“Man of Steel” Directed By Zack Snyder

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  Dan Walker on Film

Action Comics #1, the first appearance of Superman, June 1938

Director:

Zack Snyder (“300” and “Watchmen” but this is a Christopher Nolan – on speed – movie )

Cast:

Henry Caville (“Stardust”, “Whatever Works”)

Amy Adams (“Enchanted” and Oscar nominations for “Doubt”, “The Fighter”, and “The Master”)

Michael Shannon (“Revolutionary Road”, “Take Shelter”, “Mud”)

All the actors take a back seat to the real stars: the Effects and the Violence.

Running Time:  143 Minutes

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Just to get this clear and out of the way, I could be built like that guy but I don’t wanna.

I was looking forward to this movie because I was a big Superman fan as a kid and religiously read issues of Superman, Action, Adventure (featuring the Legion of Super-Heroes), The Justice League of America, Superboy, issues of World’s Finest where Superman was featured and, to a lesser extent, Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane.  (Call me a chauvinist, but I thought Supergirl comics were overkill and uninteresting and had the weakest storylines.)  I read them until the early 70’s when the stories and art were simple and before:

-they became printed versions of dark video games

-they became visually and thematically complicated

-all the characters had psychological problems or emotional baggage

Today’s superhero comics only bear a basic resemblance to what I grew up reading.  More and more, I’m glad I grew up when I did and for every reason.

Susannah York and Marlon Brando in the Krypton destruction scene from Richard Donner’s 1978 “Superman”

“Man of Steel”’s Krypton origin, despite how well-written and technically impressive it was in this movie, just isn’t necessary since a huge percentage of people seeing the movie have already seen at least one version of it.  I just wanted the Superman story to begin. For the next writers and directors that re-introduce Superman to us, just touch on his origin and get the movie going.  If I see one more depiction of Superman as an infant and the destruction of Krypton, I’ll scream (if I knew how to scream, that is. If I tried, I know I’d rupture something or it would come out sounding like Bea Arthur or Selma or Patty Bouvier yelling).  Mario Puzo, Richard Donner, Marlon Brando, Susannah York and the Oscar-winning effects guys nailed it in 1978 and set the bar too high for anyone to feel a need to try to improve on it.  Remember how jarring it was to see all those people falling in all that space during Krypton’s destruction?  I guess Hollywood thinks enough time has passed since the 2006 “Superman Returns” that we need to be re-reminded of Superman’s origin.

Since I’m sure you’ve never seen it before, here is the Superman symbol as designed for “Man of Steel”

And I still don’t like that they gave the “S” on Superman’s chest a Kryptonian meaning and the symbol for that meaning – “hope” in this case — coincidentally looks like a fancy version of the first letter of the English language version of his name instead of simply being the first letter in “Superman” (which is actually an egotistical name if you think about it).  Even the conversation in the movie pertaining to this topic made me squirm in my seat.

More than anything, this movie makes me want to see the 1978 Christopher Reeve / Gene Hackman / Margot Kidder / Ned Beatty / Valerie Perrine “Superman” and I just put it on my Netflix queue to get the memory of “Man of Steel” out of my mind as quickly as possible.  Like every other Superman fan at the time, I felt like that movie was made just for me.

Henry Cavill with the star of “Man of Steel”, the special effects

I’m way past a point where I think bigger, faster, brighter, louder, more violent and more of anything in general is better (as it is, I’ve backed off both of my HD monitors and feel better about it).  This is a movie geared toward gamers and where non-gamers are collateral damage.  I wasn’t sure it was safe for me to drive after I left the theatre, it was so numbing.  What this movie emphasizes are the effects and the effects emphasize size, intricacy, altitude, violence, destruction and, most of all, impact and velocity, all but the last of which are Christopher Nolan trademarks.  Another is the detailed falling / crumbling of big buildings.  There is even that rhythmic pounding that seems to have the strategic and psychological effect of indicating an urgent but not-too-fast and not-too-subtle heartbeat.  Remember that pounding that was still in your head when you left the theatre after you saw “Inception” and “The Dark Knight Rises”?  That.  It might even be the signature sound of Syncopy, Nolan’s production company, and it plays – not too loudly but it’s there — over the logo at the beginning of the movie.  Foreboding.  It’s like a warning to leave the theatre while you have the chance and before the movie starts.

