Far Horizons: Tales of Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror. Issue #13 April 2015 | Page 59
Man of Steel
(2013)
William Andy Hainline
Spoiler alert - you’ve been warned. Well, I have to
say: I clearly saw a different film than many of my
fellow comic-book nerds did, because I absolutely
freaking loved Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel! From
the breath-taking glimpses of planet Krypton—and
its culture, society, technology, and wildlife (and the
gorgeous way director Zack Snyder managed to bring
it all to life)—all the way to the kick-ass, awesome,
balls-to-the-wall action sequences on Earth, all the
way to the way the film handles Superman’s ultimate
moral dilemma, which I’ll address momentarily, I
loved the whole thing. (Also: When it comes to
portraying how Earth’s military might fare against
an invading — and superior — alien force, as well
as when it come to how to film awesome, epic action
sequences, Zack Snyder could take Michael Bay to
school any day of the week, all day long.) The look of
the film — its general cinematographic aesthetic — is
fantastic; everything from the muted colour palette
to the visual textures that Snyder employs is wonderful. (Of course, anyone who’s seen Sucker Punch or
Watchmen knows what an absolutely gorgeous visual
style Snyder brings to the table.)
In many ways, “Man of Steel” is the ultimate superhe-
ro film, the philosophical inverse of Snyder’s adaptation of “Watchmen”; whereas the latter deconstructed
comics and comic-book movies, just like its literary
inspiration did, Man of Steel restores our faith in superheroes, because it gives us one whose motives are
purely altruistic in nature and that stem from a moral
centre instilled by people who were genuinely good
at heart (The Kent family). Thankfully, from a visual
and characterization standpoint, the “deconstructing”
presence of Christopher Nolan is mostly not felt at
all (at least until the final reel), which is a good thing,
considering the terrible way he handled Batman’s
character and his portrayal in the Dark Knight trilogy.
(Don’t get me wrong — I absolutely love what Nolan
did with Bane, the Joker, and the general feel of those
films, but I hate the way he portrayed Batman as this
incapable dork who got worked-over and shown-up by
every other character in Gotham, even his girlfriend