Man of Steel
Year: 2013
Director: Zack Snyder
Starring: Amy Adams, Henry Cavill & Michael Shannon
Runtime: 143 mins
BBFC: 12
Published: 11/08/21
Director: Zack Snyder
Starring: Amy Adams, Henry Cavill & Michael Shannon
Runtime: 143 mins
BBFC: 12
Published: 11/08/21
Despite being a critical and commercial success, 2006’s Superman Returns did not live up to the expectations of Warner Bros. executives and the Superman franchise was put on ice. In fact, it took the exceptionally incredible The Dark Knight in 2008 to renew WB’s faith in their superhero licenses. So, a Superman reboot trilogy was put on the cards, one with a darker tone to match that of Nolan’s incredibly successful Batman trilogy and to move with the progressively more complex demands placed upon the superhero genre following both The Dark Knight and Iron Man. The project had a less than smooth production process with multiple directors attached to the project, the film undergoing multiple extensive rewrites, and WB scrapping plans for any sequels. It almost seemed like the film would never get made. But it did, of course, and 2013’s Man of Steel went on to become the new standard WB wanted for their superhero movie output. But looking back on it now, did it signal the tragedy of the DC Extended Universe before it even got off the ground?
With the planet Krypton dying, scientist Jor-El (Russell Crowe) places the genetic code of the Kryptonian people in a codex, gifting it to his infant son Kal-El, and sends them both out into the stars in a lifepod. As the planet succumbs to its fate, General Zod (Michael Shannon) survives thanks to being sentenced to exile for his role in starting an uprising against the Kryptonian leaders.
Kal-El’s pod crash lands in Kansas where he is raised by the Kent family as their son, Clark. Throughout his childhood, Clark is toughed how to control his incredible powers and hide away from heroic actions for the sake of himself and humanity at large.
Now and adult, Clark (Henry Cavill) is in search of his heritage. When he and a reporter, Lois Lane (Amy Adams) discover remains of a Kryptonian ship, Zod is drawn to Earth in search of Kal-El, the codex, and a new home for Krypton which he intends to take by force.
With the planet Krypton dying, scientist Jor-El (Russell Crowe) places the genetic code of the Kryptonian people in a codex, gifting it to his infant son Kal-El, and sends them both out into the stars in a lifepod. As the planet succumbs to its fate, General Zod (Michael Shannon) survives thanks to being sentenced to exile for his role in starting an uprising against the Kryptonian leaders.
Kal-El’s pod crash lands in Kansas where he is raised by the Kent family as their son, Clark. Throughout his childhood, Clark is toughed how to control his incredible powers and hide away from heroic actions for the sake of himself and humanity at large.
Now and adult, Clark (Henry Cavill) is in search of his heritage. When he and a reporter, Lois Lane (Amy Adams) discover remains of a Kryptonian ship, Zod is drawn to Earth in search of Kal-El, the codex, and a new home for Krypton which he intends to take by force.
I haven’t seen Man of Steel in around half a decade, around the time Batman vs Superman released, and that was the only time I ever watched it. I honestly remember it being a lot worse than it was, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed revisiting it. But there are some caveats to that statement.
Starting off with the story, whilst the opening twenty minutes or so is interesting, following Jor-El as he prepares for the end of the world; the next forty minutes where we’re introduced to Clark, his search for answers, and much of his upbringing in Kansas, is extremely slow paced and kind of boring.
The story picks up again at the start of the second act where humanity is made aware of the existence of Kryptonian’s by Zod’s message, and Clark’s preparation for taking on Zod. This then continues into the third act, which is basically all just fighting, which has its ups and downs. What I’m trying to say is that the film is unevenly paced, and the story goes through lots of dips in quality over the two-and-a-half-hour runtime.
The peak of the whole film for me was at the start of the second act, with Zod’s message. That whole scene and what immediately follows it was so fantastic, and I completely forgot it existed in the film. The whole sequence plays out like a horror film as these aliens invade and start making demands. Nobody knows what to do, and nobody even knows how to make sense of what Zod has demanded, because nobody knew Clark isn’t human.
The majority of the final battle was also really good, particularly concerning the ‘World Engine’ as seeing people flee Metropolis as it crumbles like a disaster film. In fact, Man of Steel is at its best when it isn’t a superhero film. But unfortunately, superheroes got to get into big fistfights, right?
