FILM REVIEW Man of Steel

KRYPTON FACTOR?Henry Cavill (centre) plays Superman in ‘Man of Steel’.

Is Kansas going bye-bye?


Cinema
Daniel Carey

IN 1933, a bald telepathic villain bent on world domination appeared in a short story. His name was Superman. Before the year was out, Superman had been recast as a hero, and a legend was born.
Eighty years and numerous films later comes the latest reboot of the Superman franchise, directed by Zack Snyder, the man behind ‘300’ and ‘Watchmen’, and co-written by Christopher Nolan of ‘The Dark Knight’ fame.
‘Man of Steel’ covers some of the same ground as the 1978 movie starring Christopher Reeve. Like JJ Abrams’s 2009 version of ‘Star Trek’, it opens with the birth of an icon. With the planet Krypton imploding, Jor-El (Russell Crowe) and Lara (Ayelet Zurer) decide to send their newly-born son hurtling towards a small blue planet. Meantime, General Zod (Michael Shannon, reprising the role made famous by Terence Stamp) leads a coup which ends up with him being sentenced to ‘300 cycles of somatic reconditioning’ – or freezing, as most of us might call it.
The childhood of Clark Kent, the alien who will become Superman, is told in a series of flashbacks. He discovers that he has x-ray vision, rescues a school bus, and deals with the concern of his adoptive parents the Kents (Diane Lane and Kevin Costner) that his secret will be discovered.
Reporter Lois Lane (Amy Adams, channelling her Amelia Earhart turn from ‘Night at the Museum 2’) discovers Clark’s secret. Her editor Perry White (Laurence Fishburne) refuses to adopt a ‘publish and be damned’ attitude to her tales of an extra-terrestrial in the snow, and later tells her to give up her source and forget journalistic integrity. I’m not sure I’d like to work at the Daily Planet.
Adult Clark (British actor Henry Cavill) learns his true identity and dons the cape. Zod and his cronies turn up in the skies above Earth with a demand reminiscent of ‘The Purge’ – turn over one individual and we won’t kill everyone. Some of the best scenes happen before their deadline passes, and Richard Schiff (who played Toby in ‘The West Wing’) makes an appearance. It’s when two the two Kryptonians come face to face that things start to go pear-shaped.
The first half of the picture is entertaining. There are some decent set-pieces and a strong supporting cast. The special effects serve the story relatively well in its initial stages – there’s plenty of spectacle and the action sequences are decently spaced out at the beginning. Things seem to be on the right track, and there’s a lot to like.
Unfortunately, the 143-minute running time means there’s still a long way to go. The explosions and property damage mount, and the whole project begins drowning in computer-generated imagery. There’s a lot of sound and fury, and it all goes a bit ‘Transformers’ for my liking.
In an obvious effort to repeat the success of Nolan’s Batman trilogy, we go ‘dark’, but not in a way that really works. There’s a lot of techno-babble – “Bring the Phantom Drive online” –and talk of Codexes and terraforming. It’s quite complicated for a 12A superhero flick, and joyless too.
As in the recent Will Smith vehicle ‘After Earth’, humour is notable by its absence. Unlike Lex Luthor, Zod is no wise-cracker, and the use of Clark Kent as a straight man to others’ wit has been ditched too.
Snyder and David S Goyer (who co-wrote the screenplay with Nolan) have been signed up for a sequel. Hopefully the potential in ‘Man of Steel’ can be more consistently realised in part two.

Rating 5 out of 10