Amy Adams emerging from a Times Square manhole in Kevin Lima’s 2007 “Enchanted”

I don’t even know if the acting is good because it’s so constricted by the one-dimensional characters and the dialogue, which is distracting in how bad it is.  If dialogue is going to be distracting, I’d much rather have it be distracting in a good way, like it was in “Lincoln.”  Here’s how bad the dialogue is: Russell Crowe (Jor-El) never once sounds good which, had I thought about it, would have seemed impossible before watching this movie.  Everyone’s dialogue is clumsy and obvious and I wanted every sentence to mercifully end before it did.  I especially feel badly for Adams (Lois Lane), one of my favorite actors, regardless of the size of her still well-deserved paycheck considering what she’s given to work with.  This is the first time I’ve seen her not have one good scene.  In the other movies I’ve seen her in, all her scenes are, at minimum, good (I haven’t seen “Junebug”, for which she earned a fourth Oscar nomination) and you don’t think of what she’s doing as acting because she’s so convincing.  When you do think of her as an actress while you watch her, you feel like you’re watching someone who is very, very good at what they do.  Even “The Master”, which I didn’t like, utilized and treated her better than this movie does.  I should have included “Bad Dialogue” as a main cast member.

Michael Shannon as Zod. My ATM card and car keys are in the mail, buddy. Just leave me alone.

Only Shannon sounds good, mostly because his character has more dimension (not hard in this movie), focus, emotion and volume than everyone else.  Besides, the main villain is always the best role.  Plus, he has that great face; the one you never want focused on you.  I have to give the writers (of which Nolan was one and he also produced and it seems really directed the movie) credit for making Shannon’s super-villain, Zod, also less one-dimensional than previous superman villains in that he really does want to preserve his (and Superman/Kal-El’s) race, although his means are destructive and at all costs.  The Earth and, specifically, Metropolis just happen to be in the way of this goal.  By comparison, the 1978 Zod played by Terence Stamp just wanted to rule the universe and be an otherwise pointless and egomaniacal jerk (with a great delivery).*  Other actors in “Man of Steel” saddled with one-dimensional characters and bad dialogue and interspersed throughout the movie are Kevin Costner (Jonathan Kent), Diane Lane (Martha Kent), Laurence Fishburne (in a nice casting choice as Perry White), Richard Schiff, and Christopher Meloni.

Henry Cavill in “Man of Steel”. Does a bearded guy in this pose remind you of anyone?

Any more, it doesn’t even make sense to say “the effects are good” because it’s the standard now, but they are.  Seamless and dazzling (not a word I usually use), even though they aren’t enough to save the movie and actually worked against me enjoying it because they’re just too much (the word that comes to mind is “blitzkrieg”).  The thing about Nolan’s movies is that the scripts are smart – the basic “Man of Steel” storyline is uncomplicated but its components are not and I was confused throughout a lot of the movie – and the films are technically and visually tight and impressive and everything is well done but they all have a dark, overly serious, ominous, hopeless feeling.  I first noticed this with 2005’s “Batman Begins” (although Nolan’s 2000 “Memento” has the same feel), which really loomed over me as I left the theatre.  Good things are generally not described with any variation of the phrase “loom over”.   I was outside in sunlight and still felt claustrophobic while I stood in front of the theatre.  That was a movie I had to work to shake off.  All his movies are like that for me.  It’s like they all lack a soul.

Henry Cavill as Jesus, I mean Superman.

And then there’s the Jesus thing.  We were given a little bit of that vibe in the trailers with the close-up of the title guy looking up slowly and closing his eyes, as if basking in his own loveliness or self-importance, not that I think the real JC was ever remotely self-important.  It’s just not right for the character.  Then there’s the scene where sliding doors open and he emerges from a blinding light.  If anyone doesn’t need a dramatic entrance, it’s Superman.  His entrances are inherently dramatic.  That costume alone is enough of a statement.  The only thing missing is Michael Buffer announcing him.  In that shot, he not only steps on JC’s toes, he steps on MJ’s as well.

Throughout the movie, the theme is that Kal-El was put on Earth to save the world.  Every significant character (except, I think, the bad guys). and some that weren’t significant, says it in some form.  The choir screeching during the intense scenes focusing on Superman — usually flying — echoes that sentiment.  Most especially and blatantly, after he talks to the physical form of the conscience of his father, Jor-El, on a ship, he steps outside, levitating in outer space with his arms outstretched in a not-subtle-at-all crucifix/iron-cross position, which he holds for an uncomfortably long time (you expect Jor-el, especially since Crowe plays him, to ask, “Why are you doing that?”), before flying down to earth to save us all from Satan’s power.

Yes, this bothered me enough that I’m putting up three pictures to emphasize my point.

I can’t find a place to put this so I’ll just make a separate paragraph to say the flashbacks are distracting and disrupting and, for me, don’t add enough value to justify using them.

I liked Snyder’s “300” and liked “Watchmen” even more and that was another reason I anticipated seeing this movie but, again, it really does have more of Nolan’s touch than Snyder’s.

When I started reviewing movies for this site I did it not thinking of it as being a movie “critic”, because of the negative connotation.  Plus, having worked in the film industry, I understand how much thought, planning, and work is involved in every aspect of the process of making and releasing a movie.  I want to be objective and, even if I don’t like a movie,  I want to be diplomatic about it.  If you like this type of movie (special effects and violence), especially if you are a gamer, you’ll really like “Man of Steel”, since I can objectively say it was very well-made and visually impressive, especially when Superman punches something or someone.  As I was watching it I kept thinking that I’d want to watch it again to see what it was I missed or didn’t quite understand and that still may be the case.  In the meantime, it’ll take me some time to shake it off.

