Thoughts on: Man of Steel


There’s a reason there haven’t been many Superman movies – when you have a hero designed with no weaknesses, how the hell do you give him a tough fight? The creators did well to focus on his upbringing and self-discovery: that’s where the real story lies. Unfortunately, it’s a story that required an absolute mountain of explanation, and the creators apparently couldn’t think of a better way to tell it than with monologue after monologue. Exposition aside, the story and themes are interesting and successful, and they display Superman’s internal struggles.

That’s not to say the villain doesn’t provide external struggles. As fellow Kryptons, they have all the same advantages he does, and boy does that lead to some entertaining fights. Seeing two invulnerable people punch each other at the speed of sound never really gets old. Easily stealing the show was General Zod’s right-hand woman, who had some of the most badass fight scenes I’ve ever seen. Weirdly, Superman matched the bad guys punch for punch, with zero regard for collateral damage. This was made even weirder by an extremely unclear moral dilemma near the end. Avoiding spoilers, it’s almost impossible to tell whether Superman was willing to sacrifice a family for the greater good, or whether the family survived. When your story entirely relies on his personal struggles, that’s a serious fucking problem.

The third quarter was noticeably weaker than the rest as well. The more things escalated, the more muddled the plot seemed to get. The dialogue was hurriedly moved through before people could contemplate it too much, and I’m pretty sure half of it was highly cliché and frankly, silly. This was made worse by two things: a superficial love story that caused more plot holes than emotional resonance; and contrived side-plots meant to show the struggles of ordinary people surviving a city being destroyed. I get that we need to connect on a personal level to the destruction to truly appreciate it, but not at the expense of pacing and plausibility.

In the end, Man of Steel is a fun action movie with an immersive coming-of-age story. It’s by no means a smart movie, but it’s definitely a personal one. Also: supersonic punches.

7/10


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