Henry Cavill became the best Superman in Man of Steel

I loathed Man of Steel when it first came out, and I wasn’t alone. The movie’s dark tone, combined with the extreme collateral damage in its explosive and CG-heavy action sequences, struck me as excessive and insensitive. All those falling towers represented people dying by the score, and I felt the movie (and its Superman) callously didn’t recognize the carnage for what it was.

But in the years since, these decisions have been better contextualized by the full vision of Zack Snyder’s trilogy and other superhero cinema. Batman v Superman – Dawn of JusticeReframed Superman and Zod’s calamitous struggle on the ground. After the fall of Sokovia, Avengers: Age of UltronMarvel Cinematic Universe has generally dealt with violence using a bloodless, sanitized version.

With time and maturation on the movie’s part (and mine), I’ve done a complete 180 on Man of SteelIt is now one of my favourite superhero films. Snyder’s sweeping two-and-a-half-hour saga is a deeply personal movie about alienation and isolation, and about the failures of our parents even when they have the best of intentions. It’s about a man trapped between two worlds and being pulled in two directions by the strongest possible forces: the people who love him.

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The films that followed have certainly contributed to the success of this film. Man of Steel’s continued legacy, but one thing has stayed true from the beginning: Henry Cavill was born to play Superman. He has the good looks and the natural charm — two must-haves others have also brought to the iconic character. But unlike Christopher Reeve, Brandon Routh, and many of the other fine actors who have played Superman over the character’s 80-year history, Cavill plays Kal-El as fundamentally lonely.

The gloominess of Zack Snyder’s DC movies is often discussed, but Cavill excels as Superman because his version of the hero exists in relation to the world around him. You can read the rest of this article. Man of SteelSuperman, as an outsider, is incapable of connecting with people in either the other worlds that he’s lived in. And that’s all captured in every minute of Cavill’s performance.

The first time we see Cavill’s Clark Kent, he’s a rugged man with a full beard and mustache working on a boat. He’s quiet and inexperienced, and immediately gets called a “dumbass” by a colleague who thinks he’s saved Clark by pushing him out of the way of a falling hazard. When the boat is called to a distress call at a local oil rig, Clark barely wastes a second, ditching everything to save the rig’s crew. He doesn’t say a word for the entire sequence, silently sacrificing the life he had built for himself in order to save a group of strangers. It’s all instinct, and even if he’s silent, Cavill is able to communicate everything you need to know about what Clark is thinking — he’s almost amused when he’s “saved,” barely stopping himself from rolling his eyes, and Clark’s sheer determination when he decides to expose his powers and save the rig workers darts across Cavill’s face in an instant.

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In these quiet early moments, Cavill’s Clark comes across as thoughtful and sensitive. His actions are often analyzed and considered. He also considers how different he is from the rest of humanity. Cavill’s big blue eyes, when not furrowed in confusion or curiosity at the people he shares this planet with, yearn for connection. He sees and hears too much for any one person to handle, and it takes a visible toll on Cavill’s expressions throughout the movie.

The Kryptonians Clark encounters are even more alien to him than the humans; Michael Shannon’s terrifying Zod lays into him for his estrangement from his heritage. And Kal-El isn’t quite “human” enough to fit perfectly into our world, either. It’s an important character trait for someone who literally has a fortress of solitude, but one that often gets lost in favor of showing his easygoing charisma and “man of the people” status. Henry Cavill’s Superman has no such buffer: His is a melancholy world, and it’s important for Man of Steel we see that, both through Cavill’s pensive expressions and Clark’s relationship to loved ones and strangers alike.

This is most evident in the strained relationships he has with his dads. Man of Steel could also be described as “there are two dads inside you,” and Cavill’s Clark is the poor superman who has to wrestle with both of them.

Jonathan Kent is the most foundational of all, which you can find in Man of Steel’s most famous (and criticized) scene. After a bitter argument between a young Clark and Jonathan — Clark said he’s not his real dad, you know the drill — they approach some traffic with a tornado looming in the distance. Jonathan urges Clark not to go in, telling him to save his mother. Jonathan runs into Clark and then, in his last moments, holds out a hand and shakes him head.

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Warner Bros.

Frustrations with Jonathan Kent’s preventable death by tornado are understandable, but they are missing the point. Man of Steel Jonathan goes to great lengths to defend his son. He even criticizes Clark for saving other classmates from drowning in a school bus crash into a river. It’s entirely consistent for Jonathan to feel the same way about his own demise — he is deathly afraid Clark will become a target (or a religious icon, as the mother of the bully Clark saves calls it an “act of God”) if the truth about him is known, and would rather die than reveal that secret.

It’s not that Jonathan is against doing the right thing — after all, he runs into the danger, shooing Clark away. He holds his son to a higher standard than many parents, which ultimately costs him his life. The movie treats this as a truth in Clark’s life; it’s worth noting that every other instance of Clark using his powers results in a rapid and extreme military response, much like Jonathan feared. But Cavill’s performance also carries the gravity of Jonathan Kent’s worldview. When Jonathan dies, Cavill’s face is a perfect concoction of pain and anger, tears welling up as he mutters inaudibly to himself, his furrowed brow settling into place as his dad disappears for good and he shouts into the void. It’s a formative moment for the film and this Superman that echoes throughout the rest of the series, and it works because of Cavill’s affecting portrayal of how this shatters his life. In the moment it happens, he’s loud in his grief, but everything after is quietly colored by it, an ever-present drain on his features.

