Man of Steel

The worst Superman movie since 1987’s Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, Man of Steel follows Henry Cavill’s Clark Kent as he struggles to find his place in a world that’s not his own – with the character’s existential musings interrupted by the arrival of a vicious Kryptonian warlord (Michael Shannon’s Zod) bent on world domination. There’s little doubt that Man of Steel gets off to a less-than-promising start, as filmmaker Zack Snyder, working from David S. Goyer’s screenplay, opens the movie with a tedious stretch set on Superman’s dying home planet of Krypton – with the overuse of computer-generated effects lending such scenes a derivative and surprisingly campy feel (ie if Avatar had been incompetent and terrible, it might’ve resembled this). The movie does, however, improve considerably once the action shifts to Earth, with the time-shifting script ensuring that the emphasis on the central character’s early days rarely fares as poorly as one might’ve feared (ie Snyder and Goyer wisely skip over some of the more familiar aspects of Clark/Superman’s origin story). Man of Steel‘s completely watchable atmosphere is heightened by its proliferation of impressive performances, with Cavill’s strong work as the title figure matched by a supporting cast that includes, among others, Amy Adams, Laurence Fishburne, and Kevin Costner. (The latter’s engrossing turn as Clark’s adoptive father stands as an obvious highlight within the proceedings.) It’s only as Zod (re)enters the picture that one’s interest begins to slowly-but-surely dip, as the film’s final hour is devoted entirely to the epic battle between Zod and Superman – with the ineffectiveness of this stretch (ie it’s like watching someone else play a poorly-rendered video game) compounded by Snyder’s inept directorial choices (ie the shaky camerawork renders the majority of this stuff incoherent). The endless third act ultimately transforms Man of Steel into a disappointing (and surprisingly second-rate) piece of work, with the movie’s lack of magic or wonder standing in sharp contrast to the previous portrayals of this iconic character (ie Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns is looking positively masterful by comparison).

** out of ****