man of steel

I played hookey this afternoon and ducked out of my office to go see 'Man of Steel'. This most recent retelling of the Superman story was as juvenile as could possibly be hoped. It was fabulous.

The film had more computer generated violence than a single planet could possibly hope to contain. Fortunately, the planet Krypton handled this overflow with grace before its own untimely implosion.

The extended Krypton introduction sequence only feels like it consumes about an eighth of an eight hour movie. I suspect it couldn't really be any shorter and still set the stage properly for a prequel. Today's the summer solstice (on Earth). You have daylight to kill. Drink it all in. This intro is the only portion of the movie free of advertising for the sequel. Every later shot that the product marketers could not sell was given over to 'Lexcorp' branding.

The film was a technological marvel that included subtle homages and sly digs alike. The plot hangs on 'the codex' -- a database in the form of an Australopithecine skull. This skull obviously represents the exploded head of Michael Bay. It's one of those funny insider touches that keep alive the tender, human side of the inter-studio CGI Apocalypse arms race.

The Wilhelm was tasteful. I give it an 8/10 for a graceful scream down the cargo ramp of a C-17 Globemaster. I especially liked the inclusion of one of my very favorite synthesized klaxons. Terry Gilliam favored the same one for Twelve Monkeys in '95. The sirens are not the only touch that bring Gilliam to mind. Jor-El's projected narrative to Clark Kent in the fortress of solitude is backed by a silent animated montage that would be at home in a Gilliam flick.

The entire fauna of Krypton was borrowed wholesale from the cover art of 1980's fantasy paperbacks. I think the entire food chain of Pern put in appearances.

Russell Crowe brought along his award winning haircut and armor from Gladiator though a minor rendering error placed the hair on the evil General Zod. I say wait for the Director's Cut before buying a Blu-Ray. Let them work through some of these post-production bugs.

Man of Steel clocks in at 143 minutes -- exactly the length of 1978's Superman. It feels longer.

Talking heads spent part of the week on the Jesus/Superman connection. This story was primed by the studio's efforts to reach out directly to preachers. I wonder what other pamphlets the studio prepared. I like to think that they prepared one called 'Man of Steel: The dangers of life without parole and prison understaffing' for lucrative corrections and pro-death-penalty audiences.

It was the perfect comic book movie for June. Pairs well with onion rings.