Man of Steel (2013) movie review

Man of Steel, director Zack Snyder’s ambitious 2013 reboot of Warner Bros. Superman film franchise, is an earnest but sometimes dour and plodding retelling of the DC Comics superhero’s origin story.

Starring British actor Henry Cavill (Stardust) in the dual role of Kal-El/Clark Kent and co-starring Amy Adams, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Russell Crowe, and Michael Shannon, Man of Steel reinvents Superman’s backstory from the ground up. In essence, it tells Superman’s Moses/Jesus-inspired saga of how Kryptonian scientist Jor-El (Crowe) sends his newborn son to Earth to save him from his home planet’s destruction.

Because the screenplay by David S. Goyer (based on a story by producer Christopher Nolan) pretends that the Christopher Reeve/Brandon Routh Superman films don’t exist, Man of Steel begins on Krypton. As in the comics and the Richard Donner Superman: The Movie, the planet is doomed. However, in Goyer’s reboot, Krypton’s red sun has nothing to do with the planet’s impending destruction. Instead, it’s the Kryptonians who are responsible; they have been tapping energy from the planet’s core and unwittingly making it unstable.

Jor-El has tried to warn the ruling council and even proposes evacuating the planet’s population to abandoned colonies off-world, but to no avail. Unable to sway his government but desperate to at least save his newborn son, Jor-El steals a codex which contains the genetic information of every Kryptonian and infuses it into the baby’s cells.

But Jor-El is not the only one who seeks to save Krypton’s population from extinction. General Zod (Shannon), his friend and erstwhile protégé, stages a coup d’etat and orders Jor-El to hand over the codex. When the scientist refuses, Zod murders him. However, Zod and his minions are soon captured and sent to the Phantom Zone.


Lor-Em: General Zod, for the crimes of murder and high treason, the council has sentenced you and your fellow insurgents to 300 cycles of somatic reconditioning. Do you have any last words?
General Zod: You won't kill us yourself! You wouldn't dirty your hands but you'll damn us to a black hole for eternity! Jor-El was right! You're a pack of fools, every last one of you!
General Zod: [to Lara] You... you believe your son is safe... I will find him. I will reclaim what you have taken from us! I will find him. I will find him, Lara. I WILL FIND HIM!  

Meanwhile, the tiny spaceship with Kal-El aboard crashes near Smallville, Kansas. The baby is found by Jonathan and Martha Kent (Costner, Lane), a childless couple in their early 50s. The Kents adopt the boy and name him Clark, raising him as best they can even though he has powers no one on Earth has.

Now, even if you’re not a die-hard Superman fan, you know that Clark eventually discovers his Kryptonian heritage, leaves Kansas for Metropolis, becomes a mild-mannered reporter at the Daily Planet, and meets Perry White (Laurence Fishbourne) and Lois Lane (Amy Adams).  He also assumes the role of Superman, the caped demi-god with heat and X-ray vision, super-strength, and the ability to fly.

Superman: If Krypton lives again, what happens to Earth?
General Zod: A foundation has to be built on something. Even your father recognized that.
[Superman sees he is surrounded by human bones]
Superman: No! NOOO!

Now the stage is set for an inventive, if perhaps brooding, reimagining of the Kal-El vs. Zod conflict which was also covered in the first two Richard Donner Superman movies. Zod and his followers have been freed from the Phantom Zone and made their way to Earth. Their mission: convince Kal-El to surrender the codex and use the genetic information in it to restore Krypton – using Earth as its foundation!

My Take

Just as Christopher Nolan (who is one of the movie’s producers and wrote the story) reimagined the Batman myth in his Dark Knight trilogy, he, screenwriter David S. Goyer, and director Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen) try not to continue the Superman storyline from the existing five Warner Bros. feature films.

Inspired by the fact that DC Comics has rebooted the Superman origin story several times since 1938, Man of Steel’s creative team conceived a story steeped in 75 years’ worth of lore and tries to make it relevant to 21st Century audiences.

For the most part, they succeed. Man of Steel spends more time on Krypton and showing us its culture and part of its history than the three relevant Reeve-Routh Superman films did.

Snyder and the production team came up with a fresh vision of Krypton that almost erases the memories of Richard Donner’s doomed ice ball of a planet from Superman. The Krypton of Man of Steel looks and feels more alive; it is eerily reminiscent of Star Trek’s Vulcan or one of the more exotic planets from the Star Wars prequels.

Another brave choice that makes Man of Steel watchable is the casting of Kevin Costner and Diane Lane as Kal-El’s adoptive parents. Whereas in the comics and the first Superman movies the Kents are in their early 60s or so, Jonathan and Martha are, at most, in their early 50s.  They’re still energetic (and good-looking) enough to be believable as adoptive parents, yet they’re wise and experienced enough to deal with the challenges of raising Kal-El.

Goyer and Nolan also deserve praise for not making General Zod a younger and fitter version of Terence Stamp’s incarnation of  Zod from the first two Superman films.  Whereas Stamp plays Zod as a ruthless and vengeful overlord, Michael Shannon interprets the role differently. 

Like Jor-El, General Zod seeks to save his race, even if he has to make some hard and cruel choices. He is a warrior who believes that what he is doing is right, even when he is planning a Nazi-like purification of his own race or planning to  sacrifice Earth’s entire population in order to restore Krypton on its “new matrix.”

Amy Adams shines as a 21st Century Lois Lane. Her character arc benefits the most from the reboot process. In Man of Steel Lois is freed, as it were, from the earlier movies’ treatment of her as a dogged but trouble-prone journalist who has to be rescued all the time by Superman. Adams, who tried out for the role for the canceled Superman Flyby and Superman Returns, is still the “love interest” for Superman, but in Man of Steel she is less of “girl as hero’s reward” and more of an equal partner for the last son of Krypton.

British actor Henry Cavill is a watchable Kal-El/Clark Kent, even though we see him more as Superman than as his “mild-mannered reporter” alter ego. He looks like what we’d expect Superman to look like if he was a real person, and Cavill has the acting chops to give the Man of Steel gravitas and an all-too-human vulnerability. He’s good in the action sequences and more interesting to watch than Brandon Routh.

The film, like Nolan’s Batman trilogy, is an all-new story with no ties to what has come before. Not only does this mean that viewers get a new spin on the Superman origin story and its characters, but that none of John Williams’ familiar music is heard in the score.

Hans Zimmer’s score is, by necessity, unique to Man of Steel and has its soaring and elegaic moments, to be sure. Its main theme reflects the heroic and altruistic nature of the main character, even though it’s not as memorable as the familiar “March from Superman” composed for the 1978 film. However, some viewers may not like Zimmer’s emphasis on percussion instruments and a brass effect known as the “horn of doom.” (For the record, I prefer the older John Williams score for the 1978 film and its themes as used in the various sequels, but recognize the need to break away from them for a new narrative.)

My main issue with Man of Steel is that by trying to make the Superman story more “life-like” and contemporary, Nolan, Goyer, and Snyder have made the story darker and more serious in tone. Sure, this is a better film than Richard Lester’s Superman III and Sidney J. Furie’s Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.But, like the Nolan Batman trilogy, the need for realism and relativity sucks some of the joy out of the iconic character.

Yes, Superman is still the All-American superhero who fights for truth, justice, and all that good stuff, and Henry Cavill does a credible job in the role. Still, the warmth and compassion exhibited by Cavill’s Superman is lackluster when compared to the Christopher Reeve incarnation of the character.

Recommend this product? Yes

Movie Mood: Action Movie
Viewing Method: Other
Film Completeness: Looked complete to me.
Worst Part of this Film: Music