'Man of Steel' Sacrifices Superman's Origin Story for Cynical CGI-Fest

General Zod (Michael Shannon) vows revenge Jor-El and his son Kal-El, later known on Earth as the Man of Steel, Superman.

Superman, we hardly knew you. After enduring a pretentious two-and-a-half hour origin story, Zack Snyder's Superman reboot, Man of Steel forces the iconic epithet into the plot for one random instance. Snyder's iteration doesn't stand for truth, justice or the American way, rather assuming the role of an alien refugee attempting to remain off the grid except for the occasional phantom heroism.

Man of Steel goes through the same expected motions Richard Donner's Superman: The Movie did back in 1978. Still a carbon copy origin story, the alien planet Krypton is dying and in a last-ditch effort, scientists Jor-El (Russell Crowe) and his wife Lara (Ayelet Zurer) send their newborn son to Earth for a chance to live and grow up to become humanity's savior.

Everything going into Man of Steel couldn't have been aligned any more perfectly. Superman was starting from scratch for the first time in 35 years, erasing the existence of Bryan Singer's polarizing Superman Returns. And with Zack Snyder (Watchmen) helming the reboot as director with Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight Rises) attached as its producer, Man of Steel seemed too perfect to be true.

Coming off of acclaimed successes such as 300 and Watchmen, Snyder built up a reputation for being a creative visionary who crashed through the style over substance barrier, transforming this pair of beloved graphic novels into genre-defining films. What happened with Man of Steel?

Man of Steel is visually gorgeous as Snyder constantly  pushes the limits of CGI technology that even its spiritual sibling Superman Returns released less than a decade ago would be envious of. The flip side to having breakthrough visuals is that it overpowers the opportunity to ground the film's narrative heart. Snyder dresses Man of Steel in sweeping shots of Krypton and superhuman fights above Metropolis, but at the end of the day, the film is a soulless toy advertisement for the big boys.

Henry Cavill (Immortals) is no Christopher Reeve, but he's not a terrible Superman. Cavill has the ideal look, but that all goes out the window when Superman is depicted as a conflicted loner who is desperate need some anger management sessions. Cavill's Superman fits the bill for a cynical and more realistic time, but nowhere is he the icon that's been part of Americana for the past 75 years. He's not really Clark Kent. He's not even Superman, just a generic isolated alien with superhuman powers.

Amy Adams replaces Margot Kidder as reporter Lois Lane, who discovers too much about Kal-El's hidden history too soon. Except for being a key component in Superman canon, there's no real justification for throwing Lois into the middle of the madness.

General Zod also returns in the form of a miscast Michael Shannon. Shannon is an accomplished actor known for portraying a long line of crazies, but underneath the guise of a chiseled Roman dictator, he's substantially inferior to Terence Stamp's hammy Kryptonian megalomaniac whose villainous presence ran the tables of the first two superhero installments. If Zod wasn't bogged down in generic characterizations, his personal vendetta against Kal-El might have been treaded more invested waters.

Once into the meat of the story or lack of, Man of Steel flies by quickly fully concentrated on a string of action sequences so self-absorbed in destroying as much stuff onscreen for the sake of wowing audiences with cheap thrills showing that Snyder is all-in for a superhero film full of style without substance. 

The pretentious underplotted screenplay by David S. Goyer doesn't give Man of Steel kudos either, asking the big questions time and time again, but never following through on the promise of substantial results. The end result is a Superman movie that tries so hard not to be the previous movies, its edgy identity is off on some visual high that fails to accomplish what has come before in theatrical canon.  

Man of Steel will have its legions of proponents, blinded by the big names and glitz that go with a leaden summer blockbuster, but that doesn't deny the fact that Superman has been de-Supermaned courtesy of Zack Snyder and company. Is it too soon to starting asking for a reboot?

GRADE: C- (4/10)