Technical assessment: 3.5
Moral assessment: 3.5
MTRCB rating: PG 13
CINEMA
rating: V 14
Man
of Steel opens
with a childbirth. The mother is Lara
(Ayelet Zurer) and the father, assisting at birthing, is Jor-el (Russell
Crowe); their newborn is Kal-el, to be known as “Superman” (Henry Cavill), the
first child in many years that comes to Krypton by natural birth. The destruction of Krypton, the home
planet of Superman, is imminent. Causing
its disintegration is the scheme of artificial population control which breeds
children en masse and nurtures them not in their mother’s womb but in an
artificial environment which assures that these children will in time fulfill
their respective predetermined roles in Krypton’s society. This kind of genetic engineering is
championed by General Zod (Michael Shannon), a megalomaniac who wants to build
a new race of Kryptonites but fails to win the support of the scientist Jor-el
who is totally opposed to Zod’s eugenics.
To escape the impending death of Krypton, Jor-el and Lara decide to send
the infant Kal-el off to a benign planet, Earth. The space capsule bearing Kal-el lands in a farm in the
American heartland, Smallville, Kansas, owned by the Kents (Kevin Costner and Diane
Lane), who raise him as their own, teach them their values, and keep his
identity a secret.
Less
than a week after opening on June 12, Man
of Steel has already hit major milestones in the global box office—it is promising
in that in the face of stiff competition coming from CGI-heavy doomsday,
apocalypse, and other superhero flicks, Superman seems able to hold its charm
among the movie going public. The introductory
Krypton sequence is visually compelling, with a clearly spelled-out premise
defining the origin and destiny of the newborn babe. Keeping the audience engaged is the non-linear
storytelling, studded with relevant and timely flashbacks mirroring Kal-el’s
struggle from boyhood to manhood, burdened as he is with extraordinary powers
he never asked for. The sets
and effects are great, the score envelops you in a world all its own.
Man of Steel largely owes its power to
the carefully chosen cast. Crowe’s
performance as Superman’s biological father is heartfelt and charismatic,
matched only by the quiet intensity of Costner as the foster father. Shannon exudes menace without having to
utter a word, while Fishburne plays the editor’s role with finesse. Lane is the ideal foster mother—devoted
yet detached. No one could have
played journalist Lois Lane better than Amy Adams, with her perky personality
and intelligent eyes; she might have come on stronger, though, with a
no-nonsense hairdo instead of the girly-girly soft curls.
Our
mind wanders, though, as we get impatient for the explosions and repetitive
combat scenes to end: why are the US armed forces in movies of this kind so
stupid as to fight obviously superior alien powers with their puny little guns
and tanks when even their toughest fighter planes are but paper planes to the
invaders? Such a waste of
ammunition! But thank God, this
time, Superman doesn’t wear red briefs outside the skintight suit.
Viewers
of faith can glean the message of this film in spite of its protracted
pyrotechnics, though. Director
Zack Snyder sprinkles his opus with elements that a church-going audience may
pick up and interpret as parallels to the messianic story. The cinematic savior of the world
descends to live among Earthlings, and he has a mission, much like the Son of
God who came down to Earth as an ordinary man. We learn that the “S” on the strongman’s chest means “hope”
in Krypton; on Earth the “S” stands for “Superman”, but it could also mean for
all intents and purposes “Savior”,
since he is told that he is to save the world by bringing hope to Earth. He is adopted by simple folk—farmer
father, housewife mother—just like the carpenter-housewife couple from
Nazareth. Agonizing over whether
to turn himself in as the rebel Zod demands, he seeks the counsel of a priest
in a church—the shot shows Cavill close-up, framed against the stained glass
background of Jesus praying in Gethsemane. Some film critics have even averred that the battle between
Kal-el and Zod is one between good and evil, with Kal-el as Jesus and Zod as
the devil. Hhmmm. Be that as it may, the pro-life cause
stands to benefit from the statement of Jor-el against “artificial population control”,
a concept whose evil consequences the anti-RH advocates the world over have
been trying to open the public’s eyes to.
It’s nice to know Superman is on our side.
