Film: Why Man of Steel Totally Rocks

Man of Steel is the latest Superman film; it has garnered its fair share of critical bashing, but audiences have been soaking it up and loving it.  I am among those who have enjoyed the film; I feel that it's the current best adaptation of the character and the world he inhabits.  By comparison, the older Superman films show their age through their high levels of camp and cheesiness.  In this post, I'll try to express what it exactly is that makes Man of Steel one of the most definitive Superman films of all time (and I'll try to keep it spoiler-free).

Man of Steel vs Steel!

• Obviously, the spectacle is top-notch.  From the demise of Krypton to the battles on Earth, the film runs hard and fast.  It has to, because these are superpowered god-like characters we're dealing with here.  When Superman and General Zod clash, they will cause mass destruction in their wake.  Every little action causes an equal and opposite reaction.  It has never been this realistic before; the Metropolis battle in Superman II is pretty tame and static by comparison (and ultimately marred by too many campy gags).  Man of Steel gives us a grand, awe-inspiring (and possibly terrifying) glimpse of what it would be like if Kryptonians really did have a big smackdown on the Earth.  Best of all, this is the exact type of carnage that's expressed in certain Superman comics.
• Planet Krypton, and Kryptonians themselves, have a greater depth and style than before.  You see glimpses of them in the older films, but they inhabited a bland, seemingly barren crystalline world, and they all wore robes and weird flashy outfits.  In MoS, Krypton looks like a magnificent cross between Barsoom from John Carter and the houses of Dune.  Everything is otherworldly and exotic; there are machines everywhere that have a weird bio-mechanical look to them.  It's clearly a working world with its own population, ecology, social structures, and culture; there's more to it here than what was shown in the older films.
• Superman's powers are more realistically proportioned in MoS.  In the older films, Superman catches a helicopter with one hand at a weird angle, and still manages to fly it up to the building's rooftop without it toppling over or anything.  He supports the wing of Air Force One without causing undue stress to the aircraft.  He lifts up all of the San Andreas fault, by lifting the rock at exactly one spot.  In MoS, the physics of Superman's impossible actions are more realistically balanced; when he lifts or pushes things, the objects react realistically.  It's especially apparent during the oil rig scene, where he pushes one one support structure, but can't keep the entire thing from falling apart; it's enough to let people escape, but it's not like he's miraculously saving the entire structure either.
• Other scenes exhibit some really wild levels of physics.  The machines General Zod uses create gravitational anomalies that send jet fighters spiraling out of control (in addition to flattening land all around them and maintaining a ring of debris in the air).  The Phantom Zone is not just a mirror floating in space; it's a black hole device.  Not only is this all really cool sci-fi material, but it also reinforces the Kryptonians as being an advanced race.
• Superpowers are handled in more interesting ways in MoS.  In various flashbacks, it is a struggle for Superman to control his powers; it's part of his learning process.  Even after mastering such abilities as super-strength and flight, the film pits him against such impossible odds that it makes the fight more compelling.  Zod and his gang are equally superpowered, so their struggle is genuinely prolonged and challenging.  All the Kryptonian machines weaken Superman, making the struggle even more intense.  Other films never made it this tough on Superman.
• Superman's existence has always had the greater implication that there is life on other planets.  It's not a concept that's explored much in the older films; people were just happy to have Superman saving the day over and over again.  MoS addresses the issue differently; Superman is an alien, and people are scared and threatened by him.  He is an outcast and a "freak" to the school kids in Smallville.  The military treats him indiscriminately as a threat.  He spends the entire film earning the trust of mankind, and that's probably a far more valuable struggle than having the people automatically accept him.
• In spite of these issues, deeper themes emerge.  In his youth, Clark Kent is constantly scolded by Johnathan Kent to keep his identity a secret, and to keep his powers a secret, because of the greater implications.  Johnathan understood that Superman's existence would freak people out, maybe cause worldwide panic, and would challenge everything people knew or believed in concerning the universe and faith.  At the same time, Johnathan taught Clark the most important lessons about being human:  suffering and self-sacrifice, concepts that Kryptonians clearly didn't comprehend, but Superman is made to so that he can relate to fellow men and make the morally correct decisions.  Superman could have just as easily taken the same route as General Zod, subjugating or destroying humanity, but he doesn't, thanks to his experiences among humans, and the lessons from both Johnathan Kent and Jor-El.
• Morality plays into the story really well, and the clash between Superman and Zod is more like a clash between the ideals of morality and amorality.  Moral decision-making even plays into the film's climax, and I believe Superman's actions actually makes him a stronger character, because he took the Utilitarian approach and did things for the greater good of humanity.  He's still a champion of moral righteousness, but he doesn't get as cheesy or overly-good as the older films.
• There has always been a certain theological vibe to the Superman mythos.  Superman could be an analogy to Christ, in the sense that he was sent to Earth by his father to save the people, and in the sense that he never does any wrong.  In MoS, this is all further reinforced by the suffering that Superman endures; he spends most of the film being bullied or ostracized, but thanks to his moral standing, he never fights back or acts up, he just takes it.  MoS also explores a rich mythology that mirrors the theological struggles between God and Satan:  the conflict on Krypton seems to mirror the devil's rebellion in heaven, and Zod is always working to try and subvert Superman's morality.  Even the Kryptonians, depicted as genetically-engineered beings, could be seen as being analogous to angels, because in both cases, they do not have free will.  Of course, the fact that Superman gets his power from the sun also persists, reinforcing the theological parallels.
• As far as minor characters go, I was pleased to see that Lois Lane is actually smart for a change.  Her previous portrayals by Margot Kidder and Kate Bosworth were rather goofy and daft; she always put herself into danger, she could never spell worth a darn, she was always cold toward Clark but warm toward Superman, and she was always fooled by the glasses.  None of that happens in MoS.  In fact, I feel she actually looks and acts like a real reporter here.  Above all, since she tracks down Superman herself, she discovers his identity right away, so the film never has to play games about it, and their eventual attraction is all the more real.  I suspect that, if a sequel is due, she would probably spend her time protecting Superman's identity, rather than trying to figure it out, and I think that would be far more worthwhile.
• General Zod isn't just out to arbitrarily conquer Earth, like in Superman II.  In MoS, his actions are made to be more compelling, because he's working to rebuild his lost homeworld and people.  In his Kryptonian mind, his ideals justify the eradication of mankind.  The fact that he has no morality and no empathy toward humans also makes him more terrifying.
• Man of Steel has a lot of heart in regards to showing the main character's lessons, experiences, and origins.  Best of all, it manages to be warm, without getting overly sappy or drawn-out.
• I even like Superman's new outfit.

