than in John Byrne’s eighties comics (his mini-series “Man of Steel” was most likely one of the main sources of inspiration for Goyer). But no: she’s more irritable than flippant, and you won’t hear jokes like “Did you catch me? Has anyone caught you yet?” from her. And yet, she shouldn’t be blamed for having a worse sense of humor than Margot Kidder’s character: not only is her newspaper about to close, unable to compete with the internet, but an alien lands in her hometown (interestingly, the name “Metropolis” is never used in the film), deciding to “terraform” (or rather, “Kryptoform”?) the planet, intending to destroy all life on Earth, since he doesn’t shy away from genocide.

So, “Man of Steel” is a serious film, but perhaps it should be. Among other things, Superman returns to screens where there is already another alien god, Thor, not to mention Iron Man, Hulk… why be stingy - all the Avengers at once! In these circumstances, immediately excluding any smirks about the internal absurdity of the new film is a very smart move. In its new approach to the film, “Man of Steel” has not avoided some annoying logical blunders (the origin and nature of our hero’s powers and abilities are explained, but where Zod and his mega-thugs got similar superpowers remains unclear), but the way Goyer considers Kal-El’s appearance in the modern geopolitical situation deserves high praise. This achieves additional dramatic tension: Kal-El is not only an illegal immigrant, he is also a weapon of mass destruction the size of a human. Of course, the US government doesn’t trust him. In addition, although “Man of Steel” doesn’t compare to “The Avengers” in terms of wit, it’s head and shoulders above it as a spectacle.

Scale and Destruction

The film is striking in its scale. The action begins on Krypton, a detailed world of huge volcanic rocks and monstrous roaring reptiles. It’s an old planet, dying in an ecological catastrophe and, with its biomechanical pods for growing children, vividly reminiscent of “The Matrix” with its terrifying “desert of reality.” Huge black, as dark as space itself, spaceships and strange zoologically impossible creatures soar in its burning skies, and when Russell Crowe appears at the very beginning of the film riding a four-winged dragon, the viewer perceives this as an open claim to an epic. The incredible, unearthly scale and hyper-theatricality of this space opera then smoothly transfer to the streets of metropolises and small towns in America.

Be that as it may, when Superman (the hero is first and casually named so a couple of hours after the start of the film) at full speed exchanges blows with Zod’s henchmen in black cloaks with hoods, among whom is the general’s graceful comrade, Lieutenant Faroa, played by Antje Traue, who looks very much like Carrie-Anne Moss, collateral damage is inevitable. Buildings settle, collapse, and explode, crowds of earthlings die in fire and clouds of dust. In terms of large-scale destruction of cities, the Decepticons and Chitauri still need to learn from the Kryptonians (including Superman himself).

A sensible and confident Zack Snyder is undoubtedly an excellent choice for the position of director of such a film.

In the end, we got exactly the Superman that should have been expected from the person who made “Watchmen.” A person whose favorite word, apparently, is “awesome,” and in second place with a minimal gap is “super awesome.”