Man of Steel is one of those movies that everyone is divided on, cinephiles, Superman fans, regular movie goers, pretty much everyone has an opinion on it. Today I want to talk about one specific element of the movie, Superman. So forget about any problems or praises you have with the story, the themes, the visuals, just focus on Superman, is he a faithful adaptation? Or a new spin entirely? Do they get-him-right?Superman is one of those heroes that a lot of people have begun to dislike these days because they say he's not relatable. To that I say: Nah. Superman is supposed to be the story of a god becoming a man, he has so much power that he's destined to do something with it and he chose to be a symbol of good, to inspire people to be better and be a real symbol of hope, that's why he doesn't wear a mask, because he wants people to trust him. Superman is the guy that always believes in second chances, that the system can work and there is good in almost everyone. But that doesn't make his life easy, he is constantly having his ideology challenged by others, he is in a constant struggle of balancing the line between man and god and despite his best efforts, he knows he can never save everyone. Anyone that says Superman is over powered is someone who thinks you can solve all of life's problems by punching them. Superman is more than that, but is the Man of Steel that?
Now i'm going to be giving Henry Cavill's version some slack because he's a very young Superman who only just took on this role, so he hasn't entirely figured out what type of hero he's supposed to be or what his role is. With that being said, Cavill's Superman does maintain a lot of the traits of the traditional Superman. For one thing he doesn't see himself above the law, when Zod demands Kal-El turn himself over, he does it without hesitation and without resistance, he follows the military's rules, is always polite and even though he's the most powerful person in the room, he never acts like it. He also does decide on his own faith as being a symbol of hope, even down to the S meaning Hope (Boy, that was stupid). Admittedly they may through the Jesus Symbolism in too much, but i've talked about that in a prior post. Another thing is the fact that Clark Kent is a mama's boy, which is evident here considering that when Zod threatens Mama Kent, Clark tackles him like a speeding bullet and beats the living snot out of him, classic Superman.
Something in this film that a lot of people have a problem with is the destruction of Metropolis and how many people die as a result of the fight between Superman and Zod. This is something that people seem to get wrong, first of all, no one dies as a result of Superman's actions, he doesn't put anyone in danger and isn't responsible for the destruction around him that does cause people to die, that's all Zod's work. If you're going to complain about Superman not going out of his way to make sure the destruction doesn't hurt anyone, he's fighting General Zod! He's not exactly giving him an opening to go help people! And if you're going to complain about the amount of destruction, casualties or not, i think it's been made pretty clear in plenty of other story lines (Justice League cartoon & Superman Vs The Elite spring to mind) that Superman doesn't give a damn about collateral damage.
Something I do have a problem with is when Superman destroys the ship carrying the potential future for Krypton, Zod tells him "If you destroy this ship, you destroy Krypton!" which Superman responds "Krypton had it's chance!". This is a very un-Superman thing to say, he's supposed to be the perfect mixture between the two, he's proud of his roots and respects their ways, the people on that ship aren't guilty of any crime and they don't pose any threat. Superman would find a balance between the two, and if he did have to make the sacrifice, he would do it with a heavy heart, this Superman hesitates for a few seconds and then quickly decides to doom his own species. Which is made even worse considering how much he would have loved to have more people like him.
But then there's the final point that a lot of people seem to be split on, killing General Zod. Again, a lot of people think this is a very Un-Superman moment...and they would be right. Superman is supposed to be a symbol for truth, justice and hope, show the best that humanity can be, and killing people is not part of that ideal. But like i stated, this is a young Superman, he doesn't know entirely who he can be, and even more so, he had no other choice, Zod put him into an ultimatum, they both knew there was no other end to the fight, one of them had to die, after all, what are you gonna do? Put Zod in jail? No cell can hold him! He was backed into a corner and he made a tough choice, and you can see that it did have an effect on him, he's clearly shaken up about having to kill Zod and they can use this as the catalyst to why he doesn't kill from now on, because he knows how bad it feels to take a life in the first place.
So in the end, no Man of Steel doesn't have the perfect representation of Superman, he's a little too mopey and he hasn't fully worked out who he's supposed to be, but he's new to this. For the most part they got him right, i don't see any major problems that contradict the character of Superman, in this version or any other. I like this version of Superman, he's not my favourite but he's good and I look forward to seeing where they'll take the character from here.
-Danny
No comments:
Post a Comment