Some films make you wish you were 12 again so you could appreciate them as they deserve. Man of Steel is the Superman origins story, re-booted under another name. Zack Snyder (300) directs and Christopher Nolan (the Batman trilogy, Inception) co-produces, so this is the business. It’s flashy, loud and much more science-fiction-y, even war-of-the-worlds-y, in feel than previous superhero movies.
The planet Krypton is dying. Formidable scientist Jor-El (Russell Crowe, ever so grave but still up to a good bit of whacking) sends his baby boy Kal-El to Earth to save his life, despite the raging opposition of General Zod (Michael Shannon glaring horribly under a tufty fringe).
Kal is brought up as Clark Kent by a kindly Kansas farming couple (Kevin Costner and Diane Lane) but struggles to restrain himself from using his superpowers, despite dad’s wise counsel, and becomes an aimless drifter – until another ancient Krypton vessel is discovered deep in the ice and its technology allows Kal’s dad to appear to him, rather wordily explain his origins and kit him out in the cape. Unfortunately, activating the spaceship also attracts the attention of General Zod. Titanic conflict erupts…
Man of Steel looks different from other superhero adventures, being filmed close up from dramatic angles, often from handheld cameras – which, on the downside, means the 3-D is retrofitted and inconsequential. It has some great alien tech design, drawing on trilobites and other creepy fossils, and there’s enough crashing through buildings, rocketings, explosions and general zooming about to satisfy the most demanding consumer.
As Superman, Henry Cavill (Jersey born, Stowe educated, the Duke of Suffolk in The Tudors, otherwise not much seen) is a touch wooden but what do you want from a man of steel? He certainly has an amazingly impressive torso, alas seen properly just the once, so don’t blink. Maybe the romance with reporter Lois Lane (Amy Adams, completely undeveloped as a character) doesn’t convince. But what would a 12-year-old boy care about that?
