No. 20 Man of Steel (2013) 56 of 100

 

Despite being a fan of the superhero genre I hadn’t seen this film before. I think Superman had been done so often that I had little interest in this reboot. Having watched the film I have to say that I enjoyed it, but it didn’t offer anything that was a lot different from that which had gone before. I think that’s because the Superman mythos is so well established and creators are loathed to get too far away from the core values.

This effort came a few years after the Brandon Routh remake that featured Kevin Spacey and I remember that being rank rotten with an endless finale on an iceberg or something. I think that this one had a better reputation and I like director Zach Snyder’s take on ‘Watchmen’. Of course it also has our man Michael Shannon as the villain, so that’s me sold! That said, the two and a half hour run time was a but daunting and I ended up watching the film in two sittings.

Anyway, we open on Krypton with the planet blowing up and being in the midst of a military insurrection. Kyrpton is super hi-tech although for some reason they fly about on big CGI dragon like creatures. Russell Crowe is Superman’s Dad and he’s asking the ruling council to make provisions for the planet’s imminent demise. He is of course laughed off by a ruling class who is clearly out of touch and who wear elaborate chandelier type headdresses. Shannon's General Zod spices things up with a coup but he is quickly arrested and stuck away in ‘the phantom zone’.

Crowe gets his infant kid away before the planet explodes and soon the boy is Clark Kent in the Mid West of America learning to deal with his powers. We get the usual rescues on oil rigs and school buses before his adopted Dad, Kevin Costner, dies in a tornado, signalling his son not to help, lest his powers be discovered. He’s taught the boy being different is dangerous and maybe he’s right – who needs the hassle?

The boy becomes the dashing Henry Cavil who discovers his past with the help of an exposition spewing hologram of his late father. Luckily he has a suit ready made for the young man, as trouble is brewing. Elsewhere Amy Adams' Lois Lane is following up leads about the mysterious do gooding man who is saving lives and not putting it on Tik-Tok or anything.

After 48 minutes or so the suit goes on and Shannon and his henchmen appear to mess stuff up. There is a convoluted plot point about Superman having all of the dead Kryptonians’ DNA encoded into his cells and Zod wants the data to recreate Krypton on Earth. This sets up the rest of the film which is basically just a big slug fest until the inevitable ending and kiss.

Shannon does a good turn as the mental General Zod, but I think I preferred Terence Stamp’s understated version from ‘Superman 2’. He has a lot of body armour on and I’m guessing the majority of his stuff was done on green screen as it mostly involved punching Superman through walls or being punched by Superman through buildings. The effects are decent but there are long sequences where it looks like you are watching a video game. With two invulnerable beings there isn’t a lot at stake when someone gets a truck on their head again.

Zod is a fascist and genocidal maniac and Shannon portrays this well with his usual mania and a short hair cut. I’m guessing this is a for the money gig but it probably stands as his highest profile role to date.

The film does run a bit long, but given it is essentially a remake of ‘Superman’ and Superman 2’ in one offering, you can see that they have a lot of ground to cover. The climatic battle goes on for too long and the ending is somewhat unsatisfactory.

I did enjoy the film over all, and it’s clear they have chucked everything at it in terms of casting and effects. The whole thing does however lack the soul of the earlier films that it is trying to emulate and I doubt much of this will live long in the memory. There is only so much property damage you can take, and a lot of plot points and character development seemed shoehorned in to hit a mark. I mean the Clark and Lois relationship doesn’t work at all – he catches her a few times and by the end they are smooching away. Seemed a bit rushed!

Overall I’d say Shannon was the star turn which was a good effort given the heavyweight talent on show. I think he would likely play down this role in favour of his ‘proper’ acting gigs, but he gave it his all and was good value.

When is Shannon-On? - 03.03

Outcome? - Dead with a broken neck

Film 3.5/5

Shannon Stars 4/5