Man of Steel by Zack Snyder (review)

Since the critical and commercial triumph of Batman Begins (Nolan US 2005) and, more pointedly, its sequel, The Dark Knight (Nolan US 2008), the first billion-dollar film in history, the narrative technique of ‘rebooting’ has fast become an industry norm. Taking its cue from comics books such as DC’s Crisis on Infinite Earths through to the more recent ‘New 52’, a reboot allows producers to reinvigorate and regenerate tired or dilapidated franchises by disavowing their pre-established narrative history in order to ‘begin again’. Of course, the lessons of poststructuralism teach us that the slate is never truly wiped clean and palimpsestuously contains all previous versions that cannot be exorcised from history in one fell swoop. Still, a reboot seeks to nullify a cantankerous, pensionable version with a contemporary, youthful replacement. In the wake of other film reboots – Batman Begins, Casino Royale (Campbell US 2006), The Amazing Spider-Man (Webb US 2012) and, more recently, Robocop (Padilha US 2014) among an array of other examples across the transmedia frontier – Man of Steel attempts to make Superman relevant in a post-9/11 landscape by drawing upon Batman Begins as a template.

Superman was once the crown jewel of the comic book medium and certainly the emperor of the DC machine. With the publication of Action Comics #1 in 1937 – what Michael Chabon describes as ‘minute zero’ of the superhero genre – Superman leaped onto the world stage and became the comic book equivalent of Disney’s Mickey Mouse. The analogy with Walt Disney’s anthropomorphic creation indicates the role that Superman now occupies as ‘mascot’ rather than vital and interesting. But, as times have changed, and become cast with pessimism and gloom, Superman has become more difficult to reinterpret for the contemporary audience. DC’s most popular character has been Batman for decades now, and the criticisms levelled at Superman as ‘boy scout’ – and, thus, a fossil of a bygone era, nothing more than a pop culture curio – are well founded.

The attachment of both Nolan and co-writer David S. Goyer to the reboot fanned the flames of excitement. Could the Batman ‘dream team’ remould the character and make him relevant again? The previous entry, Superman Returns (Singer US 2006), served as an extension of Christopher Reeve’s landmark portrayal and, in large, remade Donner’s 1978 original blockbuster, whereas the reboot ignores and disavows film continuity and offers a reconceptualised origin story that keeps the same basic schema while dressing the ‘boy scout’ in Bat-infused aesthetics.

As with Superman: The Movie (Donner US/UK 1978), Man of Steel begins on the planet Krypton on the precipice of destruction. As per mythos, Jor-El (Russell Crowe) and his wife Lara (Ayelet Zura) place an infant Kal-El – the first Kryptonian to be born biologically in centuries – in an intergalactic vehicle that will serve as his escape pod to Earth. This time around, however, General Zod, a commanding if not pantomimic figure played by Michael Shannon, and his motley of Kryptonian ‘baddies’ begin a coup d’état and try to prevent the launch when they discover Jor-El has hidden a vital artefact – the ‘codex’ or ‘Macguffin’ – containing Krypton’s genetic history within the cells of baby Superman. Of course, as per mythos, the child escapes, and Krypton is destroyed.

One of the major differences in this opening is the physicality of Jor-El. No longer the pensive, contemplative scientist of Marlon Brando, Crowe’s reversion possesses martial arts abilities and rides on the back of a dragon-like creature as he cuts a path through Zod’s henchmen. The opening is more kinetic and more immediate than Donner’s version, with hand-held cameras capturing the action.

As with Batman Begins, the narrative then leaps back and forth through time to provide back-story for Kal-El – now Clark Kent – as he wanders alone as a hobo through small-town America accompanied by Chris Cornell’s elegiac ‘Seasons’ as soundtrack, a grunge anthem for...