It’s just a shame that the narrative structure is so shoddy. Long scenes are presented before we have any context for them. Way too much time is spent on exposition. There is a poorly explained and uninteresting Macguffin device that serves as the villain’s primary motivation. Most unfortunate of all, the film has no center, and a protagonist who still feels alien to the viewers by the end of the film.

It’s been said that Superman is one of the hardest characters to write for and empathize with because he’s essentially devoid of weaknesses, and he comes across as too much of a goody-goody to be appealing. While Man of Steel bypasses Superman’s more infamous character hurdles in a number of ways, it creates new problems: What are his values? Why does he care so much for a planet that fears him? What does he think of his homeworld? Is it an alien concept to him? What is it about Lois Lane that he falls for (aside from the fact that Amy Adams is very pretty)?

The structure of the movie actually settles down in the oft-derided (by critics, anyway) last hour of the movie, which focuses almost entirely on Superman’s conflict with General Zod. For me, just about everything about this last hour worked. The film had a center (Superman vs Zod, free Earth vs the predetermination of Krypton), the action was stellar, and the film’s momentum was propulsive. There is a decision near the end that many feel contradicts what Superman is all about, but given how undefined his values are in this particular film I do not take issue with it.

For me to really delve any further into this movie, I’ll have to refer to spoilers. Those who have seen it (or do not mind spoilers), keep reading. Otherwise, just know that Man of Steel is a narratively flawed film that still delivers in some major ways. I would recommend checking it out in theaters for the pure spectacle of the film.

In-Depth Deconstruction: Spoilers Abound!

Before I start breaking Man of Steel down, I think it’s important to mention that this is an ORIGIN STORY, and Zack Snyder has been quoted numerous times as saying that he wants the film to stand on its own. Here’s one example:

“Literally, the one thing that everyone can start to think about is that we’re making a movie that finally goes with the approach that there’s been no other Superman movies,” (from this article: http://herocomplex.latimes.com/movies/zack-snyder-wont-look-back-theres-been-no-other-superman-movies/)

This is why the big, controversial moment towards the end (Superman snapping Zod’s neck to prevent him from boiling a few humans with his heat ray vision) doesn’t really bother me that much: Superman’s values aren’t set in stone. He’s still developing, and he’s only had his damn suit for a few days at this point. The lack of established values and mythology, however, does cause other problems.

Let’s go back to the beginning.

The film starts with a roughly 15 minute sequence on planet Krypton. Kal-El is born, and we’re told that it’s the first natural birth in a very, very long time. Then, we get a minute of Jor-El talking to some sort of political council, followed by Zod storming in and killing a bunch of them. Then Jor-El jumps onto a laser-dragon, dives into a pool with a Matrix-esque system of infant-production/farming, grabs some skull called the Codex, and returns to his wife and son. He then disintegrates the Codex into his son and shoots him off to Earth, where he will be “a God,” and then is murdered by Zod in the room. And not a single goddamn thing is explained to the audience.

Once again, keep in mind that this film is meant to stand on its own. The assumption is that the audience has no understanding of Jor-El, Krypton, or what makes Superman special. Without prior knowledge of the Superman mythology, there is absolutely nothing in this scene to get the audience invested in any of these events. We don’t know who Jor-El is. We don’t know why there are no more natural births on Krypton. We don’t have any idea as to why General Zod is staging a coup, or why the planet is going to be destroyed (aside from an implied climate change allegory), or what the Codex is, or anything.

Sure, a lot of this is explained later in the film, but by that point it’s too late. The audience has already been through a 15 minute sequence with no purpose. It doesn’t even really serve as necessary information, since the aforementioned explanation tells the audience all that they need to know about the planet Krypton and General Zod (which is, honestly, not all that much). It seems like the justification of the scene is to have an action sequence that looks like the cover of a heavy metal album. And no offense to laser-dragons, but that’s not a strong enough justification to spend that much time at the start of an already-lengthy film.

After the extensive introduction, we fast forward more than 30 years to a scene where Clark Kent saves several people on an oil rig. This scene manages to communicate Clark’s strength and lack of physical vulnerabilities to the audience and, coupled with a flashback, demonstrates Clark’s inability to hide his powers when using said abilities could save lives. It’s a bit inelegant (the flashback comes after the action, once again explaining the scene after it has occurred), but it gets the job done.

The flashbacks are a large part of the film’s structural problem. It’s not because they do not work; on their own, nearly all of these scenes are great depictions of Clark’s childhood, and they explain much of what motivates him. And I understand wanting to depict Clark’s childhood in Kansas throughout the movie rather than in one big chunk, for pacing reasons. However, by showing so many of these flashback scenes after we’ve already watched Clark/Superman perform the actions that they motivate, the film loses the sense that there is an arc at play. There is no through line, no sense of transformation of character, and many of Clark’s decisions/actions are baffling when they are presented.

