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AN AMERICAN HERCULES: Henry Cavill joins the company of Kirk Alyn, George Reeves, Christopher Reeve, and several others who have played the Man of Steel in movies and on TV. At last, Clark Kent/Superman is treated as a complex character with a dual identity as difficult as Batman’s. Courtesy: Warner Bros./Legendary/Syncopy/DC Entertainment.
CREDITS
Warner Bros.; Zack Snyder, dir.; David S. Goyer, Christopher Nolan, scr.; Nolan, Emma Thomas, Deborah Snyder, pro.; Hans Zimmer, mus.; Amir Mokri, cin.; David Brenner, ed.; Alex McDowell, prod. design; Chris Farmer, Kim Sinclair, art dir.; James Acheson, Michael Wilkinson, costumes; Michael Ahasay, Alan Lash-brook, F/X; Shaun Friedberg “Pyrokinesis”/WETA Digital, Tom Becker, visual effects; Bernd Angerer, animation supervisor; 143 min.; Color; 2.35:1.
CAST
Henry Cavill (Clark Kent/Kal-El); Amy Adams (Lois Lane); Michael Shannon (Gen. Zod); Diane Lane (Martha Kent); Russell Crowe (Jor-El); Antje Traue (Faora-Ul); Harry Lennix (Gen. Swanwick); Richard Schiff (Dr. Hamilton); Christopher Meloni (Col. Hardy); Kevin Costner (Jonathan Kent); Ayelet Zurer (Lara Lor-Van); Laurence Fishburne (Perry White); Dylan Sprayberry (Clark Kent, age 13); Cooper Timberline (Clark Kent, age 9); Richard Cetrone (Tor-An); Mackenzie Gray (Jax-Ur); Julian Richings (Lor-Em); Jadin Gould (Lana Lang); Rebecca Buller (Jenny); Christina Wren (Maj. Farris).
MOST MEMORABLE LINE
Son, you’re the answer to, “are we alone in the universe?”
JONATHAN KENT TO CLARK
BACKGROUND
Everyone involved in this project understood the goal was not merely to reboot the franchise but also to initiate, as the team would collaboratively present it, “a (new) shared fictional universe” of existing DC characters—in time, providing fresh relationships between old favorites. Man of Steel necessarily presented an origination fable that was at once true to the essence of the Shuster and Siegel comic, then seventy-five years old, while offering a clear departure from previous versions. To this end, such reliable standbys as cub reporter Jimmy Olsen and the Achilles heel device of Kryptonite were eliminated—not that either couldn’t be retrieved for some future installment. The science-fiction aspect was played as central to the approach rather than, as was the case in Superman (1978) and Superman II (1980), as a catalyst to the action. A religious aspect was emphasized, owing to Jonathan Kent’s fear that his non-biological son, despite his benign savior-like powers, might be misunderstood, even murdered, by an uncomprehending mob.
THE PLOT
As the planet Krypton readies to implode, citizens abandon their ruling council and turn control over to General Zod. Aware that the end is at hand, Jor-El encodes the genetics of his race into his son, then launches the baby into space. Zod and his minions are banished to the Phantom Zone but, after Krypton disappears from the heavens, they wander the solar system, searching for the only other survivor. That special boy has been discovered by the Kents, a Kansas couple, who raise the child as their own. Jonathan Kent insists that, for his boy’s well-being, young Clark enact his good deeds only in secret, even allowing innocents to perish in order to remain incognito—a unique spin to the old story that either delighted and fascinated or concerned and troubled longtime fans of the franchise.
THE FILM
Warner Bros. executives were anxious to bring Christopher Nolan on board as “creative consultant.” His successes with Batman Begins (2005) and Inception (2010) were double-barreled proof that he could effectively handle superheroes and science fiction. Having penned Batman Begins, then co-creating TV’s sci-fi series FlashForward (2009–2010), David S. Goyer appeared a natural for the screenplay. Completing the team, Zack Snyder (1966–) had revealed with 300 (2006) and Watchmen (2009) an ability to darken a fantasy film without turning off a mainstream audience. Despite rumors that he might direct, Nolan planned to launch this project, then move on to The Dark Knight (2008) with the assumption that a meeting of these superheroes would emerge from each project’s expected success.
THEME
According to Jor-El, “harvesting the core” of Krypton, in response to the exhaustion of energy reserves, is what caused the beginning of the end for their world. Here is a fitting cautionary fable for twenty-first-century earthlings, well aware of our own rapidly depleting reserves and the questionable responses (such as fracking) to the problem. This aspect of the film’s ideology can be considered liberal.
Also, at the time of the film’s release, the public had recently become more aware of ancient astronaut theories due to dissemination not only in other recent genre films but also in well-received series on cable TV. “Look to the stars,” Jor-El begs his fellow Kryptonians, “as our ancestors did, for habitable worlds”—such a line was not heard in earlier Superman films. The wise Jor-El despises genetic engineering, a major topic of contemporary discourse. “What if,” he asks, “a child dreamed of becoming something other than what society had intended” for him? He and his wife conceived their son by the forbidden old-fashioned method of natural conception. Here is yet another example of the sci-fi genre’s conservative condemnation of the dangers inherent in science and technology contrasting a liberal progressive’s dream that these advances will create a better future. The greatest sci-fi films are complex enough to include both liberal and conservative attitudes in a single vision.
TRIVIA
Natalie Portman, Anne Hathaway, and Mila Kunis were among the actresses considered for Lois Lane. Amy Adams’s portrayal presented Lois as less the glamorous bitch of so many previous incarnations and more as a contemporary hard-working, post-feminist young woman, projecting the believability necessary to make this fantastical piece play as real, if not narrowly realistic. This was important as the female audience for superhero sci-fi had increased significantly since the late 1970s, when the genre was still considered a part of a boy’s fantasy life.
Before winning the lead, Henry Cavill (luckily, according to fans) had been the runner-up to Brandon Routh for Superman Returns (Bryan Singer, 2006), which audiences had rejected as a disappointing rehash.