Man Of Steel Review

REVIEW OF THE WEEK: Hopes were high for Man Of Steel. Just like Batman last decade, Superman was crying out for a makeover to make him matter again.

Therefore it was encouraging news to learn that the creative nucleus of the now-celebrated Dark Knight trilogy were on-board Man Of Steel.

The influence of filmmaker Christopher Nolan (credited as a key producer here) and screenwriter David S. Goyer is definitely responsible for all that is good about the new movie.

Nolan and Goyer have a story with all the narrative scaffolding needed to rebuild Superman from the red boots up.

However, the duo’s refined intentions are eventually overpowered by the rash impulses of director Zack Snyder.

What should have been the Superman we had to have is now a Superman we will have to grudgingly settle for: a long, and rather laboured mashup of the compelling and the compromised.

The film opens strongly, shrewdly reducing key elements of Superman’s famous origin story to its bare essentials.

A baby named Kal-El is born on the doomed planet Krypton. His father, the noble scientist Jor-El (Russell Crowe), jettisons his boy across the universe to save the infant’s life.

Krypton implodes, ending the lives of all occupants. Except for the military madman General Zod (Michael Shannon) and his cadres, recently banished from their home planet for crimes against the state.

There will be more — much, much more — of Zod and the gang later on in Man Of Steel.

If you isolate the story of Man Of Steel from the picture’s other trappings, there is little to truly gripe with. Pitching the character of Lois Lane (Amy Adams) as a crack investigative journalist is something of a mistake, but perhaps a necessary one if plans for a franchise proceed.

What is most important is that Kal-El/Clark’s arduous quest to control both his internal demons and external prowess is handled deftly.

By the time Zod and company arrive on Earth to confront their fellow Krypton exile, the stage is set perfectly for one heck of a mega-smackdown.