Man of Steel is a solid 90
minutes of story crammed into 144 minutes of running time. The film
begins with a half hour - long prologue telling us just why Ma and Pa
El put baby Kal in a spaceship and sent him to Earth (Hey,
comparative religion nerds: look up “El” on Wikipedia!), and why
General Zod is gonna come and get him. This could've been handled
with a three-minute montage.
Fast forward to Kansas, which is populated by jerks, bullies, and fat
people. Oh, and the improbably attractive Ma & Pa Kent (Kevin
Costner and Diane Lane), who teach Baby Kal, now named Clark, that
America is full of jerks and bullies, and that he'd better keep his
head down.
Now, I know that each storyteller gets to tell the story he wants,
but a Superman who wasn't raised on Truth, Justice, and The American
Way is just some bodybuilder in blue long johns.
Back to the story: Clark grows up into Henry Cavill and decides to be
in a Christopher Nolan movie, one loaded with deep blues, blacks, and
grays (with one exception: the caressing, golden light that seems to
envelop him whenever he turns his head). He's afraid of intolerant
Americans, so he keeps his head down. But look out: here comes Lois
Lane (Amy Adams, lit and photographed by people who don't seem to
like her), and she's about to blow his cover!
Great. By now, we're an hour and a half into this movie, nothing
interesting is happening, and Superman's still just some bodybuilder
shopping for blue long johns.
Eventually, Zod shows up and things get interesting. He brings lots
of minions, and Superman fights them all, one by one. This is still
an ugly movie with a blue and grey palette, but the super-fights
between (our hero? I guess. The movie is named after him and
there's all that golden lighting.) Kal and the evil Kryptonians do a
wonderful job of showing us what single combat between super-beings
might look like. They're incredibly fast. They pack walloping
punches. When they throw things, those things have weight and do
damage. No kidding – these sequences are spectacular, and they
raise the film from two to three stars in my estimation.
And then it ends in a surprising twist on the standard “Hero spares
villain, but villain tries one last trick that backfires and kills
him, thus satisfying audience bloodlust while leaving heroic
consciences unsullied.” It shocked my kids, showed some bravery on
the part of the production team, and worked.
But a solid last hour in a
two-and-a-half hour movie doesn't cut it. Man of Steel
is too long, too ugly, and too dour to make for a good Superman
movie. I loved those big fights, but I'm still disappointed.
