Man of Steel

There's a sweaty, pulsating sense of pressure that permeates through every frame of Man of Steel, Zack Synder's exhausting reboot of the long in distress Superman movie franchise.  So strenuous and aggressive is the entire enterprise, the only summation that can truthfully be felt is an urgent sense of nerves.  That sounds about right, especially in the light of the difficulties that the powers that be at Warner Bros. and D.C. Comics have had in building and re-building their distinctive canon of characters to the screen, what with all the false starts, misguided behind the scenes decisions, and the general nerviness of an undertaking something so big, noisy and expensive.  After all, the superhero cinematic landscape has undergone a drastic coming of age since the 1978 Richard Donner Superman first took flight, ushering in an era of comic book extravaganzas.  The movies have gotten bigger, grander and grittier, distilling real world terrors with their iconography.  There's a quivering notion walking into Man of Steel on whether there's still a place for Superman in this landscape after all, is he, the beloved grandfather of them all still relevant in a post- 9/11 superhero climate?

Man of Steel hasn't quite successfully answered that question, but for a movie that's as utterly watchable as it frustrating, one that for every satisfying moment or performance or tiny nook to cling to fails to satisfy as a whole, it does try in earnest to alter the cinematic impression of it's iconic character, now celebrating his seventy-fifth year of preserving truth, justice and the American way.  With Christopher Nolan serving as maestro after his unqualified success at rebuilding Batman from the flamboyant throes of self-parody, and with a screenplay by David S. Goyer, the intention is that Man of Steel will, of course, rear Superman out of the dusty cob-webs of his past and flesh out the character and the broader universe that contains him-- you know, and show up all those Marvel guys and their billion dollar success stories.

The result is frantic, over-bloated and sadly, under-nourished.  That pressure culminates in a lot of movie, one of excess and such over-the-top massive-ness, that the ingredient that's forgotten is the fun, the thrilling lure and unabashed glee of popcorn entertainment exciting the senses and taking flight.  Instead it's more of a connect-the-dots action film where point A leads to nothing more than grandly executed bits of explosive point B nonsense.  It's all a bit of a shame, for the smaller moments (what few there are to begin with) of Man of Steel are capably performed that given just a bit more time to properly jell or the tiniest hint of subtlety, this Superman may have been given a chance to soar emotionally just as does through the air so adroitly.  Instead the film is distinctly mechanical, a bit cold, and ironically, while trying to distill more of a sense of a real world to surround the man and superman reverts itself into something all the more shallow and cartoonish by forgetting the most valuable thing any film needs: a beating heart.

"Man of Steel" teaser (x2)

For those you braved The Dark Knight Rises this weekend, you were treated to the teaser of next summers big time superhero reboot-- that being Zack Synder's Man of Steel.  However, which version did you see.

Visually identical, the same pretentious, almost seemingly Tree of Life-like pacing- but with different voiceovers that provide an altogether different mood.

Sucker Punch

The teaser for Zack Synder's latest, Sucker Punch had is auspicious debut last weekend at Comic-Con.  I don't know what to make of this at all.  I'm intrigued by the cast-- Jena Malone, Abbie Cornish, Carla Gugino, Jon Hamm, and newcomer Emily Browning (a rumored choice for David Fincher's upcoming American remake of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo)-- but what the hell is this supposed to be.  I'm fine with the women kicking ass premise, but what's with the dragons and stuff, and the resorting back to 300-style visual palette.  I thought Watchmen was a hopeful step towards some kind of maturity Mr. Synder.  Artisan or hack, I can't decide.

Watchmen

So, let me preface, I have never read the Watchmen graphic novel; in fact I had not even really heard of it before the film starting generating such crazy (slightly nauseating) buzz. Apparently it's big...huge...massive. It's a holy temple to some, and after watching the film I think I understand why, even if I didn't fully buy into the movie as a whole. Set in an alternate version of the mid-1980s, where Richard Nixon is in his fifth term as president and a Doomsday Clock ticks symbolically to nuclear devastation. It's the Cold War, and there exists a brand of retired superheroes. It's heady, audacious, incredibly dense stuff originally written by Dave Gibbons and Alan Moore (who as in the case of V for Vendetta, opts yet again to go uncredited), and for the first say 45 minutes of the film, it seems that director Zack Synder is up to the challenge. Then the film, seems to succumb to the limitations of the genre. The problem I believe is that the Watchmen mythology is a cult thing through and through, and Synder addresses the cult, but then proceeds to pander to the mainstream anyway. And so, what develops is a challenging piece of pop cinema, that's neither total disaster, nor complete triumph-- which is almost the worst position to be in with material with the potential to be so daring.

