Man of Steel
My 5 year old son loves stories. One of his all time favourites is Alibaba and 40 thieves. He wants to here it almost every night. But, god forbid should the story change even slightly( Which could happen- thanks to my fading memory and my penchant for embellishments - ) my sharp little one would always point them out to me immediately. And demand that I immediately return back to the original narrative which has been indelibly printed in his memory. That is the problem with epics- you can't tinker with their storyline.
And yet MOS does precisely that. It is almost rebellious to the point where they show an unshaven Clark Kent , performing his superhuman stunts in civilian dress. Lois lane is aware of Superman's secret identity. Clark Kent is almost an unemployed wastrel who lets his adopted father die in an attempt to protect his secret identity. Too many embellishments to the original story line.
The prologue is definitely long drawn.The movie starts on the planet Krypton,which is about to be destroyed " by implosion"due to over zealous mining of its core for fulfilling the energy requirements of the planet. For some reason, at the time when the entire planet is doomed for extinction and people on the planet should be planning to migrate to other worlds, people on Krypton are busy fighting which each other. General Zod organises a coup to overthrow the rulers of Krypton, and when his attempts are foiled , he and his comrades are sentenced to "300 years of somatic reconditioning"(That's so intelligent sounding piece of crap!!!)
Somewhere in the middle of all this, Superman's father ( Jor-El, brilliantly played by Russell Crowe)manages to steal the "Codex", which contains the genetic information of a billion individuals from Krypton ( But inexplicably looks like a half charred remain of a human skull) and by some humbug mumbo- jumbo, transmits this information into his son Kal-El(aka Superman). Kal- El is then sent to earth , to protect him from a certain death on the doomed Krypton, in a weird looking spacecraft.
From here on the movie follows a non linear method of storytelling ( I would prefer to call it "chronologically challenged"- because it leaves you completely confused). Clark Kent is potrayed as an unemployed youth who lives with his mother and does some odd jobs when he is not pulling off his superhuman stunts. Meanwhile General Zod, comes to earth to look for our beloved superhero and reclaim his "Codex"- What follows is an absurd storyline where the US government is made to return Superman to General Zod. The climax is mainly computer generated , where Superman flies at very high speeds and attacks general Zod, till he finally kills him by twisting his neck( Was it that simple? Come on!) after a thoroughly exhausting fight which lasts forever. The fight which is at the climax of this flick, is extremely vertiginous and confusing, especially in 3D. It gave me a mini headache . So much for 3D films!
The movie ends with Clark Kent deciding to join Daily Planet as a reporter ( Of course, newspapers easily recruit unemployed wastrels with no journalistic background as reporters), thus converting the entire movie into Superman's "back story". So at least I the second film, Superman will have a day job!
Some have loved this movie. But I found it too dull. The entire tone of the movie is too dark ( Nolan-isque) Heck, even Superman's costume is two shades darker! The story is paper thin. There is very little emotional connect or character build-up.Ironically, MOS ends up as a 3D film which lacks depth.
And, there is a lot of change in the basic storyline for my taste. Maybe I am like my son, but I like my epics unaltered. And, call me plain nostalgic, or sartorially challenged, but I like Superman's undies above his pants!!!
