Mike Watches a Movie - Man of Steel

From what I hear, Man of Steel is receiving a bit of a panning from critics. After viewing the movie last weekend, I think I’m ready to give my take on the movie.




Overall, I was entertained by the movie. I certainly enjoyed it more than “Superman Returns” from 7 years ago. It had a much bigger feel to it than that particular movie. I must say though that after leaving the movie theatre my first impulse was to go home and watch the original Richard Donner “Superman” again.



I liked Henry Cavill in the role of Superman. I found him likeable and I was rooting for him throughout the movie. With a beard he kind of looked like a muscled up Andy Murray actually. That being said, I don’t think he bettered or even matched the performance of Christopher Reeve from the original movie. That is more a comment on the strength of Reeve’s performance as opposed to a comment on the weakness of Cavill. He was a perfectly fine Superman and I think that he has potential to grow into the role in future movies should he be given the opportunity.



Hans Zimmer’s musical score, though not bad per say, doesn’t do much for the movie and is barely even close to the excellence of John William’s score. The lack of the classic Superman theme really hurts the movie. There are numerous scenes where a bit of the William’s theme or even a re-mix of it would have been greatly appreciated. The movie just lacks certain panache without it. I can certainly understand the reasons why they wouldn’t want to include it, but I still think the movie is a lesser film for not having it.



I’ve seen some people complain that the flashbacks aren’t in order ala Batman. I’ll say this right away, I hate origin stories. A character like Superman really doesn’t need an origin story to begin with. It certainly didn’t require a whole film dedicated to it like Iron Man did. I actually preferred the flashbacks being placed throughout the film as opposed to doing the big origin build up. They get into the meat and potatoes of the story pretty quickly and I appreciated that.



I actually kind of liked that the flash backs weren’t in chronological order. To me, that was an accurate representation of how the human mind works. When you think about things that have happened in the past, do you do it in order? Of course not. Your mind swoops and shuffles between memories and whatever is the most relevant one at the time usually comes to mind. I liked that this was reflected in the movie. Whether the writer intended that as such I’m not sure but I think it still stands as a relevant point.



The fight scenes have gotten some stick as well but I found them to be visually and mentally stimulating. It can’t be easy trying to recreate some of the bizarre fight situations that a character like Superman would find himself in and I thought the movie did an admirable job in that regard. I watched the movie in 2D so it may have been easier on my eyes than those who watched in 3D. I’ve actually read in some reviews that people got motion sickness watching it but I think that would have to be in jest.



I’m not going to go into the plot too much, just in case anyone reading this hasn’t seen the movie. I know other reviewers had issues with the story and the scripting. Most of them are fair criticisms in my opinion. The characters on the whole are overly simplified and spend most of the story going on big speeches in lieu of actually developing any character. Kevin Costner as Jonathon Kent spends every scene he’s in going on some speech or another at every free moment. I can only imagine there were scenes of the Kent family enjoying a breakfast meal at their local Harvester that had to be cut due to time constraints as the movie just couldn’t contain another 5 minute Costner speech about responsibility and humanity.



The lack of character depth is probably the biggest problem with the movie actually. A Superman movie thrives or dies on the supporting cast. Superman himself is so infallible and so good that it’s hard to find him fully interesting for a 2 hour movie. It’s by surrounding him with interesting characters like Lois Lane and Lex Luthor that drama can be derived. Superman is practically invincible so it’s hard to feel that he is ever in any personal peril.



However, Lois is human. She can be hurt and she can be killed hence this is where the drama from a Superman movie is usually pulled from. If the supporting cast isn’t up to it then the film lacks a fair amount of drama. They try but I never really felt myself caring about what happened to the characters. Most of them are so one dimensional and so blasé about putting themselves in danger that it just totally took me out the movie from a dramatic standpoint.



To be honest, I think pretty much everything, bar maybe the fight scenes, was much better in the original Superman movie from the 70’s. The music was better, the characters were better, the story was better and the comedy was better. That’s not to say that there is no worth to “Man of Steel”.



Like I said earlier, I enjoyed watching it and if it was on TV and I hadn’t seen it in a while, I’d probably be able to sit down and watch it again and derive some entertainment from it. It’s not a good movie though. Apparently Christopher Nolan fans are going on the defensive but I don’t know why. Everyone makes a bad movie now and then. It’s impossible to be a film maker and have a spotless record. This one didn’t hit the mark but I’m sure he’ll do alright in future movies. “The Dark Knight” is still one of the finest films ever made and I loved and still love “Inception”.



I’m actually surprised that two films with such rich and enjoyable characters spawned a movie with such wooden characters as “Man of Steel” but hey I guess Nolan was overdue for a bad film. It’s not an all time stinker and if you go to it with an open mind, I imagine there’ll be things in it that you can enjoy. Just buy yourself some nachos with some of that cheesy flavoured warm plastic that cinema’s sell, sit back, enjoy it as best you can, have a grumble with your mates in the pub/fast food store/wine bar afterwards and then buy Richard Donner’s “Superman” off Amazon when you get home.