“Man of Steel” is a shockingly ugly movie, filled with violence and destruction, reprehensible ideologies, and twisted takes
on beloved, time-tested characters. It
is also a supremely beautiful movie, filled with visions of grandeur, ideas
that push the story forward, and a hero who rises above questions of
identity and moral quandaries to protect those in need. Like the teens it caters to, it is a pulsing, heaving, aching mass of strong performances and vivid scenes. We lean forward to hear its huddled, whispered conversations, then cover our ears when it lurches, crashes, and explodes into motion. As the hero of my own life
story, I heeded those desperate, pain-wracked
calls, and made another attempt not just to understand it, but also to enjoy it.
In the first few moments of the film, we find Lara on the
planet Krypton. She lies on a bed, her
legs spread wide, as she struggles to push a child from her womb. Her screams ring through a darkened room as she gives birth to her son Kal-El. Her husband Jor-El stands beside her, holding her hand, and willing her
strength. Hers is the first natural birth in
generations, for on Krypton children are genetically programmed, their bloodlines, abilities, and purpose in life approved before
they gestate in the bio-mechanical birthing containers of the Genesis Chamber.
As Krypton's chief scientist, Jor-El recognizes how planning out every conceivable
aspect of their society has led the World Council to develop and utilize every available
resource, even the planet's core. In
exhausting this last store of energy and materials, Jor-El tells the council it has pillaged their future. Others realize this too, including their chief military officer, General Zod, who intends to wrest control of his world and remake it in his own design. So Jor-El compounds the heresy of creating an unprogrammed child by stealing Kryption’s genetic
library, downloading the information into his infant son's DNA, and sending young Kal-El off in a one-man spacecraft, knowing his planet
may implode at any minute.
Kal-El hardly finds life on Earth easy, even when his
adoptive parents, Jonathan and Martha Kent, give him the Human name Clark. With
his enhanced Krptonian senses, he functions like a boy with ADHD, constantly inundated by stimuli you and I would never perceive. Nor are his troubles limited to concentration
in the classroom. His adoptive father, Jonathan Kent, continually rides Clark to
rein in his super-abilities, to fit in with society, and above all, not to reveal who he really is. For most people, he argues, cannot accept
anyone who stands out, who says or does things they don’t understand, and challenges their preconceptions and beliefs.
Meet Lois Lane. As Martha means everything to Jonathan Kent, and Lara to Jor-El, she is destined to become Clark’s partner in love and life. She’s a hard-edged reporter who forces her way into a military-led
archeological dig. She’s not afraid to stand up to the base commander, list her
“rights” to be there, and then, with her steely gaze, tell him, “Now, if we’re
through comparing the size of our dicks…” She drinks hard liquor. She leaks
stories to rumormongering blogs (i.e. not The Dragon's Cache) when her boss refuses to print them. She may be as tough as any man, but she is also a Human, and therefore frail and
weak in comparison to Clark Kent.
On her first night in camp, Lois follows Clark across the dig
site, and into a spaceship buried in the ice.
Clark shrugs off an attack by the ship’s robot guardian, but Lois is not so fortunate. She is bleeding internally, and will die unless she receives immediate medical aid. Clark must make a choice, and decide
where he belongs. Will he embrace his identity as Kal-El, and use his Kryptonian
abilities to save her life? Or will he be the Human his Earthly father
Jonathan desires, and watch Lois Lane die.
And so we return to the beginning, and I wind down this
musing on “Man Of Steel.” Kal-El’s eyes glow hotter and hotter, until they
generate twin beams of light, which spear down into Lois Lane’s torso, and staunch
her internal bleeding. Her screams ring through the dark corridors of the
Kryptonian spaceship. The scene, like the movie, is cringingly ugly, hauntingly
beautiful, and rich in ideas. It is a
writhing mass of incompatabilities that craves our understanding, and challenges us to evaluate our preconceptions and
beliefs.
I’m not sure why I wanted to watch “Man Of Steel” again, but I did. Some might regard this as a valiant attempt to understand why the movie achieved such wide-spread acceptance. Others might see it as a heroic attempt to accept the latest evolutions in popular culture. Alas, my superior reserves of humility prevent me from commenting on either assertion.
I’m not sure why I wanted to watch “Man Of Steel” again, but I did. Some might regard this as a valiant attempt to understand why the movie achieved such wide-spread acceptance. Others might see it as a heroic attempt to accept the latest evolutions in popular culture. Alas, my superior reserves of humility prevent me from commenting on either assertion.
Dragon Dave
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