Last night Richard and I went and saw the new Superman Movie: Man of Steel with a couple of friends. I went in with very low expectations as the movie was getting very mixed reviews.
Now something I should tell you is that Richard and I like to watch movie reviews done by the guys over at
Red Letter Media. RLM hated this movie, so that was another reason why I entered with low expectations. This helped in my case because I ended up LOVING this film. Richard also loved it but for all the reason that RLM hated the film.
When Richard gets passionate about something he usually comes home and writes about it. So here is Richard's movie review on Man of Steel.
Please be warned there are major plot spoilers to this review.
Also this is Richard's opinion on the movie, so any negative comments to his review are not welcome.
Thank you.
Rich Evans (Red Letter Media): “The headlines the next day
aren't going to read: ‘Man of Steel Saves the City!’ They’re going to read:
‘Creepy Alien Harbors the Doom of us All!’”
I loved the movie “Man of Steel”. This
movie does to Superman what the Krampus does to Santa Clause. Like the new
Batman trilogy this movie attempts to add a darker, grittier element to an old
comic book hero. That approach worked for Batman but their decision to take the
same approach for Superman was a glorious, glorious mistake. This movie
resurrects a cherished icon, beloved by millions and, however unintentionally,
pisses on everything he stood for. What makes it so funny is the movie lacks
the self-awareness to even realize it’s doing this, just as its title character
strolls amidst the ruin and destruction and remains blithesomely unaware that
he is responsible for it all. It’s all so marvellously twisted and wrong.
It is impossible to talk about this movie
and not discuss the beautiful, stupendous, decadently excessive violence of its
third act, given that this is what makes the film lose all credibility as a
movie about heroism. A little past the halfway point nearly every frame shows
human beings callously exterminated in the hundreds of thousands, sky scrapers
fall like houses of cards and all the while the movies “heroes” remain
chillingly disconnected and remorseless. In this movie, heroism is defined not
as protecting the innocent, but as killing da baddies, AT ANY COST!
At no point does it seem like the “good
guys”, alien or otherwise, give a damn about us. We’re just pawns in this
galactic game in which Jor-el is God, Zod is the devil and Kal-el is Jesus
Christ. You really can’t root for either side because neither of them have
humanities best interests in mind. Jor-el encodes all Kryptonian DNA into his
son and sends him to Earth. Though its never expressly said the basic
implication is that his son will either breed with humans, or use the
facilities in the abandoned outpost to clone a master race of Kryptons adapted
to live in Earth’s environment who will then either rule humanity or just breed
us out of existence altogether. “You will give them an ideal to aspire to, you
will lead them into the sun, they will become like us, resistance is futile!”
In contrast Zod plans to terraform the Earth into a planet that current
Kryptons could live on, wiping humanity out in the process. Thing is both
Jor-el and Zods’s endgame is exactly the same, to make Earth the new Krypton,
the only difference is Zod’s plan is forceful and immediate while Jor-el’s plan
is subversive and insidious.
Humanity is regarded with such utter
contempt in this film that it’s occasional attempts to make the good guys seem
upstanding and moral are completely comical. Jor-el bemoans the Krypton high
council’s decision to artificially breed their citizenry to be suited to
designated tasks. He says this robbed them of personal choice, something he
regards as a sacred right. For Kryptons anyway, he doesn’t seem to extend this
right to us. We didn’t ask you to send us a “leader”, we didn't choose to harbor an alien refugee, we
didn’t choose to be guinea pigs in
Jor-el’s little eugenics program and we sure as shit didn't choose to be the next target of Kryptons
civil war. Jor-el made all these decisions on his own without even consulting
us, or anyone else, for that matter. Then, like a self-appointed deity he is,
he appears before his only son as a Holy(graphic) Ghost and tells him: “one day
you will grow to save these helpless creatures from a peril that they’re only
in because I put them there.” I guess
the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree because when the shit hits the fan
Superman himself shows absolutely no regard for human life. We only see
Superman save people in flashbacks (which make up the majority of the second
act), in the events following Zods invasion he seems too distracted and
self-absorbed to save anyone but Lois Lane.
Now having read a few comic books in my day
I know that there are frequently occasions in which the hero is attacked in a populated
area and innocent civilians are put in danger. Typically the hero’s strategy is
to try and draw his opponent away from the crowds to an unpopulated area, often
leaving himself exposed to attack when trying to save citizens from falling debris and such. In “Man of Steel” Superman’s attempts to safeguard citizens
consists of telling them to “get indoors”, immediately focusing his attention
back on the bad guys once the people have scurried into the little shops and
restaurants of downtown Smallville, buildings which are all utterly destroyed in the ensuing
carnage! Hey Superman, maybe you should try to draw them off to like, a field,
or something, y’know someplace where people are less likely to get caught in
the fray.
Then the military shows up and, I mean shit...
Remember in the first “Iron Man” when the military show concern that an
unidentified military craft is engaging the enemy? Someone says “were we
authorized to attack?” and the guy on the phone says “no sir, they were using
human shields, we weren’t given a green light”. I guess this is only protocol when
invading an enemy country. When attacking cities on American soil the army
seems to have no qualms about bombarding the shit out of everything, having
made no attempt whatsoever to evacuate anyone to safety. Meh, collateral
damage, fire away boys!
