Henry Cavill: MAN OF STEEL

Well, as I’ve stated in two previous posts: Simply Marvel-ous: The 4 Comic Book Movies You Don’t Want to Miss and Grazing: THIS IS THE END I wholly approve of the new Superman Henry Cavill,  I had seen him in the Immortals and I remember him being the only thing good about that movie; but it took him playing The Man of Steel to really capture my attention.

I was surprised to also like Amy Adams as Lois Lane. When I first heard she’d be playing the role, I felt she was too over-exposed and that a lesser known actress should play the part.  But as this Lois Lane character isn’t very fleshed out, rather one-dimensional, I think a known quantity was needed to pull you in quickly.

The advance screening for Man of Steel was a mad house! The clamoring to get in, people waving screen passes, so many thinking they deserved VIP treatment “I’m on the list, let me in now!”. 

Normally, I arrive about 15 min before the movie starts.  Thank goodness I had the presence of mind to arrive early for this one. In fact, I was so excited to see it before it opened, I paid the bridge toll for the preview in New Jersey! Normally, if the screening’s not on the Philly side of the bridge, I ain’t going. 

But this all goes to show that Supeman at 75 is not now, nor will he ever be old!

The most recognized superhero in pop culture, Superman has been elevated to mythic folkhero status. Rocketed to Earth from the dying planet Krypton, baby Kal-El was found by a farming couple who named the boy Clark Kent and raised him as their own. Discovering his enormous powers,
they instilled in him strong moral values—and inspired him to become a hero. A universal icon, Superman means different things to the many diverse people he inspires: He’s an alien; an immigrant from a faraway land just looking to help; a country boy fighting the never-ending battle for truth and justice. –  DCComics.com 

This Superman Reboot, Man of Steel produced by Christopher Nolan, and scripted by David S. Goyer, directed by Zack Snyder embodies all of these essential elements with an emphasis on the alien part of things. The first perhaps 20 minutes of the film is spent on Krypton with Kal-El’s parents Jor-El (Russell Crowe) and Lara Lor-Van (Ayelet Zurer), just hours before the complete destruction of the planet. They’ve just given birth to their son the old-fashioned way, where everyone else on Krypton is genetically engineered in pods to be whatever they are engineered to be, without choice.

PinBooth

There’s a grayish, blue tint throughout the movie, it’s not overt, just a very good color palette for the film; and Krypton is depicted as both ancient and stony, yet advanced, with hovering, intuitive communication devices, and the ability to create material things from a silver filigree like substance similar to this pinscreen toy.

This borders on a spoiler alert, but the progeny of Krypton gives a good motive for General Zod’s (Michael Shannon) villainy, it’s in his DNA to save or rebuild Krypton at all costs. But it also makes you think – Jor-El was engineered to be a scientist, but he has reason, judgement and heart; so too could General Zod, except there’s a darkness in him that has nothing to do with being born in a pod.

For me, the fight scenes seemed endless. I like a rock’em sock’em comic book battle as much as the next guy, but all those scenes could have been shortened to allow for more fun, quick references, like the naming of Clark’s classmate, Lana (Smallville) and a truck getting destroyed branded with the LexCorp logo. 

Still, on the whole, no complaints. But no matter how many Superman reboots come in the future, with equally or even hotter men in blue tights, it will always be Christopher Reeve & Margo Kidder from the 1978 Superman that represent the franchise for me.


Here’s an EPK/OpenEnd interview with Henry Cavill on what it means to him to don the cape and fly right: ( video 8:05)