“He’ll be an outcast, a freak, they’ll kill him,” worries mom, while dad insists “he’ll be a god.” Which shows how much parents know. Zod leads a rebellion against the planet’s feckless leadership, Jor-El decides on a rocket to Earth as his son’s future: “a seemingly intelligent population” is his throwaway line about its residents. This is the case right from the film’s beginnings on Krypton, a planet that practically disintegrates before our eyes as Jor-El and wife Lara Lor-Van (Ayelet Zurer) strive to save the life of their infant son, the planet’s “first natural birth in centuries.” (Don’t ask.)Īs the unyielding Gen. QUIZ: How well do you know the Man of Steel? Unfortunately, these pitched battles are so numerous that the effect is numbing, leaving us battered and bludgeoned rather than exhilarated.
Snyder does have a fondness and a facility for action set pieces, and “Man of Steel” is chockablock with hand-to-hand combat, hurtling cars, huge explosions and howling infernos. Whatever strengths director Snyder revealed in films like “300" and “Watchmen,” making stories like this emotionally convincing is not one of them. While its ambition and scope pull one way, its pinched and unconvincing sense of drama pull the other. (Who thinks up these names?)īut for all its positive aspects, including a noteworthy visualization of the dying planet Krypton from production designer Alex McDowell and his team, “Man of Steel” is only partially realized. Zod and German actress Antje Traue as the general’s right hand Faora-Ul. PHOTOS: Superman at 75 - 10 key comic coversĪbly supporting him on Earth are Kevin Costner and Diane Lane as adoptive parents Jonathan and Martha Kent, as well as Amy Adams, such a dead-on selection for uber-intrepid journalist Lois Lane (she’s a Pulitzer Prize winner!) that she was up for the role previously.Īlso effective are the folks from Krypton, including Russell Crowe as super-serious scientist Jor-El, Kal-El’s father, Michael Shannon as the relentless Gen. He’s a superb choice for someone who needs to convincingly convey innate modesty, occasional confusion and eventual strength. This conceptualization works because “Man of Steel” is well-cast (courtesy of Lora Kennedy and Kristy Carlson) starting at the top with Cavill. We follow the boy Kal-El from literally the moment of his birth on Krypton to his troubled younger years on Earth as Clark Kent to his assumption of the mantle of supermanhood just in time to face an intergalactic threat that if unchecked would, yes, mark the end of human life.
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On the plus side, the Goyer/Nolan story is well-imagined in terms of broad outlines that are more science fiction than superhero. Given the “Dark Knight” trilogy’s Nolan and Goyer’s involvement, it’s no surprise that “Man of Steel” is conceptualized in the Batman mold, a dark end of the street extravaganza where, theoretically at least, epic vision would be joined with dramatic heft.