I can honestly say that the best aspect of the film is the opening title sequence, where a history of the superheroes are seen in snapshots, while Bob Dylan's "Times They Are a Changing." You see the first set of "Watchmen", or Minutemen and their decades long transformation. It's without question the wittiest and most engaging part of the film. Then again I'm a sucker for a good opening title sequence (why don't they seem to exist anymore) and have always been smitten with Dylan. I have to say that the first few minutes genuinely got my interested and excited about the possibilities-- could this actually be the next step in grand superhero films (like The Dark Knight), and not trash like Synder's own 300.

The actually story starts out with the death of The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan)- real name Edward Blake. He's one of the original "Watchmen" and has a penchant for crimes about women and killing hippies. He's been found and killed at the age of 67. At this point, the "Watchmen" are long retired, fairly reviled in town, and off to individual gloom. The Comedian's death inspires Rorschach (played with mad, feverish gusto by Jackie Earle Haley)-- a paranoid man in a white mask with roving ink spots who walks in the rain, all noir-like, and carries a Travis Bickle-style journal-- to reach out to his ex-Watchmen and warn them of a potential wacking of "masks." The rest of the group consists of Ozymandias (Matthew Goode), the smartest man in the world, and only superhero who sold out his identity and cashed in on it. Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup), a giant blue governmental weapon (he ended the Vietnam War in a week) whose human form was mutated after a accident occurred when he was a young nuclear physicist. Dr. Manhattan is in love with Silk Spectre II (Malin Ackerman), a second generation super prone to tight latex costumes and whinning. The last group member is another second generation mask Nite Owl II (Patrick Wilson), a bulking Superman type-- out of all them, he's the one true boy scout in a team of anti-heroes and straight out sociopaths.

The most inspired part of the film occurs in it's first half. It's mostly flashbacks and execution of the characters. It informs the characters and the complicated web of Gibbons and Moore's masterwork. From what I've heard, the only difference in text to screen is the a tweaking of the ending. This seems be a strength and weakness-- it works in opening the characters and events, but feels too trapped and bogged down by extreme faithfulness when the story starts reaching it's climax. I realize this is a double-edged sword, as the Watchmen cult is one of the most feverish of comic book nerds, ready with stink eye in toe at whatever indescritions Synder might throw, but it's weakness to those unfamilar with the holy text, and leaves it a bit cold. What does come across crystal clear is Synder must be pleased with the outcome-- many shots are framed are kept still for quite a while (notable since every other action film is sped up to extreme-- thank you Bourne films), which makes the experience slightly colder (at least for me.) What starts out as something promising and mammoth ends up not quite adding up to the sum of its parts and drifting more and more in a series of pretentious production design with Matrix rip off action sequences.

Much has already been made of some lukewarm reviews and and softer opening weekend than expected ($55 million), considering the huge hulabaloo centering Watchmen in the past year (personally I blame Comic-Con), but as much as there is complain about the overall film, I couldn't out and out hate it. There's something obsessive worthy about this band of parodied superheroes and anti-heroes that film sparks but never seems to be able to fully flesh out. There's some exciting set pieces-- a beautiful scene on Mars (where Dr. Manhattan goes in recluse) in the center of the film is exciting and more metaphysically challenged than superhero films allow themselves to go. And there's some genuinely terrific performances-- Billy Crudup makes the naked (yep, it's true, you see it all) CG blue guy part work-- he capabily brings pathos to this special effect. Wilson and Morgan come across equally charming in differing characters-- Wilson's boy scout is decent but smart, while Morgan's Comedian is slick and devious.

Haley's performance is brave in it's daring (how shocking that a film that reportedly cost $150 millions to make would bring about an actor so idiosyncratic and perfect-- again this is why I can't honestly hate too much here.) However my favorite performance in the film was one of it's smallest-- Carla Gugino of Sin City fame plays Silk Spectre I, mother and ex-superhero. Even in the smallish role, she seems to understand this universe moreso than anyone else, especially the vacant Ackerman. She plays the hell out of her damaged character and plays to the rafters-- it's a bit over-the-top, but perfectly pitched-- someone should give her a movie, now! And so, like I said, I can't completely hate these flawed, but interesting Watchmen. B-