Dir:
Zack Snyder
Stars:
Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon
After
the all-round disaster that was Batman & Robin, the colourful and
eccentric Batman films of the nineties descended to nothing more than a
hard-nippled joke, and the franchise seemed impossible to continue. However,
Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy managed to reboot the hero
through character-driven narrative, compelling villains, insightful social
commentary and ambitious, live-action set pieces – resulting in a trilogy that
was both commercially and critically successful. So when I saw Nolan’s name
attached to the seemingly brooding, and almost arthouse, trailer for Man Of
Steel I expected the Nolan magic was going to be at work again.
Of
course, in my excitement, I had foolishly overlooked the director credit for
Zack Snyder whose last three films (Watchmen, Legends Of The
Guardians: The Owls Of Ga’Hoole and Sucker Punch) had all been
big-budget flops at the domestic box office that were panned by critics. This
realisation dawned on me very quickly as I struggled to stay awake through
nearly two and half hours of loud, dumb CGI set-pieces, strung together with
empty dialogue from humourless, undeveloped characters.
Man
Of Steel is such an omnishambles
that it is difficult to ascertain what Zack Snyder was actually attempting to
achieve. After some explosive CGI battle scenes and Russell Crowe fighting all
over the world, Kal-El is sent away from Krypton in an inter-galactic Moses
basket to the planet Earth. His realisation of his true identity, and the
development of his strengths, is dealt with in as little time as possible in
order to make way for some more big CGI explosions. When there is dialogue, it
is humourless, dull and far more pseudo-philosophical than the crass,
thrill-less set pieces that it punctuates.
If
Snyder set out to make a serious and brooding Dark Knight-style
superhero film, then he has failed spectacularly as Man Of Steel has a
total absence of character exploration, interest in a believable villain or real, live-action jeopardy; which leaves the remaining dialogue sounding incredibly
clumsy. Moreover, in The Dark Knight Batman had to go into hiding for
seven years as the deaths of two characters may have shaken the hope of the
people; yet the millions of human deaths and the billions of dollars of damage
caused by Superman during the city battle in Man Of Steel don’t even
weigh slightly on his conscience. Instead, he is called a hero and thanked for
saving the day, whilst Metropolis slowly burns to the ground behind him. I
wouldn’t have been surprised if “America, F*** Yeah!” played over the credits.
Of
course, not all superhero films have to be dark and cerebral – look at last
year’s Avengers, which was a fun, mega-budget blockbuster that featured
huge CGI battles in the middle of cities, and an ensemble cast of well-known
actors playing entertaining and likeable characters. If Man Of Steel is
trying to replicate the broad, blockbuster action of Avengers then
unfortunately it fails yet again. There is a total vacuum of charisma and
humour from the movie’s stars, and it is an uphill struggle for the audience to
enjoy being in the company of any of its characters. The only possible laughs
this boring and asinine Superman movie can offer are ironic sniggers at the
sheer stupidity of Snyder’s grandiose treatment of a meaningless blockbuster.
It
was perhaps naïve to think that Christopher Nolan’s influence as producer could
reboot Superman with the same success as Batman Begins. Yet, as Zach
Snyder is already announced to be directing the sequel, Man Of Steel may
just be the first in a long line of boring, loud, inane, joyless and
underwhelming movies, overloaded with CGI and void of any jeopardy or charisma.
2 / 10
2 / 10
No comments:
Post a Comment