Review: Man of Steel

The short version: Man of Steel is an excellent attempt at a Superman movie.

First, the world-building. Krypton is more fully realized here than I've ever seen it. The series of events leading to Kal's departure for Earth is coherent, and efficiently tells us how Krypton came to its final state. The fights at the beginning give us a clear sense that this is a world that's dying, not just eight guys standing around in a crystal chamber. And the history Jor-El gives us later tells us something of why Krypton, the best of Krypton, was worth saving. Krypton as a world makes Jor-El's motivations believable.

Krypton as a world also makes Zod's motivations believable. This is not a moustache-twirling characature out for world domination because powah!!! Zod is a man who has lost his home, and is desperate, not for revenge, but to save what he can. Zod's motivations here are not self-serving, and if his priorities were just a little different he'd be a hero. This is a man with no choice; this is the kind of man that results when you take away choice. Zod is, essentially, a machine. But you'd never know it from the acting, which is top-notch all the way through.

Earth is also built as a believable world, particularly by Clark's interactions with humans. Through him we see people, all of them, as a mixture of good and bad. From the military to Pete Ross, nobody's a generic obstacle, nobody's a cheerleader. Everyone we see is a person, with hope and fear, not really that different from Clark.

There's more realism here than one would expect from a Superman movie, and it works nicely. The use of a crashed colony ship as a sort of Fortress of Solitude is a nice touch, neatly eliminating the unbelievable magic tech used to create it. Lois meeting Kal-El and figuring out he's Clark by backtracking him is a good introduction to the character of Lois, and her relationship to Clark. Having her know his secret from the start is also good. And the addition of the Codex in particular is a creative touch. It gives Zod reason to come to Earth, and gives Kal-El himself additional weight.

Now what's wrong with this movie? The entire last act! We have this excellent setup, great conflict for Superman against a worthy opponent, and what's the resolution? Superman just has to punch something hard enough. A machine, Kryptonians, something. During none of the fight to save the world did Superman have to show any intelligence at all. And neither did his enemies! His opponents were as un-injurable as he was, but did either ever try something creative? No! "Well, throwing you through a massive exploding silo and into the road at the speed of sound didn't so much as scratch you. Maybe if I punch you through another half-dozen buildings I'll slow you down!" I mean, really, people. Try the heat vision, try threatening a valuable asset, try something besides "punch harder"!

So after all that backstory, all that world-building, all we ended up with was a fake-looking inconsequential fight scene. That battle would have killed literally hundreds of thousands of people! And there's not a hint that anyone cared.

Hollywood has become a strange place lately. (Moreso.) We have these wonderfully-written movies that really care about the source material, and take creative risks with it. We have the special effects technology and budgets necessary to put on the screen literally anything you want. Yet somehow these seem to fight each other. We saw the same thing in Star Trek Into Darkness, where the mostly-excellent story fell completely apart when it was time for the big fight. But that's another review.

There are other minor flaws with Man of Steel. For their attempts to handle it well, the "secret identity" front is a mess. The General is actively trying to figure out who he is, and Superman outright tells him he's from Kansas and is 33 years old! How many 33-year-old white males of approximately this height and build, presumably lacking a birth certificate, can there be in a state of less than three million people? Maybe 50,000? I bet you the military would go through every one of those by hand to find this guy.

That little joke at the end where the female Captain tells the general that Superman is "kinda hot"? Yeah, that should have been dropped from the final edit. Insultingly unprofessional.

I won't be buying this movie, and I won't be watching it again. I'm glad I saw it, but I won't recommend it to others. I wish we lived in a world where recuts, serious all-out modifications of movies like this, were a thing. This movie could be a great film, on par with Nolan's Batman movies, if only they'd come up with a good resolution. As it is, it's a mish-mash, and the end ruins the start.