Man of Steel

If one Superman slugs another Superman… what happens? What if they punch each other 5,000 times… then what? Watching Zach Snyder’s (Watchmen, 300) Man of Steel, it seemed at times that getting to the bottom of these perplexing paradoxes of our DC Comic Book youths was the sole objective of this film. Ok, I exaggerate (but just a bit)… there is a story here. It’s just a little hard to recall amidst the gargantuan battle royal between super hero and super bad guys and the noisy CGI cloud of destruction that comes with.   

Man of Steel’s story, contained principally in the first half of the film before the MMA match begins, turns out to be a fairly close retelling of the Superman legend portrayed in the Christopher Reeve Superman I (1978) and Superman II (1980) films. Snyder’s version, however, takes itself more seriously than the red-tights, 20th-century rendering. It’s a little more sci-fi, visually bolder; and it’s darker. Not “I’m Batman” dark (although Christopher Nolan of the recent Batman trilogy did produce the film) but trending in that direction. That story, of Kal El (aka Clark Kent, aka Superman) sent from a dying Krypton civilization and planet as a baby by visionary parents to a new world, is quite well told by Snyder. The treatment of the emotional and spiritual side of parents giving up a child, adoptive parents loving an alien child that will change the world, and a super child growing up not knowing who or why he is, is effective and powerful. Unfortunately, that side of the film loses the battle with the turgid and over-long action/warfare part of itself. In the end, I just wanted one of those 5,000 super punches to cause the super villain to give up his super ghost so I could go home. 5 out of 10.