Man Of Steel: 7 Reasons The ''S'' Stands For Sucks
1. The Nolan Effect
Say what you want about Christopher Nolan, he has cemented his reputation as the serious-comicbook film director. Obviously his revamping of the Batman franchise has attracted a lot of fans who like the way he updated the Dark Knight into a more contemporary setting. Some people might think that all he does is make a cartoony genre into a more dull one, a genre where real life is added to the mix of capes and super villains, but as studios only really pay attention to box office receipts, the Nolan can do no wrong in their eyes; even when he makes an inconsistent movie like The Dark Knight Rises.
It is also a safe point to make that some people have totally forgotten that Nolan only served as Producer on Man Of Steel. The directing duties went to Zack Snyder who previously managed the impossible and gave the world an outstanding Watchmen movie. Saying that, Man Of Steel looked and felt like a Christopher Nolan film.
You have to feel sorry for Snyder, he gets the gig of directing the next Superman movie but has to answer to Nolan whos fingerprints and style are on every frame of the movie. You can imagine Snyder trying to direct but being whipped by Nolan every time he dared to step away from the gloomy tone that he is coating all DC movies with now.
But where that style somewhat worked with the Batman universe, it was more miss than hit in Man Of Steel. Everything from the music to the cinematography and colour pallet showed it had been influenced by the Dark Knight trilogy. The film was written by David Goyer who also penned the Nolan Batman films so you expect some similarities, but Man Of Steel wants to sit right next to The Dark Knight as a grown up (but PG-13) superhero movie.
The Superman universe is much more of a traditional comic book story than Batman. It is harder to squeeze in real life when you know eventually you are going to have to return to clichés such as aggressive military generals and school buses driving off bridges. That is why Man Of Steel feels like a mish-mash movie, one part serious character drama and one part bog standard super hero film. A Nolan-Lite movie if you prefer.
If you are a fan of Christopher Nolan, you might find stuff in Man Of Steel that appeals to you but for the rest of us, its the major reason why the film dragged and didnt thrill like a Superman film should. The Nolan effect made the film too serious and too fixated on creating a believable back story but all it did well was to give us one of the most dull superhero films ever created. Faster than a speeding bullet this is not.