Man of Steel (2013): Remembering Henry Cavill, another fallen Superman on the controversial DCEU film’s 10th anniversary

Christian’s Grade: B

The announcement came that Henry Cavill will no longer be Superman for the DC Extended Universe. There was a lot of back and forth leading up to this decision, and a long period of time when we as fans weren’t sure about whether Cavill would get to wear the cape again. Now the decision is made, and we can start the mourning process. Part of that process is looking back at our memories of this Superman and reflecting on how we felt about him. So, I’d like to re-examine Man of Steel (2013) on this the 10th anniversary of this movie.

Man of Steel was the kick-off to the Zack Snyder-led DC Extended Universe that culminated with Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021). In this version of the Superman story, we got a deeper than-usual look at Kal-El’s parents, Jor-El (Russell Crowe) and Lara (Ayelet Zurer), as the movie opens on a fairly lengthy segment taking place on their home world of Krypton. The opening segment in Man of Steel pays a lot of homage to Richard Donner’s Superman (1978) by taking ideas presented there and expanding on them. 

It established Jor-El as a recognized scientific authority on Krypton, who was ignored by the ruling counsel when he warned of the impending destruction of their planet. We see the attempted coup led by General Zod (Michael Shannon), that was referenced in Donner’s movie during a trial scene, played out in full in Man of Steel. A coup that was also brought down by Jor-El showing that he’s not just a scientist, but a fighter as well. And where crystals were used to represent the advanced Kryptonian technology in Superman, Man of Steel used a programmable alien metal to serve the same purpose.

But where Richard Donner presented us with a very lean and elegant preamble to Kal-El being sent to Earth, by contrast, Zack Snyder drops us into a high-octane view of the last days of Krypton that feels a lot like something out of James Cameron’s Avatar (2009). Snyder also digs a little deeper into Kryptonian culture. We see the birth of Kal-El, which is revealed to be that planet’s first natural childbirth in centuries. All Kryptonians are genetically designed to fill specific roles in society and to be peak specimens in order to excel in their predetermined destiny. Taking issue with this kind of determinism and in light of their world’s imminent doom, Jor-El and Lara see an opportunity. They can return to a natural order with their own son, save his life by sending him off world and allow him to determine his own path.

After arriving on Earth, Kal-El is adopted by his Earth parents, Jonathan & Martha Kent (Kevin Costner & Diane Lane), given the name Clark and raised as human. His parents encourage Clark to hide his superhuman abilities out of fear. But after Jonathan’s death and traveling the world in an effort to find himself, Clark discovers his alien heritage and learns to harness his powers. Clark sets out determined to show he’s not to be feared and can be a benefit to mankind. And at that point, Zod and his soldiers arrive on Earth looking for the son of Jor-El. Kal-El, having been informed by an AI version of Jor-El, knows who Zod is and a battle for the future of humanity ensues that demolishes both Metropolis and Smallville. 

I will say that I was 100% behind Zack Snyder’s vision for the DCEU. By the time Man of Steel came out, I was already a fan, having seen and loved his previous films Dawn of the Dead (2004), 300 (2006), and Watchmen (2009). He had a darker take on the superhero genre, which I felt would be a good contrast to the Marvel films, that tend to be more optimistic. However, Snyder has been accused of being a filmmaker that emphasizes style over substance, and I can’t deny that has been true from time to time. His film Sucker Punch (2011) is a perfect example. It’s a movie completely filled with dazzling imagery but completely lacking in a coherent story. 

But if we set an overall quality scale for Snyder’s films from 1 – 10, where Sucker Punch is a 3 and 300 is a 10, I’d put Man of Steel at a 7.5. As per usual for this director, the visuals were spectacular, and you can tell he put a lot of effort into giving the audience a sense of scale. Everything was bigger in this retelling of the Superman mythos. The special effects, all the design aspects, the scope of the story, budget, costuming, and like the Donner Superman, the cast was outstanding. Casting Kevin Costner as Jonathan Kent was genius, and Henry Cavill as Superman almost seemed like typecasting. Cavill actually looked like a real-life Superman, and he really embodied the character on film. Yes, he was more Superman than Clark Kent, but Snyder was taking him in a different direction, so I was willing to roll with it. Warner Bros. put a lot of support behind this movie, and having Christopher Nolan’s name on it as a producer, after bringing in billions of dollars to the studio with his Batman trilogy didn’t hurt.

Nolan is also credited with cracking the story for this new telling of Superman, and David S. Goyer wrote the screenplay. And I think it’s there that the flaws in this movie arise. So much attention to detail was put into the visuals. The script could’ve used more of that. I mentioned Kevin Costner as Jonathan Kent before. When I saw this movie for the first time in 2013, I walked out of the theater struck by two things. The first was the death of Jonathan Kent. This was a pivotal moment in the life of Clark Kent/Superman solidifying his father as his moral compass. 

