Man of Steel
Starring: Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Russell Crowe
Directed By: Zack Snyder
Reviewed by Danielle Muir

[rating: 3/5]

It’s disappointing to see a film with such promise fall back on the hope that explosions will feed the masses.  This should have been director Zack Snyders piece de resistance – instead what starts off as a promising, hyper stylized look at the evolution of Clark Kent to Kal-El becomes a mish-mash of gratuitous CGI fight scenes and not a shred of character development for its hero leads.  What a shame.

The film starts off as an origin story of sorts, switching between a bedraggled thirty three year-old Clark Kent (Cavill) sporadically doing good whilst remaining anonymous, and his younger self struggling with being an outsider.  A spectacular opening sequence on a geographically and politically unstable Krypton raises hopes that Man of Steel will be the finest rendition of this classic hero, as the wise Jor-El (Crowe) sends his newborn son to Earth in the midst of a burgeoning war.  At the forefront of the gunfire is General Zod (a standout performance by Michael Shannon), who vows to hunt down the newborn.

For some unknown reason, both Clark Kent and Superman have been portrayed by the too pretty Henry Cavill as robotic.  When he’s not letting out a cry of anguish (which sounds the part, but ultimately is thrown in for the sake of variety), he’s delivering dialogue as though engaging in a public speaking contest.  And whilst Adams plays her Lois Lane sufficiently whip-smart and inquisitive, next to no time is focused on building their relationship, instead they’re thrown together in scenes where they barely interact.  Their love seems to be built on the fact they’re both attractive, and that everybody knows Lois and Superman get it on in the long run.

The most satisfying (and unfortunately fleeting) moments come from a young Clarks’ interaction with his father Jonathon (a heartfelt Costner).  The scenes they share hold the most gravitas, as Jonathon persuades Clark to hide what he is – sensing the world will turn against him.  Fans of Superman lore knows that this relationship is eventually severed – Man of Steel’s version of events is both heart-stopping and breaking, providing the most vulnerable and emotionally powerful punch in two and a half hours.

However after this its all downhill – the emotion is lost in what seems like half a movie of non-stop debris and overdone carnage, with a CGI Superman and Zod smashing buildings and people.  It’s a real headache and overshadows everything that came before it.  There are some great over-the-shoulder tracking shots of Superman chasing Zod through buildings at super-speed, but there’s nothing else memorable about the second half.

So whilst Man of Steel has fleeting moments of brilliance, ultimately all that’s really memorable is the rubble of Metropolis and a supermodel masquerading as Kal-El.  Again, a real shame.