Critics have made certain statements regarding Man of Steel, and these are my counterpoints to them:

• The film lacks humor or joy.  This complaint doesn't make sense to me.  Who says Superman has to have humor or joy? There was enough of it in the older films.  Humor and joy are not what Superman needs right now; I find the serious adaptation refreshing.
• Superman's fighting caused too much damage.  Well, what was he supposed to do? If Superman zoomed around the whole city, saving everybody he could, then who would stop General Zod and his machines? The General even claimed that "for every person you save, I will kill a million more." Having Superman trying to save every single person is futile, especially with the grand scale of the invasion; his only hope was to tackle the problems head-on as they occurred.  Superman initially handed himself over, hoping to save Earth from such carnage; when that didn't work, he focused on the machines, before they could completely wipe out the world.  Then he took on General Zod, before more lives could be taken.  If it wasn't for that, Superman would have strung himself out, trying to save so many lives, while General Zod would have taken so many more and eventually won.  The fighting was necessary; the fact that it caused to so much damage was merely an unfortunate consequence.  Nit-picking about this seems additionally pointless to me, because you could make similar complaints about all the Transformers films or Marvel's Avengers.  Plus, in the original Superman movie, Superman is shown saving a bus, a train, and other random things, but what about everybody else affected by that earthquake? His actions there seemed a bit fruitier than in MoS.
• The film is cold and heartless.  A common Zack Snyder complaint, but as I said in my review, I think MoS is his warmest film yet.  I felt that the characters were warm, and their portrayal was appropriately intimate and nuanced.  I believe that the script, camera-work, and acting made it all work.  Most importantly, I understood the characters and could relate to them.  However, this will be a subjective viewpoint; it'll work for some people, but not for everybody.