Man Of Steel Thirty-five years after Christopher Reeve first donned the red cape (courtesy IMDB), ‘Man of Steel’ soars into 21st century cinemas with a flurry worthy of Superman himself. At the age of 75 years young, the character is still one of the most recognizable in all cultures and the time was ripe for a reboot. With Christopher Nolan (producer) and David S. Goyer (scripter) behind him, Snyder mounted an earnest attempt to modernise the original superhero. Longstanding elements of Superman mythology are given a darker spin: the Fortress Of Solitude is no longer the gleaming crystal haystack of the earlier movies but a shadowy labyrinth that doesn’t take kindly to visitors. Meanwhile, the X-ray vision, here becomes the stuff of waking nightmares for a young Clark Kent. The director has managed to introduce someone (apart from the cast) that not just added a dimension but also entwined with the story just like how radiation coalesced with Kryptonian blood – Computer Graphics Imagery (CGI). Thankfully, the action in ‘Man of Steel’ is top class, cheers to some truly jaw-dropping visual effects work from Weta Digital. It is without exaggeration to say that you have never seen superhuman fisticuffs on this level or scale—ever. The sheer destruction on display here as Kal and Zod go head to head is beyond astonishing. Moving to the cast of the movie, Cavill paints a good portrait of a Clark finding himself but as a caped man he lacks the charisma. And there is absolutely no chemistry on-screen with Lois. Amy Adams gets her character’s penchant for getting into trouble absolutely right. She is a Pulitzer Prize winner and yet she cannot distinguish Kal and the investigative journalist – foiled by a pair of glasses. General Zod (Shannon) is a lisping super villain who delivers jargon, not dialogue. Jor-El (Russell Crowe) uses a slight variation of his ‘Gladiator’ English for his fatherly conversations. Kevin Costner depicts a conservative father with timely moral stories to hold Kal’s powers. There is just one hiccup – The movie lacked heart. Where films like ‘Skyfall’ and ‘The Dark Knight’ trilogy masterfully deconstructed their heroes while paying tribute to everything that audiences loved about them, this film seems embarrassed by its source material. Will Kal be a poster boy for the next generation? The sequel should tell. Right now, the movie is an alloy – just like Steel.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Jun 2013 11:28:03 +0000
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