Superman, Grounded

To save the Man of Steel, a new movie brings him down to earth

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Courtesy Warner Bros.

Henry Cavill (center) as Superman and Christopher Meloni (far right) as Colonel Hardy in Warner Bros. Pictures' and Legendary Pictures' action adventure Man of Steel, a Warner Bros. Pictures release.

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Of course, realism is all well and good--and it really is quite good--but it's all so much superpowered sound and fury unless the emotions feel real. "Zack really wanted there to be this level of deep emotion from all the characters," says Adams, who plays Lois Lane. "He wanted it to live in a world of truth, even surrounded by all this fantasy--he wanted it to resonate as emotionally viable." For Snyder, the core truth of Superman is that he's an outsider. "He's this adopted son, this immigrant story, this guy trying to find his place in the world," Snyder says. "What's his purpose, what is he supposed to do, how is he supposed to be?"

Whereas Reeve played Superman with the winning, bemused confidence that comes with the knowledge that one lifted a truck as a baby, Cavill gives Superman an air of injured curiosity: he's smarting at being misunderstood but still hopeful that humanity will one day accept him. "Entering the acting world, it's a very lonely life," Cavill says. "You all get so close, and then you promise to e-mail and text each other, but you never do. So that idea of being a sort of lone traveler I can definitely associate with."

It's a very different story from, say, Iron Man's (jaded rich guy learns to use his gifts for good) or Batman's (traumatized orphan learns to use his vengeful rage for good). Superman is already good, thanks to his idealized upbringing in America's rural heartland. His story is more about the rest of us learning to be good--learning how to accept the muscle-bound, spandex-clad alien in our midst, in spite of his weirdness and manifest genetic superiority. We'll see if that's a lesson humanity wants to learn, again. "I always say, Is it out of fashion to do the right thing?" Snyder asks. "Is it out of fashion to be good? You know? I don't think so."

SEE 65 YEARS OF SUPERMAN CLIPS AT time.com/superman

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