'Man of Steel' certainly does take itself seriously as an origin story. It starts with a pounding heartbeat, followed by you-know-who emerging from his mother's womb on the planet Krypton. (Russell Crowe and Ayelet Zurer are the baby's parents.) That auspicious event is, we are told, Krypton's first natural birth in centuries. On our planet, however, the story proves to be a miscarriage, if not quite an abortion. Here's one more studio extravaganza brought down by numbing action and an addiction to generic digital effects. (I chose to see the 2-D version, so I can't blame the third dimension.)
《超人：钢铁之躯》(Man of Steel)当然是把自己看成是一本正经的原创故事。故事以砰砰的心跳拉开帷幕，接着那个你知道是谁的人从他母亲的子宫里降生到了氪星球上。（罗素•克罗(Russell Crowe)和阿耶莱特•祖瑞尔(Ayelet Zurer)饰演婴儿的父母。）我们被告知，这件大吉大利的事情是氪星上数百年来第一例自然分娩。然而，在我们的星球上，这个故事即使算不上流产的话，也证明是一次失败的生产。这又是一部被令人麻木的动作和痴迷追求数字特效的行为所毁掉的电影大片。（我选择观看的是2-D版本，因此我不能对3-D版加以批评。）
It's a huge disappointment, since the buildup to the action is so promising, albeit joyless. The promise lies partly in Alex McDowell's elegant production design, which suggests that Krypton's civilization was influenced by cross-cosmos currents of Gothic and Gaudí, but mainly in the darkly revisionist premise. We will not, the long prelude makes clear, be seeing Superman as yesteryear's sturdy superhero in tights; he's to be taken more seriously than that. We won't even be seeing this iteration of Kal-El as Superman, a name that goes unspoken throughout, though it almost escapes the lips of Amy Adams's Lois Lane. Then what does that capital S on his chest stand for? It isn't an S at all, David S. Goyer's script reveals slyly, but a Kryptonic character that means 'hope'─i.e. hope for mankind.
这是一部极其令人失望的电影，因为这部片子的酝酿过程是那么地值得期待（虽然经历并不快乐）。人们期待它的部分原因是亚历克斯•麦克道尔(Alex McDowell)精致的制作设计。在他的设计中，氪星文明受到跨宇宙的哥特式和高迪式潮流的影响，但是大多修饰得比较阴暗。从长长的序幕中可以清楚看到，我们见到的超人(Superman)与过去那个身着紧身衣、体格强健的超级英雄不一样了，他将被塑造成更为严肃的形象。我们甚至都不再把这位卡尔-埃尔(Kal-El)当成是超人。超人这个名字在整部影片中都没有提及，虽然它差点从埃米•亚当斯(Amy Adams)饰演的洛伊斯•莱恩(Lois Lane)口中脱口而出。那么他胸膛上的那个大写的S代表什么呢？戴维•S•戈耶(David S. Goyer)的电影脚本显示，那根本不是S，而是氪星的文字，意为“希望”──也就是人类的希望。
The steely man of the title, liberated from yesteryear's external underwear and played with unalloyed gravity by Henry Cavill, has come to us with godlike powers. Therefore the movie, which was directed by Zack Snyder, raises the question of whether we'll be smart enough to receive such a one with open arms. That's a fair question, even if the visual parallels between Kal-El and Christ are insisted on overmuch. And there's plenty to enjoy in the drama of the hero coming to grips with those powers as a confused youngster in the heartland (Kevin Costner and Diane Lane are his adoptive parents); meeting Lois, who learns quickly, for once, the truth of his identity; and preparing for the struggle against the evil General Zod (Michael Shannon), who arrives from Krypton with a gang of baddies and extremely bad intentions.
片名中的这位钢铁之躯不再是过去那种内衣外穿的形象，亨利•卡维尔(Henry Cavill)将其演绎成一个纯粹严肃的角色，呈现在我们眼前的是神一般的力量。因此，这部由扎克•斯奈德(Zack Snyder)执导的影片让人产生了这样一个疑问：我们是否聪明到会张开双臂接受这样一个形象的程度。即使卡尔-埃尔和基督在视觉上的相似性渲染得有些过度，但这依然是一个值得研究的问题。对于这样一个英雄人物影片中有很多看点：这个生活在美国中西部的年轻人（凯文•科斯特纳(Kevin Costner)和戴安•莱恩(Diane Lane)饰演他的养父母）在意会到那些力量时心生困惑；遇到洛伊斯（她这一次很快得知了他的真实身份）的场景；以及为迎战心怀鬼胎、带着一大帮坏人从氪星赶来的坏蛋佐德将军（迈克尔•珊农(Michael Shannon饰演)）所做的准备。
Yet hope springs ephemeral in this production. First off, there's the problem of casting in the central role. 'I can do things that others can't,' Kal-El tells the grievously injured Lois as he cauterizes her wound with sizzling eyebeams. It's tempting to think that another actor might have done things Mr. Cavill can't, but there's no way of knowing, given Mr. Snyder's stiff direction and the generally turgid dialogue. (Lots of talk about trust, leaps of faith and initiating the phantom drive.) There's also the issue of Mr. Crowe's Jor-El, who keeps materializing with bizarre frequency as his son's holographic spirit guide and real-time strategist, never mind that the old man is long dead. Marlon Brando's Jor-El returned too, but only in obvious outtakes.
然而，在这部作品中希望只是昙花一现。首先，中心角色的演员选择存在问题。卡尔-埃尔在用嘶嘶作响的眼睛光芒烧灼严重受伤的洛伊斯的伤口时对她说：“我可以做别人无法做到的事情。”这很容易让人想到，另一名演员也许可能做卡维尔无法做到的事情，不过鉴于斯奈德执导时的拘谨以及影片中晦涩的对白（大谈特谈信赖、放心信任并让人产生幻觉），换一名演员的效果如何也无从知道。克罗演的乔-埃尔(Jor-El)也有问题，他现身充当他儿子的全息式精神导师和现场军师的频率让人匪夷所思，全然不顾这位老人早已去世的事实。马龙•白兰度(Marlon Brando)所演的乔-埃尔也在影片里出现了，但用的是明显能看出是以前片子剪余片段的镜头。
Eventually, though, what seals the movie's doom─as inventive entertainment, though perhaps not as a commercial venture─is its surrender to the lower power of coarsegrained action and computer-generated images of inexplicable banality. It's 'Fight Club' cum sci-fi as Zod and Kal-El duke it out on the streets of Smallville, then do it again, just like barroom brawlers, during an interminable climax set against a background of a Manhattan seized by the usual chaos of fireballs, shattering glass, flying trucks and toppling towers. 'You know they say it's all downhill after the first kiss,' Lois tells her inamorato early on. She doesn't know the meaning of downhill.
尽管如此，最后判定影片失败的──作为娱乐创新，可能不是作为商业风险投入──是它居然接受了低标准的粗糙动作以及平庸得令人费解的电脑制作图像。它既是《搏击俱乐部》(Fight Club)这样的打斗片，又是一部科幻片，因为佐德和卡尔-埃尔在斯莫维尔(Smallville)的大街上一决高下，之后又重新开战，就像酒吧里的打斗者一样。没完没了的打斗高潮背景设在曼哈顿，火球四起、玻璃横飞、卡车腾空、高楼倾覆。洛伊斯早先对她的情人说过：“你知道，他们说初吻之后就每况愈下了。”相信她并不知道“每况愈下”意味着什么。