Man of Steel

It’s hard to believe that the public has so easily forgotten how awful the first attempt at a Superman reboot went. Bryan Singer bored us all to death with his melodramatic version of the comic book which included an Oscar worthy actor in Brandon Routh (from MTV’s Undressed) playing Superman and the overacting Kevin Spacey trying so desperately to come from behind the giant shadow of Gene Hackman. And I promise that’s the last time I will talk about K. Spacey coming from behind another man. Well actually I can’t promise that; he seriously needs to come out of the closet already. I mean I will forever give him props for beheading Gweneth Paltrow in Se7en but we all had to know he was gay when there weren’t frequent reports of non stop threesomes between him, Thora Birch, and Mena Suvari on the set of American Beauty! You put Colin Farrell within 200 miles of that set and I guarantee you that Suvari ends up pregnant and Chris Cooper comes out with a black eye.

But as it turned out this weekend, people were lined up by the hundreds to see the latest attempt at a reboot in Man of Steel. This time it was Zack Snyder and his unique approach that he brings to action movies who was allowed to sit in the director’s chair. He relies way too much on CGI with the actual story always taking a back seat but the end result is usually a cool looking movie at the very least. I went in with a little hope that this would be better than its predecessor because Christopher Nolan helped David S. Goyer with the script. And if you know anything about Goyer, when he has someone to actually reign him in a bit, he’s actually pretty decent at writing comic book stories.

So the story starts off pretty cool with the planet Krypton falling apart at the seams and you see Jor-El (Russell Crowe) trying everything that he can to save the planet and at least some of it’s people. But then General Zod (Michael Shannon) shows up with his army and has other ideas in mind. Crowe is able to escape Zod and sends his new born son Kal-El along with Krypton’s most important mechanism to the planet Earth to hopefully start a new life. In the meantime Zod and his crew are captured and are sentenced to a lifetime of imprisonment for treason and murder. He vows revenge for his wrongful sentencing and also promises to find Kal-El in order retrieve the missing mechanism and finish what he started.

Snyder then shows you in non linear fashion how Kal-El now named Clark, is adjusting to society. You see  how he spends his days working different odd jobs until there comes a time when he has to use his powers to save others and he once again has to disappear into obscurity.  He then flashes to when Clark was a kid and how he had to resist fighting back the kids that were picking on him because he was quiet and kept to himself. The entire time he has his dad Kevin Costner reassuring him that he is holding back his secret because he is destined to do something great and will eventually win over the human race with all of the wonderful things he is capable of doing. Little does he know that when Zod figures out where he is, this will be his time to show off his strength and the high moral code that his earthly father has taught him. There are more little sub plots to the story that I will let you discover on your own but it’s a pretty familiar plot.

The coolest part of the movie is the first half because this is where Snyder actually allows the story to engage you. He doesn't get too over the top when he shows both the younger and older versions of Clark doing amazing things to save humans. And the always wonderful Amy Adams actually gives us the first ever cute Lois Lane who is smart and sassy but thankfully not annoying. The best part of the film is when Zod’s ship enters the Earth’s atmosphere and he hacks into every line of communication that we have and sends out this chilling message threatening the human race to turn in Superman or he will destroy every inch of the planet to find him. This is point of the movie where you think Chris Nolan will turn this into the next Dark Knight. But instead, this is where they allowed Zack Snyder to enter the CGI room.

Every action scene is simply one computer generated image apparently throwing another computer generated image about 500 yards somewhere off the screen. The only power they really use is their strength, so it’s just one punch after the other while they look at each other with mean stares. Oh and wouldn’t you know it, they just so happen to land in a Sears store or an Exxon filling station, just in case you were wondering why you felt the need to get a new blender after the movie. After about an hour of seeing the same fight scene over and over you simply get bored. So you would think they would do something to mix it up a bit but no; this movie is completely humorless; no one ever says or does anything cool. Where is my “Son of Jor-El! KNEEL before Zod!” I know they had to adjust to the Earth’s atmosphere but at least have them do cool things with some of their other powers.

The final fight scene between Zod and Superman was actually ok. And everyone did an excellent job acting in it. I just wish that Chris Nolan put the reigns on both Snyder and Goyer. But with the talk of a second one already in the works, I am sure he will learn from his mistakes and make the sequel better. Due to the quality of the first half of the movie and because it was so well acted, I will give this movie a rating of BARELY FRESH!