In the parking lot, walking to my car after having seen Man of Steel, I listened to a guy telling his girlfriend that one of the common complaints of the first Christopher Reeves’ Superman movie is that it’s too slow and it takes 45 minutes before anything happens. Since that 1978 film has a 93% on RottenTomatoes, I’m not sure which group of common people are making this common complaint. But if it is so common, that would go a long way to explaining the pacing of Zach Snyder’s newest reboot.

Snyder is an incredibly capable director who commands power over visuals like no other. When given lower end scripts he still makes something that’s hard to not watch. 300 is like the first truly mainstream gay movie and it looks great. Suckerpunch is kind of a mess and often accused of horrible misogyny, and yet for even those who don’t like it, try taking your eyes away. But for a truly great script, like Watchmen, Snyder is a genius that made one of my favorite films. And so for Man of Steel the question is will it be a great script inspiring genius or meager writing that’s a treat to stare at despite the weak foundation. The result is somewhere in the middle.

To be sure, the visuals while grey and blue and CGI throughout, don’t distract from the central action of the film. While I can’t say the effects in this movie look better than his previous effort (because quite frankly, they don’t), I can say I still enjoyed watching them. David Goyer’s script is not up to the usual standard either. It’s not that the dialogue or concepts are bad, it’s that they come at the wrong time or leave too many holes to be filled by action set pieces.

My outfit matches your wallpaper.

And oh are there action set pieces. If the first half of the movie focuses on the young Clark Kent, origin portion of the story, then the second half of the movie is The Matrix: Revolutions, one big fight scene that lasts 45 minutes. Two of the stars of the third Matrix movie (Lawrence Fishburn and Harry Lennix) are actually in Man of Steel. Truthfully the movie has action spiked throughout. It opens on Krypton, Superman’s home planet, where his father Jor-El (Russell Crowe) wages an intellectual battle with General Zod (played with enraged zeal by Michael Shannon). We get quick notions of the planet dying with Zod and Jor disagreeing, to the death, on what to do about it. And so we are treated to a whiz bang set of alien action pieces: chases through space, diving through unexplained waters, and suped-up fisticuffs in the first five minutes. But here’s the problem, we don’t really know the full context of what’s going on, we don’t know the full set of relationships. We don’t know why this thrilling set of opening chases is supposed to be thrilling. This might be an okay way to start a Bond film because we are familiar with the protagonist going in, but for an origin movie on an alien planet, it’s hard to care when you have no real basis for it and it doesn’t even use the physics you live with every day.

“I love these Matrix films.”
“You’re in Superman.”

The movie keeps the pace from being 1978 slow by showing the present day Clark Kent doing something extraordinary and then flashing back to his youth, showing more extraordinary events. By doing this we get to learn about his childhood while not being too bogged down in “story”. Except… the really emotional aspects of these origin movies are the best parts and serve really well to help us care about the big fight at the end. Watching Clark interact with his father is the heart of the film and yet it’s given flashback short shrift. We only watch the “most interesting” bits. And well, after seeing this movie, tell me Clark Kent isn’t the most unlucky guy ever. A bus crash, tornado, and oil rig explosion are just part of the trouble that follows him around. Which leads us to the present, where Zod has come to earth to finish what he started on Krypton. He wants to save his home planet and Superman is the key. So he’s willing to cause a ton of trouble to make Mr. Kent comply.

Henry Cavill is pretty fantastic as Superman. There’s the heartbeat of a heroic, patient, and kind but troubled man in every scene and it’s easy to root for him. Cavill gives Superman some real depth even if the script is light on plumbing those depths. Same goes for Shannon as Zod. The longer the movie goes the more we learn about him and the whole problem from up on Krypton. This of course is the wrong way to go about it. Actions don’t make any sense until far too late in the film, however Shannon always indicated the complexity inside of Zod – the remorse behind the killing. Amidst the yelling was pain and sorrow and credit Shannon with letting us in a little, far before the screenwriter does.

Kevin Kostner and Diane Lane as young Clark’s parents are both human and compelling. I kind of wish Kostner was my Dad. (for the record, I like my Dad a lot – I’m just making a point). Amy Adams as Lois Lane is serviceable. Nothing amazing but nothing bad either. I’m willing to see her reprise the role.

Am I angry or sad…. actually both.

So let’s talk about the rest of the film – a.k.a the big fight. It’s long, it’s big, it’s fast, and everybody is a super being. It made me think of The Avengers, what with The Hulk and Thor beating on aliens and each other but knowing the whole time they were indestructible. I wondered what was the point of watching people fight knowing they can’t die. In Man of Steel, Snyder makes me believe that somehow they can actually kill each other so I felt a greater sense of danger even as bodies get punched through buildings. Yes… punched THROUGH buildings. So when the inevitable happens and a super being is beaten, while emotionally satisfying, I did wonder “well if that’s all it takes, why didn’t punching him through a building work?”

So take Man of Steel for what it is. A quickly paced, action extravaganza that never fully disappoints and has an emotional core, but if viewed like a jig-saw puzzle the pieces put together currently form a still life of fruit. If arranged differently they could have been Starry Night.

I’ll leave you with this thought, the man in the parking lot was explaining a reference to a potential sequel. A set of gas trucks with the name Lexcorp printed on the side. He said to his date, “Lex Luthor is like Superman’s Joker” to which his girlfriend responded, “I don’t know who that is.”

Enjoy.