The Donner Superman crafted this scene expertly with Jonathan dropping dead of a heart attack. That moment grounded Clark in the fact that with all his power, even he can’t save everyone, and his value of human life becomes his strongest driving force. But in Man of Steel, it all went wrong. Jonathan sacrifices his life in a tornado trying to save the family dog. A task perfectly suited for Clark. But he tells Clark to take cover with Martha while he runs into the storm, hurts his ankle, and just gives up trying to escape while again urging his son, the all-powerful alien, not to do anything. This Jonathan Kent didn’t lose his life because it was just his time to go or because of a sacrifice to save others. He died because of fear. Fear that people outside the family would find out Clark was special and somehow his life would be worse. Worse than living with the knowledge that you let your dad die, I guess. And what’s more, by this time in the story, it’s already been revealed that some people in the town know he has special abilities because he’d been seen saving people. So really, what was the point of holding Clark back from saving the dog or his dad?

The second issue that struck me was the killing of General Zod. This is a divisive issue and one that also affected people’s feelings about the follow-up to this movie, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016). In the Snyderverse, people die, and even if you’re a hero, when you try to save lives or the world from the worst of the worst, the time might come where you have to take a life to save many more. That’s the reality Zack Snyder established for his DCEU. In the end of the movie, Superman faces off with Zod, and it’s made plain that Zod will not back down. He intends to destroy humanity out of revenge for Superman besting him. He’s about, to begin with, a family that wasn’t able to vacate the premises fast enough. Superman tries to restrain him as Zod’s heat vision is about to cut these people in half. He begs Zod to stop. It’s clear that with more time to adjust to life on Earth, powered by the sun, he will get stronger and harder to stop. No prison on Earth can hold him and Superman failed at his attempt to put him back in the phantom zone with the rest of his soldiers. So, what options did he have? Superman made the decision to snap Zods neck, ending another attempt at a violent overthrow of a planet like his father before him.

Fans may not be comfortable with the idea of Superman taking a life, but it’s hard to put it in a context more justified than that. And it clearly wasn’t easy for him. We see the pain on his face as the reality of his actions dawns on him. His scream is one of regret. Regret that it had to be done, and there was no other way to stop Zod. His life’s purpose is to save lives. Killing was against his nature. So, while this action might have rubbed some fans the wrong way, I found it to be an interesting direction to take this character that’s always been viewed as a super-powered boy scout. Sure, it’s different, but it’s not without merit. 

Outside of those two things, I found that the narrative wandered a bit, bouncing between the present and the past. As a kid who grew up seeing Christopher Reeve play Superman and watching those movies over and over, I picked up on all the big and little nods Zack Snyder put in Man of Steel to those movies. Even the scene where Clark gets humiliated in a truck stop diner was a nice reference to Superman II (1980).

The dialog was a bit clunky at times, and the climactic battle between Superman and the world engines’ defense systems seemed to be a bit much. And let’s not forget the sheer level of destruction rained down on both Smallville and Metropolis. Superman and the Kryptonians destroyed those two places. It was a visually awe-inspiring use of disaster special effects that would make Roland Emmerich orgasm. This was also a point of contention among critics. But I saw it as understandable collateral damage when you have an inexperienced superhero fighting a group of beings that intend to level the planet anyway. So, it was a lot, but I liked it.

There were also subplots of ancient Kryptonian explorers/terraformers that were abandoned across the galaxy and of Zod intending to resurrect Kryptonian civilization by removing a genetic codex from Kal-El’s body, implanted there by Jor-El. This got very muddy. Why did they abandon space exploration? The codex served as a genetic template for all Kryptonian artificial reproduction since they gave up natural childbirth. Zod wanted to retrieve it and build new Krypton on the ashes of Earth. To break that down and analyze the scientific flaws and speculate on why Jor-El went to the trouble of getting and hiding the codex when his son was the only Kryptonian he tried to save would take more dedicated time than the movie saw fit to give it. So, I’ll leave that alone.

Overall, I really like this movie. But it did seem to be reaching for a level of world-building that it never quite grasped. Maybe if a Man of Steel 2 had been allowed to be made, we would better understand some of the grey areas. But now the reins of power have shifted from Zack Snyder to James Gunn. I wish James Gunn well. I’m not waiting for him to fail, but I wish I could’ve seen more of Snyder’s vision. That’s the curse of the DCEU. A lack of commitment. When they keep the focus of their movies small, like the Batman movies or black label projects like Joker (2019), they shine. But to have a connected, shared universe, you have to commit to a singular vision and have a formula that works. DC has yet to pull that off. That’s why they always take second place to Marvel in this arena.