Take, for instance, Clark’s discovery of the 18-20,000 year old Kryptonian space ship. The only indication to the audience that Clark might go see what that’s about is a brief line from a military officer in a bar about a found foreign object. That’s it. It’s not until after he’s found the ship, piloted it, learned about his past, and changed costumes (as well as apparently finding a razor to shave with onboard) that we even learn that he was out looking for information on his real parents. I guess that’s why he was out working on oil rigs and in shitty bars. Who knew?

Even more confusing, after the one line about the foreign object (which passes very quickly in a scene mostly concerned with Clark holding back his powers in the face of an asshole trucker), the information about the ship is actually presented to Lois Lane. The film abruptly stops following Clark Kent and shifts perspective to her. Once again, I’d like to point out that this is supposed to be an origin story in which the audience is allowed to be unfamiliar with the Superman mythology. Lois Lane is just dropped into a plotline that isn’t even all that clear to begin with, and it further muddies up the narrative flow of the film.

The weirdest thing about these structural issues is that they could have been largely resolved just through the editing of the picture. Most of the introduction could have been cut down to the birth of Kal-El, the decision by Jor-El to send him to Earth in the face of Krypton’s destruction, and the death of Jor-El by Zod’s hand. We could then follow Clark through his childhood, jumping several years between events. Using a simple, chronological structure would have given the film a center (Clark/Kal-El, who we have exclusively followed), and an arc (Clark’s tendencies towards heroism, Jonathan Kent’s reasoning for wanting to keep him hidden, Clark’s resentment toward his father’s concerns, his decision to let his father die to stay hidden, his search for his birth parents, and his ultimate coming out as the protector of Earth). A scene of Clark setting out from his mother’s house in order to find himself would have set up his journey through the oil rig and the bar, and his actions in those scenes would have much more weight to them. We could also meet Lois for the first time from Clark’s perspective, rather than abruptly changing the central character of the film.

As mentioned before, I’m sure that there was concern that a chronological story would have spent too much consecutive time with young Clark, and would bore the audience members early on. I’m not so sure this is the case. Clark’s flashbacks involve a school bus rescue and an enormous tornado, so it’s not all boring character development. There’s also probably no more than 15-20 minutes of flashback material in the whole picture, so it wouldn’t be too much of a drag on the film’s momentum. Plus, this is already a film where nearly all of the action is concentrated into the final hour.

Eliminating most of the introduction would also put more of the necessary Kryptonian exposition closer to when General Zod shows up in the script. We could have gotten a more visual representation of Krypton at this point, maybe with a few representative shots of Zod’s rebellion, and the breeding grounds in which all of Krypton’s citizens are born (with the exception of Kal-El, of course). I don’t doubt that Snyder could have knocked a Kryptonian montage out of the park; he’s masterful at getting a whole lot of mood and information out of a small number of evocative, iconographic images. For evidence, see the entirety of 300.

Once again, I don’t have a lot to complain about in the final hour, aside from a very silly scene of exposition (the scientist immediately concluding that colliding two machines that manipulate space would create a singularity is hilarious). But seeing as that is where most critics and comic fans complain the most about Man of Steel, it’s probably worth delving into.

There is a lot of talk about Superman battling Zod through cities, and not trying to lure him out over the ocean, or a field. Superman is typically known as somebody who will go out of his way to protect human life, even if it means losing the edge in a fight. Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns got this across very well (especially in this scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIMbqMmkZCI), so Superman’s apparent lack of concern about collateral damage in Man of Steel’s action sequences is notable.

However, once again, this is an origin story. Superman’s values are not yet defined. He has never faced an adversary before, let alone one capable of leveling towns in a fistfight. He doesn’t have the time or the ability to think about the people, because he’s fully focused on taking down Zod. It’s not until the end that he’s faced with a decision that directly involves the safety of innocents. And in the moment, he chooses to save them, at the cost of another as-yet-undefined value.

Aside from questions regarding Superman’s values at the time of Man of Steel, there’s also the fact that the last hour of this film is essentially made up of two very long, back-to-back action sequences. Dividing the movie so thoroughly between exposition and action is probably not ideal, but given the amount of ground to cover in two and a half hours of screen time, it is acceptable in my eyes. At the dividing point the audience has already been introduced to the planet Krypton, Kal-El’s birth, Clark’s childhood, Lois Lane, the Daily Planet, the Codex, and more. An hour of mindless (albeit superbly rendered) action might be just what is needed at that point.

I’m obviously of mixed opinion concerning this movie. The story could have been much better told, but there are so many moments that the filmmakers just nailed that it’s impossible for me to be completely down on it. The final flashback before the end, of young Clark tying a red cape around his neck, doing the famous Superman hands-on-his-hips pose while staring intently at his dog, is about as perfect a scene as a Superman origin movie could possibly have.

I have faith that, with less narrative baggage to work through, this team is going to nail the follow-up. If rumors are to be believed, we won’t have to wait long…

-Feel free to sound off in the comments. This is my first published review, so any opinions/suggestions are welcome.