The weakest part of Man of Steel is without a doubt the scenes where Clark is fighting Zod and his goons in hand-to-hand combat. These sequences were never particularly enjoyable, and after all these years they’re even worse. None of the combat has any weight to it because they’re always flying around or running super-fast. The actors look like the rubber Smith clones from The Matrix Reloaded, and they level entire cities in seconds. It’s too large in scale to properly comprehend what’s happening, and because glimpses of what it’s like being a civilian in that mayhem are fleeting, you have no way of connecting to it. The reason why the World Engine section works so well is because you regularly get to see what’s happening down on the ground with people like Lois and the Daily Planet crew.
Starting off with the story, whilst the opening twenty minutes or so is interesting, following Jor-El as he prepares for the end of the world; the next forty minutes where we’re introduced to Clark, his search for answers, and much of his upbringing in Kansas, is extremely slow paced and kind of boring.
The story picks up again at the start of the second act where humanity is made aware of the existence of Kryptonian’s by Zod’s message, and Clark’s preparation for taking on Zod. This then continues into the third act, which is basically all just fighting, which has its ups and downs. What I’m trying to say is that the film is unevenly paced, and the story goes through lots of dips in quality over the two-and-a-half-hour runtime.
The peak of the whole film for me was at the start of the second act, with Zod’s message. That whole scene and what immediately follows it was so fantastic, and I completely forgot it existed in the film. The whole sequence plays out like a horror film as these aliens invade and start making demands. Nobody knows what to do, and nobody even knows how to make sense of what Zod has demanded, because nobody knew Clark isn’t human.
The majority of the final battle was also really good, particularly concerning the ‘World Engine’ as seeing people flee Metropolis as it crumbles like a disaster film. In fact, Man of Steel is at its best when it isn’t a superhero film. But unfortunately, superheroes got to get into big fistfights, right?
The weakest part of Man of Steel is without a doubt the scenes where Clark is fighting Zod and his goons in hand-to-hand combat. These sequences were never particularly enjoyable, and after all these years they’re even worse. None of the combat has any weight to it because they’re always flying around or running super-fast. The actors look like the rubber Smith clones from The Matrix Reloaded, and they level entire cities in seconds. It’s too large in scale to properly comprehend what’s happening, and because glimpses of what it’s like being a civilian in that mayhem are fleeting, you have no way of connecting to it. The reason why the World Engine section works so well is because you regularly get to see what’s happening down on the ground with people like Lois and the Daily Planet crew.
What Man of Steel suffer from the most though is the lack of clear direction. I don’t think this is entirely the fault of director Zack Snyder, but I feel like WB executives probably had far too much say in what they wanted to see. It feels like a film that can’t make its mind up about whether it wants to be a Superman origin story, some kind of climax to a storyline they’ll explore in prequel films or (as we got) setting up more Superman stories in the future. Because it spends so much time flitting between those three possibilities, and it doesn’t tell its own story chronologically, it can feel aimless when all the dust has settled.
To be honest it’s incredible that Man of Steel manages to do what it does as well as it did. The saying is that too many cooks spoil the stew, and that certainly could have been the case here, but despite not being a perfect superhero film, Man of Steel is generally enjoyable.
What is concerning is how the film was shoehorned in as the start of the DCEU, following the films release. Because WB clearly never made their mind up about what they would do with a sequel, when looked at in context of the DCEU at large it’s clear to see why the multi-film project never worked from the get-go…because it was only greenlit once Man of Steel was deemed profitable. Sure, the same could be said for Iron Man and the MCU, but the difference there was that there were already plans in the pipeline for other MCU Phase One films to release regardless of how Iron Man performed; with Man of Steel and the DCEU, it was full steam ahead into the team up film as the sequel to Man of Steel. Whilst this isn’t a reflection on Man of Steel’s quality, it is impossible to look at the film now outside of the context of the series it belongs to. A series that was very much cobbled together at the last minute.
To be honest it’s incredible that Man of Steel manages to do what it does as well as it did. The saying is that too many cooks spoil the stew, and that certainly could have been the case here, but despite not being a perfect superhero film, Man of Steel is generally enjoyable.
What is concerning is how the film was shoehorned in as the start of the DCEU, following the films release. Because WB clearly never made their mind up about what they would do with a sequel, when looked at in context of the DCEU at large it’s clear to see why the multi-film project never worked from the get-go…because it was only greenlit once Man of Steel was deemed profitable. Sure, the same could be said for Iron Man and the MCU, but the difference there was that there were already plans in the pipeline for other MCU Phase One films to release regardless of how Iron Man performed; with Man of Steel and the DCEU, it was full steam ahead into the team up film as the sequel to Man of Steel. Whilst this isn’t a reflection on Man of Steel’s quality, it is impossible to look at the film now outside of the context of the series it belongs to. A series that was very much cobbled together at the last minute.