Man of Steel
The planet Krypton is facing total annihilation. Before that happens, though, a desperate and anguished couple slip their newborn son, naked and wriggling, into a small spacecraft and send him soaring off to a new world a universe away. They rocket him to a planet called Earth. On that blue orb bathed by its yellow sun, their baby is taken in by a Kansas farm couple with the last name of Kent. Sound familiar? Of course it does. It's the origin story of one Clark Kent—a boy from another world who's destined to gain superhuman powers and do miraculous things. In this version of the comic-book-to-big-screen tale, though, Clark's human parents earnestly worry about what could happen to their beloved son if someone found out about him. They're sure that even in their middle America hometown of Smallville—a tiny little town filled with large hearts—people wouldn't fully accept having a superpowered alien in their midst. And so they warn their boy to keep his many abilities hidden. That's not so easy to do, of course, when you're a kid who can see through people's skin or hear a pin drop on the other side of town. And it's not so simple when you're a hormones-raging teen who can bend steel with his bare hands and shoot lasers from his eyes. So by the time Clark grows into a young man, he's feeling pretty lost, pretty confused and pretty alone. He wanders the land, taking odd jobs and trying to keep himself invisible. But he just can't keep himself from being helpful.
When things go wrong and people get hurt, he can't help but brave a fire to save someone, or stand as an unmovable wall between the innocent and their tormentors. He can't resist the idea of being the guy who aids the needy, no matter how wise his parents warnings may be. "It's the most realistic movie I've made," director Zack Snyder (who helmed Watchmen, 300 and Dawn of the Dead) recently told the L.A. Times. "There's no tongue in anyone's cheek. I'm not apologizing for Superman in any way. I'm saying, 'Superman is a thing that must be taken seriously and embraced and understood.'" Indeed, his version of the now 75-year-old superhero story is straightforward and earnest. It's an honest-to-goodness sci-fi opera that reflects both the classic roots and the modern comic book sensibilities of its well-known superhero legend.
That's not to say there aren't a few threads to pick at on this well-woven supersuit. A death dealt by Superman's own hand, for instance, is a choice that flies in the face of the hero's canon. It's a seemingly unavoidable consequence that leaves the superguy in anguish, but one that purists will hate, nonetheless, and that more casual fans will likely find a bit disquieting. And while we're on the subject of death, there's the hard-core action flick side of things to consider: Man of Steel certainly doesn't skimp when it comes to all things flying faster than speeding bullets. Its pace is quick, and its CGI spectacle is impressive. The sheer destruction wreaked upon Metropolis alone—with brawling supers and alien spacecraft bulldozing skyscrapers into dust while earthling multitudes scamper and run and, surely, perish by the thousands in the rubble—out-whiz-bangs even Marvel's The Avengers. (And that's not entirely a compliment.) But then we come to what Snyder calls Superman's "inherent goodness." The director says, "If you really think about it, you still want him to be right and to make the right choices and to do the right thing. I think that we all hope for that in ourselves, and I think that's what always has made him a very interesting character. He's a Christ-like figure. There's no two ways about it."
credit to www.pluggedin.com
