I was able to watch this film in IMAX, mostly benefiting from the upgraded audio. The version I watched thankfully, did not have 3D. It stars Amy Adams as Louis Lane, Henry Cavill, as Superman or Clark Kent, Kevin Costner as Clark’s human dad, and Russell Crowe as Clark’s biological dad. Henry Cavill was perfectly cast as Superman. He sort of reminded me of Christopher Reeves, having real good looks, man to man, nice blue eyes, and a nice build. Of course, he looks quite a bit like what we think of as the quintessential superman. Looks aside, was this film going to rival the original? That’s kind of a tough question. The problem with this is that the original films are sort of elevated even higher probably than they were good, because of nostalgia. The other problem with that question is that this film is a reboot, a re-imagination if you will, much like the recent series Battle Star Galactica was reimagined. I have to assume this film deviated significantly from the comic books, but I have not read them. So I am going to assume the original film starring Christopher Reeves was true to the comics.
With all that said, and without giving anything away, I really enjoyed this film a lot and will probably re-watch it when it is released to DVD. The experience was greatly enhanced thanks to the IMAX audio. Again, every explosion, every rumbling, could be felt vibrating through your entire body. However, the only negative for me this time was that it was a bit too loud, maybe I sat up too close.
Spoilers…
In this reboot, the story goes that the planet Krypton was going to implode. Nearly all of the babies on krypton were born through in-vitro, not natural births, and all had predetermined destinies. Baby superman was different, he was born through a natural birth process and for that reason, he had the freedom to choose his own destiny. His Krypton father played by Russel Crowe, fought with the film nemesis Commander Zod, to send baby superman to a new planet capable of supporting life, a task in which he was successful. The nemesis and his posse were all rounded up and put in jail in outer space, which saved them from a fiery death at the end of the planet krypton’s life. Superman’s father knew he was going to be ‘god’ on the new planet since the kryptons environment was much harsher than Earth and they had evolved to withstand it. So far the storyline follows the original. Once on Earth, superman, as an infant is found and raised by his human dad played by Kevin Costner. He really had a limited role, almost wasted as his dad, but he played the part well. He named his son Clark and raised him to always exert self-control with his crazy super abilities. While he was growing up, Commander Zod had broken out of jail and was intent on finding out where superman was. It took him thirty-three years to find out he was on planet Earth. Once here he wreaks havoc on the planet and demands its people give up superman to his custody. Shortly afterward we see superman in handcuffs, showing extreme self-control, a first for the Superman film series. He meets with Louis Lane, played by Amy Adams, who shortly interrogates him as seen in the movie trailer. Shortly after this, he breaks free and Zod starts a war on the planet, with the intent of changing the environment into the same one as krypton, which if successful, would kill all humans. Would superman be able to save Earth? Of course, eventually, but it would not be easy.
Spiritual Angle
I read that some people were writing this film follows the same story as Jesus, and therefore it is a Christian film. This may be partially true, but this film was far from a nice family Christian film we can all watch on Nickelodeon. Actually, during the film, the thought never even crossed my mind, but I can see the similarities. A man, finds an abandoned baby (immaculate conception?), raises him with good family values. The baby, once grown, 33 years old, the same age Jesus died on the cross, and turns out to be the savior of mankind. Superman at one point even seeks answers from a man of the cloth, in Church. The man tells him to have faith. That’s as far as the spiritual connection goes. There is foul language including the lord’s name used in vain. There were a couple of baby nudie shots, and of course, there was a boatload of violence in this film. I believe where this film deviates the most in terms of Superman being compared to Jesus, was when he actually made the decision to kill Commander Zod. I am pretty sure Jesus would not have done that, but I can’t be totally sure since he, as far as I know, ever had to battle alien life forms trying to take over planet Earth and kill everyone in the process.
Standout deviations from original
Being a reboot, this film deviated strongly from the original in several key areas. Firstly, the kryptonite issue. In this film, Superman is no longer weakened by being in the presence of any matter from his home planet, kryptonite. Instead, having acclimated to the earth’s atmosphere, he appears to only be weakened from an environment where the atmosphere is exactly like it was on Krypton. This was weird to me, why would that weaken him, if anything you would think it would give him strength, since his genes are from Krypton, but hey, I didn’t write the comics.
The next big deviation is let’s say the arrangement of Clark’s life. In this film, first, he grows up, then he saves the world, with everyone knowing who he is, then he gets a job at the daily planet, at the end of the film, to keep his finger on the pulse of what’s going on in the world and to keep it safe. This arrangement bothered me quite a bit since it was a big change from the original. It did work, however as a nice way to tidy up the storyline, and perhaps set up for a sequel. I was thinking about how in the world can there even be a sequel, with Commander Zod dead. Even though he did kill Zod, many, members of his posse live on, so maybe one of them will come back.
The third and most obvious deviation from this was the main villain, who in the original, was Lex Luther, and was played by Gene Hackman. He was a mere earthling who along with some kryptonions attempted to take down Superman. I thought this was significant because, without this weakness, he is pretty much invincible.
Conclusion
I think since this was a reboot, the producers decided to name the film, “Man of Steel”, instead of Superman reborn, or something. The director also drove the point home, that Superman may have been in fact, a “man of steel”, showing him in many action scenes being shot and having withstood many other crazy wicked acts of violence. This is not to forget of course, that “Man of Steel” was one of his original nicknames. Maybe they’ll name the next one “faster than a speeding bullet”.
Having mentioned most of the weaknesses of this film, it still did not detract from the fact that this was a fun film to watch and I enjoyed it a lot.
Highly Recommended.
*****