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While Jonathan’s death shows the hardships of choosing humanity, Clark’s relationship with his Kryptonian father, Jor-El (Russell Crowe), has all the weight of choosing your fate. It’s a sentiment Jor-El mentions in the movie’s stellar sci-fi prologue on Krypton (hopefully a preview of what’s to come in Snyder’s upcoming Netflix space opera Rebel Moon), telling Zod, “He will be free. Free to forge his own destiny.” And yet such choices often leave Clark cold in Man of Steel. Clark feels more distant from the world when he learns more about his Kryptonian roots. The digitized consciousness of Jor-El tells him he is “just as much a child of Earth now as one of Krypton” — surely meant to be comforting, but Cavill’s face reflects that he feels like a child of neither. Jor El tells him that Earth must learn from Kryptonians mistakes, and to find the limits of his power to get stronger. This is in complete contradiction to what his other father advised. Clark finds himself again stuck in the middle.

Both of Clark’s dads are stubborn and rigid in their view of who he can be, attempting to impress their own values upon him out of a loving sense of protection. But none of his parental figures could possibly understand what it’s like to be in his position, as a Kryptonian on Earth, a man who grew up a scared child in a Kansas classroom, unable to control his X-ray vision and terrified by an overwhelming sensory experience that separates him from everyone else. His mother is able to comfort him, but that’s not the same. There is a limit to Clark’s parents’ understanding of his situation, even if there is no limit to their love for him.

That loneliness is ultimately what deepens his connection to Amy Adams’ Lois Lane, the only person who knows him for who he is without the baggage of also being a parental figure. Clark and Lois share the same fascination when they first meet. His furrowed brow disappears as he explains to her that she has a serious wound he needs to cauterize, and even in a tense situation Cavill’s face is notably more relaxed and warm. You can sense there’s something kindred about the two. She has the same instinct to go toward danger that Clark has, despite being constantly told by those around her that it’s not good for her.

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It’s with Lois that you can see Clark start to really figure out the man he wants to be, not the one his dads prescribed for him. When he’s around her, Clark is notably more relaxed, as Cavill’s eyes change from concern to convey his own eternal hope — his character may be a stand-in for humanity’s hope, but his own is entirely wrapped up in her. Their relationship ends in one of the most sexy scenes of superhero cinema when they fall in love in a bath in their penthouse apartment. Batman v Superman. Too often, relationships in comic book movies feel loveless and sexless — rote repetitions that exist merely because they are must-haves from the source material. But Cavill’s Clark and Adams’ Lois are different. The two have an instant chemistry that is evident on screen. They share common interests and values. Superman is a fuck.

It’s important to note, of course, that Man of SteelLet Cavill also show Clark’s lighter side. Cavill’s first smile in public. Man of Steel is during Clark’s first flight, and it’s delightful to see him actually have some joy in his life. His mother is the other time he hugged him. Cavill relaxes, back at home, in a simpler world where his secret doesn’t matter. And it’s a useful reminder: Off the screen, Cavill’s love for the character is well-documented (and adorable; his dog is named Kal, for crying out loud!). You can argue that’s an extremely secondary consideration, but it only adds to my appreciation, both of his performance and Man of Steel’s balance for him. This tranquility is brief, but it’s important — and informs everything about that bombastic, destructive climax in Metropolis.

After General Zod shows up and interrupts Clark’s trip to Kansas, the brief spell of calm that has washed over Cavill’s face breaks. His time aboard the Kryptonian vessel is traumatizing and he surrenders to himself as a prisoner. Clark is rejected as a Kryptonian not only by Zod and his crew, but by the ship’s Kryptonian atmosphere itself, which reduces Cavill to curling up like a confused child in pain. He is now frightened for the first times since his Kansas class.

That fear, confusion, and loneliness quickly turn to rage when Zod kidnaps his mother, giving us a side of Clark that we hadn’t seen before. Cavill is enraged, enjoying the chance to fulfill his lost childhood fantasies about beating up bullies. Soon after, Zod’s lieutenant chides him, saying, “You are weak, son of El. Unsure of yourself.” She posits this will lead to his defeat, but it only makes him stronger. Despite the certainty of both of his dads, Cavill’s Clark Kent is bold enough to question things with the strength of his unique perspective, making his own decisions, for better and for worse.

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It is not a moment of triumph when Clark defeats Zod. Many have lost their lives, Kryptonian and human alike, and he only snaps Zod’s neck to save a group of civilians threatened by the general’s heat vision. Cavill is on the edge of tears when he takes the final step to save his planet. He then collapses onto the ground and cries out in pain.

It’s this vulnerability that makes Cavill’s turn as the man of steel work so well, and it’s one of the many reasons I’m absolutely thrilled he’s getting another go at it in more Superman movies. What? Man of Steel This vulnerability was completely lost on me when it first came out. I was too distracted by the wanton destruction (and, frankly, by the terrible news judgment of Laurence Fishburne’s Perry White) to give the movie, and Cavill’s performance, a fair shake. I’m glad to have had a different relationship to the movie now that I know better and with the advancement of superhero movies in another direction. Against a landscape of quippy sitcom actors in capes, Cavill’s is a thoughtful take on Superman, one that combines a sense of pure alienation with a stubborn drive to hope against all odds. The movie plays Cavill’s good looks and charms as movie stars against his sad, big eyes and furrowed eyebrows, a dynamic combo that propels this character to new heights.

We’ve had many great versions of Superman over the years, and are due for many more, but Cavill’s tenure was cut off early. There’s more he can do with this character he loves so much. And this time, I’ll be ready for it, too.

Man of Steel You can stream the video on HBO Max. You can also rent or buy it digitally. Amazon, Apple TV, Google PlayPlease see the following: Vudu.