Man of Steel: A DCEU Retrospective (Part 1)

Rating – 6/10

**SPOILERS**

In a few months, James Gunn’s Superman will hit theaters, bringing with it a new cinematic universe centered around the characters of DC Comics. The response so far has been mostly optimistic, as people seem hopeful about the future for these characters on screen. That hope is somewhat cautious of course, as the foundations of the DC Universe have been built on the ruins of another. 

In the 2010s, when the Marvel Cinematic Universe brought about a remarkable wave of success and popularity for superhero movies, there was another side of the coin. DC Comics, historically the biggest rivals of Marvel, attempted to build a series of interconnected franchises of their own: the DC Extended Universe. However, as Marvel would spend the decade reaching new heights and breaking more box office records, the DCEU would repeatedly stumble and falter, through a mix of bad decisions, poor leadership, and incredibly bad luck. While the MCU is still going (maybe not as strongly as before), the DCEU met a prolonged and pitiful demise, lasting from 2013 to 2023, paving the way for James Gunn to take control and try again. 

In the weeks leading up to DC’s big reset, I’m going to take the time to revisit the DCEU, one film at a time, and explore the history, mistakes, and flashes of brilliance being left behind, in the hopes of giving one last farewell to this often confused, occasionally poignant, and somewhat bold attempt at adapting some iconic characters. 

The DCEU was born in 2013. After witnessing Marvel change the game with 2012’s The Avengers, DC and Warner Bros. recruited director Zack Snyder to jumpstart a universe of their own, starting with Superman. The result was Man Of Steel, a brooding and dramatic imagining of Superman’s mythos dripping with Snyder’s distinct filmmaking look. It’s packed with his heavily stylised action, but also tries a more thoughtful approach to the Superman character, and what he and his power represents as an outsider to our world. 

The results left much to be desired. 

Man of Steel is one of the most controversial films to have come out in my lifetime. Critic and audiences were split right down the middle, with as many fans loving it as were hating it. Almost everything about it was scrutinized, namely its darker tone and intense action. Also notable was the film’s failure to generate box office numbers akin to the MCU (this would have lasting consequences). 

As a film, Man of Steel isn’t horrendous, but that doesn’t mean it’s perfect. The screenplay by David S. Goyer has plenty of good ideas, but it bizarrely feels like it’s lacking a second act. The first hour feels like a first act, filling us in on Henry Cavill as Clark Kent, and his efforts to learn about his heritage and not be discovered as an alien, as reporter/eventual love interest Lois Lane investigates who he is. All of these are wrapped up very quickly. Clark meets his real father and gets his iconic suit, Lois works out who he is, we find out everything we need to know about Clark’s childhood. From there, the film’s villain comes to Earth, and the remaining half of the film feels like a very long third act filled with action scenes and explosions. I’m sure there is technically a second act in there, but my point is more that the film feels like 2 halves that have to abruptly transition into each other with little cohesion. There’s a very distinct shift from one half to the other, and I found it jarring. 

At risk of pissing off all of his fanboys (I think of them more as cultists personally. He’s not an infallible god guys), Zack Snyder is absolutely a problem with this film. This is in part due to his visual style. Many of the scenes are shot exceedingly well, but are held back repeatedly by Snyder’s heavily contrasted and blue tinted color grading, or by being garishly slathered in CGI. Not to say all the effects are bad, but when they aren’t up to par it sticks out. The notable example in my mind is a scene in which Lois is in a damaged spaceship falling from the sky. Every shot of her in the cockpit looks off, mostly due to the artificial fire effects layered on top of it. Speaking of weird artificial looking effects, Snyder loves to employ a zoom effect during action scenes, seemingly trying to recreate someone working a zoom lens on a camera. It annoyed me every single time he did it. My overall point is, Snyder is more than capable of getting gorgeous footage, but habitually shoots himself in the foot by giving into stylistic indulgences. 

In 2013, one of the biggest sources of discourse around this film was Snyder’s handling of the Superman mythos. Snyder didn’t want to tell a traditional superhero story, instead choosing to deconstruct the idea of Superman in a modern, realistic setting. To Snyder, this clearly meant angst around Superman’s place on Earth, the world’s reaction to him, and mass casualties and destruction from his battles, not to mention the ham fisted Jesus symbolism around Superman and his positioning as a Messianic savior. A lot of controversy stemmed from Snyder’s deviation from the more lighthearted reputation of Superman in the comics. 

I think that Snyder does tell the story he wants to tell effectively for the most part, and that there is a place for this kind of character deconstruction. However this approach doesn’t depict the hopefulness and earnest nature that defines the character, and Snyder’s eventual doubling down on his hero deconstruction leads me to believe he either had no interest in these characters or just didn’t understand them in the first place. It became more clear in his follow up, but Man of Steel had signs that Snyder might not have been the right person to spearhead DC’s new franchise. 

This does beg the question: why would DC and Warner Bros. place their bets on someone who didn’t favor a more accurate (and presumably more crowd pleasing) portrayal of their characters? My explanation is a topic that will probably come up repeatedly as I continue this series: the DCEU’s fatal flaw was constantly shaping its image around how it compared to Marvel and the MCU. In this case, Warner Bros. attempted to create a gritty and realistic alternative to the MCU’s brighter tone, hoping audiences would appreciate the differing styles. They would quickly realize this was not the case. 

I’ve said a lot of negative things about this movie, but there are things to appreciate. Even if his style is flawed, Zack Snyder can create gorgeous shots, and many of his action scenes are exhilarating. The weight and power behind clashes of godlike beings can really be felt, even if it doesn’t quite fit the character (like I said, Snyder tells the story he wants to tell effectively). The film’s big ace in the hole is the legendary composer Hans Zimmer, his score actually managing to live up to the iconic theme to Richard Donner’s Superman, while still feeling at place in Snyder’s universe. I also want to give a mention to the costume designers. I love the details on Superman’s suit here, and I don’t know if it’s controversial, but I really like the look of the suits and armor worn by the film’s villain, General Zod, and his soldiers. In terms of acting, the standouts to me are Russel Crowe as Superman’s true father, Kevin Costner as his adoptive Earth father, and most of all Michael Shannon as General Zod, in an intimidating performance with actual strong motives for his actions (at least they beat the MCU in one way. This did not last). That being said, Henry Cavill just doesn’t display the charisma to be an engaging hero, and the usually fantastic Amy Adams seems thoroughly disinterested as Lois Lane. Overall, I’d say this is a 5/10 movie if I’m being generous. 

So why the hell did I give it 6/10? Well, at risk of destroying my credibility, I admit it’s down to personal bias. In a roundabout way. I was 12 when Man of Steel came out, and at the time I was starting to get deeper into the world of movie fandom, mostly through YouTube. As silly as it sounds, in many ways a lot of what I watched and learned played a role in getting me to where I am now. And in watching Man of Steel, I get taken back to that time. At that moment, YouTube was full of videos commenting on the movies. I seemed to show up just as Man of Steel was the focus of what would be my favorite channels (you better believe I was a huge fan of How It Should Have Ended). This was the time where I first got sucked into this world, and watching Man of Steel allowed me to go back to that time and vividly remember how exciting it all felt. So no matter how many mistakes it makes, I really can’t say I hate this movie. I don’t let bias influence my opinions of movies too often, but this is definitely an exception. 

This sentiment would not carry over to the next film.