DPW

June 29, 2013

*While I’m on the subject, Kevin Spacey, a good actor and a two-time Oscar winner, was miscast in the 2006 movie.  Lex Luthor is supposed to be evil, not bitchy.

In writing about the lack of necessity of elaborating on Superman’s origin and out of curiousity, I checked out the running time of two other movies, “The Avengers” and the recent version of “The Great Gatsby”.  The running time for “Man of Steel” and those two movies is the same, 143 minutes.  Is that a new minimum for big-budget films?  I guess we get our money’s worth but that’s long for a movie.

Michelle Pfeiffer in “Stardust”

I just realized that, other than the pictures, I never connected the title role to its actor, Henry Caville.  I’ll bet no one else who reviewed the movie made that omission.  I liked Matthew Vaughn’s 2007 fantasy “Stardust” but don’t remember Caville in it.  Besides being an enjoyable movie, “Stardust” has two great roles for and performances by Michelle Pfeiffer as a witch and Robert DeNiro as a closeted but flaming-when-his-crew-isn’t-looking gay pirate captain.

Robert De Niro in “Stardust”

I guess Caville plays the romantic lead but who can remember with Pfeiffer and DeNiro in the roles they both milk?  In Woody Allen’s 2009 “Whatever Works”, Caville, a handsome young actor with a British accent (he’s actually from Jersey in the Channel Islands), plays Randy, a handsome young actor with a British accent that wrecks the home of the lead, played by Larry David.  He does well in a role that doesn’t give him much range or screen time.  David, Patricia Clarkson, Ed Begley, Jr. and Evan Rachel Wood are all good in roles they seem to enjoy.  The movie shares three elements with Allen’s wonderful 1987 40’s nostalgia movie, “Radio Days” as follows:

I remember Larry David from the ABC 1980-82 late night sketch comedy show, “Fridays”. He looked nothing like this yearbook photo 33 years ago.

1)Larry David is in both movies, although his appearance in “Radio Days” is very brief with no close-ups so you can’t really know it’s him unless you recognize his voice, which you can do because his short scene is nothing but arguing.

2) The phrase “smells from formaldehyde” is used.

3) Both movies end with a New Year’s Eve party.

It also shares an element with “The Purple Rose of Cairo”, my favorite Allen movie until “Crimes and Misdemeanors” came out, in that David’s character acknowledges the movie audience and even explains to the other NYE partiers its existence, which they can’t see.

One thing I’ve always wanted to address is the way Superman saves falling people, and I thought of it immediately the first time Christopher Reeve did it with Margot Kidder and again with Cavill/Adams.  When the Loises fall, they do so vertically – makes sense – at a constantly increasing velocity (the 32 feet per second per second thing).

Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder in 1978’s “Superman”

When Superman saves them, he’s flying (more or less) horizontally, also at a high speed and he doesn’t veer from that horizontal path after catching the falling Lois and there’s minimal to no disruption in his own velocity.  I’m not a physics expert but, at those speeds, wouldn’t the impact of the moment Lois’ motion abruptly goes from vertical to horizontal shatter every bone and damage every organ in her body?  Doesn’t the moment he abruptly stops someone’s momentum and increasingly accelerated descent constitute high-speed impact?  The smarter way to save her is to fly next to her, match the speed of her downward descent, grab her and continue the descent and gradually – a relative term since the transition can be blink-of-an-eye quick and still be safe and effective – change her path and momentum from vertical downward to that of an arc until it becomes horizontal.  He can also continue downward after catching her and, if the distance to the ground allows for it, slow down at a rate that’s non-endangering and just set her down.   It’s split-second but check out around 2:25 of this trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6DJcgm3wNY    Because it’s so fast, I don’t know if that’s Lois he’s saving in that scene.  Now I want to see the Lois Lane rescue scene in”Man of Steel” again.  In looking back at Christopher Reeve saving Margot Kidder, he actually comes from the street to catch her after she falls out of the helicopter and they compensate a bit by having him cushion her fall once she’s in his arms and he slows her descent before flying upward.   I still think the physics are misrepresented but just to show I’m happy to prove myself wrong:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCLi3_-iXHk

I had a similar thought during the Will Smith parachute landing scene in “Independence Day”.   The strange thing about that scene is that it emphasizes the impact of his landing.  I could almost feel my legs breaking when I watched that scene.  I took a parachute jumping class when I was about ten and the very first thing you learn, like in judo, is how to fall.  You roll when you hit the ground so your body doesn’t absorb the full impact.  Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D2_RZZ8hx4

Here’s my gift to you classic DC and Superman fans.

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