Superman has long needed a do-over.
The third and fourth installments in the character’s original film series were critically panned. The 2006 semi-reboot, Superman Returns, attempted a convoluted solution to that problem — pretending they never existed and picking up right where Superman II left off, albeit several years later both on screen and in the real world, with a completely different cast.
Enter Man of Steel, the first true big-budget, live-action re-telling of the Superman myth. There’s a handful to enjoy in Zack Snyder’s version of the Last Son of Krypton’s tale — Amy Adams and Henry Cavill portray Lois Lane and Clark Kent excellently, large set-piece sequences are a sight to behold and Snyder’s bucking of the traditional superhero movie origin story sequencing is most welcome. But for everything that Man of Steel has going for it, there are at least four more that bog the film down and ultimately make this a listless and unenjoyable experience.
As stories go, the events that transpire in Man of Steel are pretty straight-forward. Krypton, the place Kal-El — later known as Superman — originally calls home, has a bit of a dilemma on its hands. The planet’s government obviously rallied behind a Kryptonian Sarah Palin at some point, given that much of the catastrophe awaiting the world can be attributed to “drill baby, drill” taken to the utmost extreme. An exhaustion of the planet’s natural resources have literally left it tapped out, with the core so unstable that it’s ready to explode.
Enter General Zod, masterfully played by Michael Shannon. He attempts to hold the government responsible for its destructive actions, but rather than suffering through a painful bureaucratic process, Zod stages a military coup. Although Jor-El (Russell Crowe), affectionately known as Superdad — well, not really — agrees with Zod’s sentiment, he’s not on board with the whole hostile takeover thing and in the fight that follows, Jor-El sends his only son rocketing off toward Earth before Krypton is completely decimated.
Without spoiling too much, Zod gains the upper hand in the ensuing struggle only to get caught and banished to the Phantom Zone. And that’s right before the entire planet goes kaboom (because perishing along with everyone you know and love is too light a punishment.) Instead, Zod and his fellow war criminals are sealed off to suffer together for however long 300 cycles is, presumably years.
And that’s the heart of what’s wrong with Man of Steel. Just like Zod’s punishment, that so much in the film is of little consequence is its largest fault. Flashbacks to Superman’s experiences as Clark Kent in Smallville and his interactions with his parents, played by Kevin Costner and Diane Lane, do little to engage. These short clips don’t do nearly enough to establish any meaningful relationship between the characters, and although Cavill and Adams play Clark and Lois masterfully when apart, put together they lack a legitimate connection that makes the kiss near the end of the film wholly unbelievable.
The DC universe carries a unique problem in that many of its locations are fictitious, requiring a bit of world building in order to forge any sense of attachment for viewers. Man of Steel doesn’t do much, if any of that, so the highly stylized and widespread destruction Superman and Zod wreak on Smallville and Metropolis doesn’t make an impact, particularly when the camera lingers on crashing buildings and explosions just long enough to capture the entire action before catching up with the Kryptonian flying through said landmarks.
Although the film excels in originality at times, such as its reversal of the now-standard heroic plot element of a virgin birth and its devotion to the sci-fi side of the Superman mythos, there’s just not enough there to maintain any sort of investment with the characters that fill this world. Maybe Superman isn’t relevant anymore. Or maybe it’s just impossible to put an indestructible man in a situation of any real consequence.