Superman (Henry Cavill) has always been a boring character. As Clark Kent, he’s a bit bumbling, but mostly bland. When he dons the red cape, he’s a veritable Swiss Army Knife of superpowers, making him nearly impossible to defeat. His only weakness is standing too close to some kryptonite, which we as an audience cannot relate to at all. It’s difficult for a filmmaker to come up with scenarios in which Superman would actually struggle. To circumvent this issue, the makers of Man of Steel wisely opted to introduce a weighty moral dilemma to the indestructible hero…and then proceeded to cover it up with an exhausting amount of action.
Growing up in Smallville, Kansas, Clark Kent learned at an early age that he wasn’t like most people; in fact, he wasn’t even a person. Farmers Jonathan and Martha Kent (Kevin Costner and Diane Lane) found baby Clark in a crashed spaceship in the middle of a field and adopted him as their own. Discovering that he possesses numerous superhuman abilities – super strength, super speed, heat and X-ray vision, super hearing, and flight – Clark leaves home on a spiritual quest to discover his true identity.
During a trip to the Arctic, Clark eventually discovers what we are shown in Man of Steel’s somewhat baffling opening: he is the last son of Krypton, a planet that was destroyed years earlier. His father, Jor-El (Russell Crowe), sent him to Earth with the hopes that their race would live on through him and that he would bring peace to all humans.
However, another Kryptonian and his crew look to continue the legacy of their home planet without finding peace on Earth. General Zod (Michael Shannon), recently escaped from a galactic prison known as The Phantom Zone, was created for the sole purpose of protecting his race. With Krypton destroyed, he must find a new inhabitable world to settle on, and Earth seems to be the right candidate. With the help of investigative reporter Lois Lane (Amy Adams), Superman must fight to save the planet from this powerful threat, even if it means fighting the only remaining members of his original home.
Man of Steel does something we aren’t used to in the superhero genre, and that is tell an origin story in a non-linear narrative structure. Rather than following him as he matures consecutively, we are treated to flashbacks of Clark’s early years intercut with present-day events. Due to this fragmentation, it’s difficult to connect with Man of Steel for a while. It almost feels as though they are desperately trying to condense two movies into one. It’s not until later in the film, when the ideas established in the first half are allowed to blossom, that this risky storytelling device pays off. Even then, we’ve been so battered with action that the emotion is minimal.
by Nick DeNitto