Panicked citizen screams: “Alien monsters
are destroying the city, run! Look, the military has arrived, we’re saved. Aaaah!
They’re shooting at everyone! Quick, seek refuge in yonder railway station!
This is horrible! Who will save us? Hey, what’s that up in the sky? Is it a
bird? Is it a plane? Holy shit, look out!”
*Superman hurls Zod’s henchman at railway
station, destroying several freight trains in a fiery cataclysm* KABOOM!
Panicked citizen: “OH MY GAWD! OH MY
GAAAWD!”
Even before the end battle, when Superman
actually has a minute or two to strategize, does he turn to the military
generals and say: “Don’t attack that ship, focus your efforts on evacuating Metropolis,
and get those people to safety! Leave Zod’s forces to me, you’re men are no
match for them.” No. Instead he puts them all directly in harm’s way by making
them pawns in his plan, and again they only add to the destruction and loss of
life.
“Sir, the gravity is too intense; it’s
pulling all of our missiles down into the crowded streets below, should we
disengage?”
“No! Get closer, keep firing! Lay down your
lives without question for the glory of our new God!”
Eventually Superman destroys the deadly
terraformer, rescues Lois Lane and descends into the charred ruins of
Metropolis, and you’d think upon seeing the aftermath Lois would of started
crying and pounding Superman in the chest screaming: “They’re all dead! You
bastard! They came because of you! None of this would have happened if it
hadn’t been for you!” Then Superman would fall to his knees, staring through
teary eyes at the survivors crawling out from under the rubble, and weeping
he’d throw his hands up to the heavens howling: “Oh God! This is all my fault,
I’m so sorry.” Instead him and Lois stand amidst the wreckage, kiss and make
jokes, neither one of them showing the slightest hint of sadness or remorse.
Background extras scuttle out from under fallen debris with no help from our
mighty hero, who doesn’t even acknowledge their existence.
“He saved us.” *Groan of metal as the badly
damaged scaffold of a distance tower collapses under its own weight and the
building collapses to the ground.* “Well, he saved me, anyway. Think I’m gonna
get outta here, before more horrible things happen.”
“This
devastation means nothing. We can rebuild and repopulate! I love you, shiny
space God, and stand ready to receive your seed!”
Then Zod shows up and Superman once again
allows the fight to spill over into a densely populated area, making no attempt
to avoid smashing through skyscrapers filled with people. He doesn’t even seem
to notice the chunks of cement hurtling to the ground and crushing innocent
bystanders, much less attempt to divert any of it. And he sleeps soundly that
night in the Fortress of Solitude, there was nothing he could do, they were
just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The movie does try to make Superman
appear moral again by having him struggle with indecision and scream with inner
turmoil when it comes time to kill Zod. So he’s deeply troubled when forced to
kill a genocidal maniac, but doesn’t shed a single tear for the millions of
deaths he was the indirect cause of? I guess he just doesn’t like getting his
hands dirty, that personal touch just makes things too uncomfortably real for
him. As the song says: “the death of one is a tragedy, the death of millions is
just a statistic.”
I kept thinking of moments of catastrophe
in other movies. In “The Hobbit” the dwarves try to retake the mines of Morya and
despite emerging victorious they don’t celebrate because, quote: “our dead were
beyond the count of grief”. In “The Watchmen” Ozymandius destroys New York and
kills millions of people to trick the world off the course of nuclear war and
bring about a global peace. Later he seeks solace by confiding with the godlike
Dr. Manhattan saying: “I’ve made myself feel every death” and begging to know if
he’s done the right thing.
In “Man of Steel” Superman fights off
aliens that raise Smallville and Metropolis to the ground, killing untold
millions and racking up billions of dollars in property damage. Then, accepting
no personal responsibility for anything that’s transpired, he proceeds to
destroy U.S. spy planes and commands military leaders to call the president of
the most powerful country in the world and tell him everything will be “done on
my terms”. So he’s basically just
proclaimed himself lord and master of Earth by declaring that he is answerable
to no one. Instead of reacting to this with horror some chick giggles and says
“he’s so hot.” Then Superman goes home to the smoldering crater of Smallville
and discusses what he’s going to do for work when he’s not playing God.
You see, other heroic adventure stories ask
hard moral questions and depict the world as something to be cherished and loss
of life as something sorrowful and traumatic. “Man of Steel” presumes absolute
moral authority and depicts the world as a strategic resource and human life as
so much expendable garbage. When someone finally attempts to express this
concern Superman merely shrugs it off by saying that he’s really one of us,
implying a sense of comradery that doesn’t shine through in his actions or,
more often, inaction.
“How can we be sure you’ll continue to act
in America’s best interest?”
“I was raised in Kansas!”
Yeah, that’s right, he’s an Amerikuhn! He firmly
believes that good intentions are justification enough for the use of excessive
force and the reckless abuse of power. How much more American can you get?
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