I like superhero movies. Maybe it's a flaw; I don't know. But I like them. I like their fairly clear-cut battles, and I like their inevitable -- required -- exploration of what it means to be a hero. Sure, the heroes are outsized, but that's because the issues are put under a huge magnifying glass. Also, because it's more fun that way. I like a movie with lots of action, lots of heart, and the bad guys getting pounded in the end, after a challenging struggle. It's old fashioned, and, to paraphrase my favorite line in The Avengers, sometimes you need a little old-fashioned. Or low-brow, if you you'd rather. I'm fine with being low-brow.
I'm not big on the comics they come from, honestly -- too many years, and too much grasping at plot straws to keep the story going. I think the films tend to distill it more and make it more powerful.
I was late to the party with Man of Steel. I'm not even sure how it did at the box office -- I know I didn't hear a soul talking about it, but it seems like people don't talk about movies as much as they used to. I've seen the Nolan Dark Knight movies, and thought they were an interestingly somber take on the subject, but I don't love them. They were smart, but a little cold. I was curious as to what they'd do with the narmiest of all superheroes, Superman. Answer? Smart, but more than a little cold, and not just because a lot of it was set in the Arctic. It was like trying to have a conversation with a well-designed computer that doesn't exactly grok what it's talking about.
So, breaking it down:
Setting
Unlike most Superman movies I've seen, there isn't much focus on setting. We open on Krypton (now mined to oblivion), then there's the middle of ocean, then flashbacks to Smallville, then the Arctic, then a little bit of Metropolis, then a dirt road somewhere, then a spaceship, then... and so on. All of the places had a certain generic flavor to them... including the spaceship, for heaven's sake. There's a neat metal-based technology for visual broadcast, but that's just a special effect. It's hard to feel bad when the Kent house is smashed up, because, well... we haven't been there, not really.
Theme
The savior as outcast, same as the Dark Knight theme. It works, to some extent, but seems an odd choice of conflict, given the decision for the focus of the plot (the quest for the genetic legacy of all Krypton, encoded in Kal-El's cells). With Superman, there's an automatic foundling plot in any version, and this one does in fact call upon him to choose between Krypton and Earth... only he hasn't really bonded with either, at least not on screen, so the only way to get the inner conflict is to sit there and add up the elements, create the inner conflict for yourself (because of course, that's what it would feel like), then try to match it to what's going on. (In other words, of course we know that it would have to be a huge decision between your extinct homeworld and your adoptive world -- how could it not be? -- but the movie takes no time to actually establish it before the choice is on Kal-El.)
Plot
It's the General Zod plot (Kryptonian war criminal seeks out escapee Kal-El). It's added to some genetic engineering, species superiority, and an attempt at forced terraforming, or Kryptoforming, as the case happens to be. It was a decent plot, and it provided Superman with a reasonable foe (Lex Luthor is almost always laughable). It just seemed more like the plot of a second movie -- not because it was the second of the Reeves movies, but for the reason it was the second of the Reeves movies: It's a dense plot that suffers when it's trying to co-exist with an origin story.
There's one dropped plot point that's under my skin, even though I guess it shouldn't be. And it's not so much a plot point as... well. Just before the death of Jonathan Kent, the family is on the road and arguing about Clark's future. Clark demeans the farming the family has been doing... right before a tragedy. That's set up to be significant. During the battle with Zod, Zod taunts Clark with his farm upbringing, which seems set up to somehow reference that. But if there's some pay off to it, I completely missed it. Nothing Clark does in that battle really showcases what he might have learned on the farm. (This is partly because WE DON'T SEE HIM LIVING ON THE FARM. You put the gun over the damned mantel, people. FIRE IT. Ahem.)
Character
I think Nolan's strength is doing intellectually interesting things with the characters, even if they never quite emotionally connect. Clark trying not to hit a bully, Jonathan Kent's kind of fanatic attempt to keep Clark's abilities secret, that sort of thing. Dropping the whole "triangle" with Clark-Lois-Superman was refreshing; it's usually pretty frustrating when she has no clue. And whoa! They showed her being a reporter and tracking him down. Lois was my hands-down favorite improvement here. She's smart, level-headed, and quick to adjust to upsetting circumstances. Three cheers for updating a character who always had a tendency to be a little annoying.
Also, a very strong point was Clark's grief at having to kill his enemy. That's a very real character moment.
Style
Where do you go with style on these? I think I can safely say that stylistically, I am just not a fan of this filmmaker, but a lot of people are. There's not much to be said on the subject of differing tastes and expectations. I don't like weird lighting and grimy colors.
The one thing I will say about the movie in terms of style that I think genuinely didn't work -- as opposed to me just not being crazy about it -- was the non-linear storytelling. Non-lin can be made to work, but it didn't here. The Smallville part of the Superman story is important in establishing the character, and here, it's dropped in with such random dribs and drabs, often interrupting the action, that the character never gets established. Sure, you can say that everyone knows the Superman mythos and it doesn't need to be re-hashed. Except that we don't know that they plan on keeping the character intact. We have to see it. Every time you're making a fresh version, the audience assumes that the rules might well change.
Shrug.
It was okay. I'm not in a rush to go see the sequel (as opposed to my anticipation of The Winter Soldier), but I'll probably remember that it's been out, once it's been out, and check it out on Netflix or Amazon Instant.
