Film Review: Man Of Steel

Film review by Tom Hunt

Note: The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of RetoxMagazine.com

Man Of Steel

You know when you come out of the cinema after watching a Superhero film and you want to be that hero? Come on admit it, we all do it. When Batman Begins came out and you thought, “damn, how bad ass was Christian Bale, now I want to be Batman!”. Iron Man came out and you thought, “damn, how funny was Robert Downey Jr, now I want to be Iron Man”. With Man of Steel there is no, "damn 'insert line here' now I want to be Superman". There's just a feeling that while it was better than the previous outing a few years back, there was still something missing, something that wasn't quite right about the film. Was it Henry Cavill - playing the iconic role? Was it the realistic style? It's hard to pinpoint where it actually loses you - although there's only so many times you can see people getting fly-smashed into a building before you think “come on now! This ain't gonna be cheap to fix", - side note, how long would it take to rebuild a large portion of a City?

While it's unfair to compare Henry Cavill to arguably the best Superman/Clark Kent/ (and since we're getting serious about this now) Kal-El, in Christopher Reeves, it's inevitably going to happen. Reeves had an advantage though, Richard Donner's 1978 Superman was ambitious for its time, while Man of Steel has the likes of The Dark Knight Rises, Iron Man 3 and The Avengers of late to compare it too. And while we all know the story, Goyer/Nolan's (writers) and Synder's (director) outing decided to re-write the tale and follow the personal story of how Clark Kent becomes Superman. Donner however, wrote his as an origins story too, but then jumped right into it. If (once) Man of Steel 2 (The Man of Steel Rises?) comes out, we may be more able to judge Cavill on his ability – that isn't to say he wasn't likeable in this film, his performance was good, but so different to what we've had in recent years. That pretty much sums up the whole film. The writing and directing team wanted to go for something different, it's as far away from Superman Returns as possible, and maybe that was a good thing. But even though I wasn't feeling the hype or the anticipation, it's still hard not to feel disappointed, because I wanted it to change my mind. I wanted more Jonathan Kent (Kevin Costner)! Those father/son scenes were some of the nicest parts of the film, and it's a shame more of Clark growing up wasn't shown, as it would have been much welcomed.

Pictured: Man Of Steel film poster.

Another great performance and addition to the film was General Zod (Michael Shannon). Shannon was superb (nothing less than anyone who is aware of this actor should have expected) and brought more of a presence, fear and outright lunacy (but one you can understand at the same time) to the role made famous by Terence Stamp. The Clark Kent/Lois Lane (Amy Adams) relationship is one you have absolutely never seen before. Their whole relationship and arch is changed around and turned upside down, which was once again one of the more refreshing things the film could have done – and Man of Steel really highlights Lois Lanes strengths, not only as a feisty, determined reporter but also showing a new side of heroism on her part. And on a small note, yes the suit absolutely does work. As much as you can complain about the realistic style, the contrails and everything else that came with it, the suit needed a revamp. We're no longer living in the Victorian strong-man era, underpants go under the pants! It works, it should have been done a long time ago and kudos need to be given to Synder for having the guts to pull the trigger.

Superman, for all the power he holds, is a humble Hero. He doesn't look at himself as better than humans, he doesn't take his power for granted. Superman's story has always been one of my favourite. Clark Kent is his mask, not the other way round. He's having to hide himself on a daily basis. His story is one we can connect with (minus the alien...thing), he's trying to figure out who he is, and where he belongs in the world – something all of us go through at some point in our lives. Ultimately he's lost, trying to figure out his life, and in that process hes become connected to humans. Man of Steel tries hard, and comes closer than we've ever seen before to capture this, but at times it still felt like it was a little rushed. I like how this is a young Superman, he's still working out how he's going to be, how he will inspire the human race to be better, and there are some key moments in the film that show he's still not quite ready to be the Superman we all know he will turn out to be, there's a lot more of his journey to come. The worse parts of the film are the action/fight scenes. It just all gets a little too much and frustrating, and while that's the beauty of modern day film making – to be able to bring these larger than life fight scenes that we weren't able to get back in Richard Donner's 1978 original – there's just a sense that unlike the timelessness of the original, one day we'll look back on this and think, "what the hell was going on there", especially when some people are already thinking that as they were watching it.

Man of Steel certainly had it's strong points, but it's hard to see how a Justice League film would fit into this universe. It seems stuck, somewhere between the grittiness of The Dark Knight and flashiness of the Iron Man. With the film though comes a brand new drinking game; how many times can they break a building!

Is Superman done with as a franchise? There seems to be life in the title yet, and it'll certainly coup a lot of money at the box office, but unlike other recent Superhero films before it there's still going to be a lot of doubt, and a lot of work to do to turn it into a universal must see film.