El Hombre de Acero, quien hace décadas era el primer héroe, el indiscutible favorito tiene ahora a otro frente a él que tiene más encanto para las generaciones de hoy: El caballero de la noche.
Nosotros en múltiples entradas lo hemos atribuido a que en estos tiempos el ser "malo", estar "dañado" es un atributo y no un defecto. Batman constituye casi un anti-héroe, alguien que no quiere serlo, que tiene enemil tribulaciones, pero que además es millonario, tiene mujeres hermosas...todo lo que todos querríamos hoy en día tener (incluídos los problemas psicológicos, pues te dan más "hombría" y "cierta vulnerabilidad" que no se asocia con algo que pudiese parecer homosexual -pese a que El Caballero de la Noche tiene también ciertos tintes que nos llevarían por ese espinoso camino, y que no abordaremos aquí). El reto para Superman era mayúsculo: rescatar al héroe, quitarle todo vestigio de homosexualidad, volverlo atrayente ante el público joven que se quedó con una versión (Superman Returns) que fue más un homenaje a Christopher Reeve (el mejor Superman hasta ahora) convertida en una película confusa y malísima.
Pensamos que el héroe fue salvo. Rescataron al Hombre de Acero. Pese a que la tiene difícil para mantenerse como el top heroe de las masas (creemos que le llevan ventaja en estos tiempos Batman, Spiderman e incluso Ironman), Nolan y Snyder (productor y director respectivamente de Man of Steel) respetaron al personaje, su esencia, le dieron actualidad a la narrativa.
Se ve que tomaron en cuenta todas las peripecias que han hecho ya los demás superhéroes en sus respectivas películas, ya vieron a un héroe volar (Thor, Ironman), ya ha sido amenazado el planeta Tierra enemil veces, inevitablemente Man of Steel fue recreado bajo la sombra del Caballero de la Noche, pero no lo volvieron un loco, no lo volvieron un "BatmanAZul", le devolvieron sus valores: la honradez, la nobleza, el "ser buena persona", no es vengativo, controla sus impulsos...pero lucha con el enigma de su identidad como persona y como ser extraterrestre. Así es.
No queda más que agradecer a Nolan (director de la trilogía del Caballero de la noche) por tomar el control del Hombre de Acero. Sabio dejar en manos de Snyder la dirección de la película: una buena dupla. Ambos respetan los cómics y son talentos de Hollywood que saben generar ganancias. No está mal.
Para ver Man of Steel tiene uno que llegar sin pensar en volver a ver a Christopher Reeve. Para disfrutar Man of Steel debe uno llegar nuevo, en verdad esperando que le presenten a un héroe desconocido (resistiendo el impulso de jalarlo a Smallville o a Clark y Lois, y demás series que trabajaron al héroe desde otras perspectivas).
Man of Steel, no ignora que existió una exitosísima "Smallville" y antes una "Clark & Lois", no ignora que existen las películas de los Avengers, de Ironman, de Thor, de Hulk, de Spiderman...
Película difícil de hacer volar: lo lograron.
Tal vez no causa ese arrebato que provocó Dark Knight, pero sienta las bases de un nuevo héroe, el primer superhéroe: Superman.
Hay que verla.
The Script Lab . com wrote this very useful article (read after writing this blog entrance)
ReplyDeleteZack Snyder and Christopher Nolan's modern take on Superman has been one of the more hotly anticipated films of the past year. The more we saw of it, the more excited we got—Kevin Costner is Supes' dad! Amy Adams is Lois Lane! The red underwear is gone!!! Now it's been released, and I'd say the audience and critical reaction has been slightly mixed; reviews, while not horrible, seem to harbor irritation at the "gritty" take and the pure lack of humor and charm.
First off, about the humor—Man of Steel does indeed follow the recent blockbuster trend in making everything as overly serious as possible. Whether or not this is the appropriate action to take is something else entirely. See, I loved the last two Star Trek films because, while not perfect, they had a great sense of fun and light-hearted comedy about them amidst all that chaos and action. Man of Steel has next to none of that. But at the end of the day we've already seen light-hearted Superman played with a wink and a smile…in 5 previous movies…and most of them we hated. So I say, let's bring on a new perspective!
Man of Steel is a hugely enjoyable summer flick. It's overlong with pretensions of grandeur, but there was something almost comforting about this movie. It must be the paradox of having something so clearly bloated on gargantuan pomposity also express the desperate transparent desire to please the world. I had a blast for most of Man of Steel—Superman (Henry Cavill) is laced with a good amount of mopey apprehension and heroic bravery, the music by Hans Zimmer is so overpowering the speakers almost exploded in the theatre, and the special effects and (the numerous) action scenes are top-notch.
Steel takes a slightly different approach to the man in blue tights in terms of it being more a sci-fi adventure flick than a traditional superhero origin story. The film opens on Krypton where Superman's father (played rather wonderfully by Russell Crowe) battles the evil General Zod (Michael Shannon) as the planet is being destroyed. This opening passage is so spectacular in its visual CGI wizardry that it almost casts a pall on the rest of the film for taking place on Earth, where the visuals tend to lean toward a typical Roland Emmerich disaster film.
The rest of Clark Kent's origin story is mostly told through flashbacks as we see him grow from a confused kid to a morose and secretive man who must eventually take on the mantle of a superhero and save the world from Zod. The going back and forth from present to past is occasionally clunky—there are times Snyder clearly doesn't know where to accurately put a flashback for the best emotional effect, so he just sorta tosses it in there. This lumbering quality is a shame, because some of the film's best scenes are with Kent as a child, and he has several fantastic scenes with Kevin Costner, playing his surrogate father.
It's ironic that the movie's strongest moments are often the most quiet and reflective ones. In 2006, Bryan Singer tried to reboot the franchise with Superman Returns, and we all bitched and complained about it having only one action scene, and basically being the most boring summer tentpole ever. And now here we are seven years later, and possibly my biggest complaint of Man of Steel is that it might have TOO MUCH action—the level of destruction in the climactic sequence is so large, with at least millions of lives being destroyed, that it kinda makes an amusing coda involving Kent getting a fancy newspaper job pretty irrelevant.
The screenplay by David S. Goyer (Blade 3, Batman Begins) is more than adequate. If you were expecting to be wowed in the same way that we were with his and Nolan's famous Batman trilogy, you'll be disappointed—but in terms of pure story construction, the script for Man of Steel is actually better than any of those (and less filled with mind-boggling plot holes).