MAN OF STEEL (2013) – Film Review
CONTENT (C): 4 out of 10
Man of Steel is
surprisingly and refreshingly clean. Except for a couple vulgarities and a few
other words, there is little profanity to speak of. Sex and nudity are eschewed.
Not as surprisingly, there are several Christological references throughout the
movie. Clark Kent even seeks counsel from a priest at one point in the film
(although I found the resulting conversation lackluster). The reason I’m giving
a 4 out of 10 here is because of a handful of thematic choices made by the
filmmakers that depart from Superman’s intrinsic character strengths. If you
want a more detailed description of these elements, see Steven D.
Greydanus’ review over at Decent Films.
ARTISTRY (A): 7 out of 10
This is a well-made film with a wonderful cast. The special
effects are excellent. Except for a few somewhat questionable scriptwriting
choices (see above), the only real sore thumb is the mediocre score by Hans
Zimmer. It seems to me that the one consistently glaring deficit in films
associated with Christopher Nolan is a poorly conceived musical score.
In the interests of full disclosure, I like a lot of
Zimmer’s music. He has produced some real zingers. This film’s score, however,
is a zonker. (Yes, I made that word up. It means, “unacceptable; the opposite
of ‘zinger.’”) Granted, whoever scored the film was going to be compared to
John Williams, and no one was going to live up the standard he set in the
original Superman films. But by golly, a dozen other composers could have
gotten at least a little closer. When it comes to modern superhero music, Hans
Zimmer is anything but super.
PREFERENCE (P): 9 out of 10
After reading all of the above, you might be surprised to discover
that I really liked this movie. Even as I encountered some of the content
issues hinted at earlier, I still enjoyed the proceedings—except for maybe the final
third (or even fourth). As the mayhem of the last act reached to ludicrously
high levels, I found myself slightly bothered. And yet, even then I was much
more engaged than I was during the final act of The Avengers. The questionable thematic choices the filmmakers made
still didn’t derail the experience for me. I’m intrigued to see where the story
will go from here.
CAP score: 67%