Steel (1997) Review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bAWWmLfkWo

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

It’s always the most unbelievable kind of heroes that make mixed impressions.


PLOT


1997’s Steel follows weapons designer John Henry Irons who has just made a high tech laser gun with a sonic sound cannon. When displaying it to the military, Lieutenant Nathaniel Burke makes a big mistake trying out the cannon at an abandoned building, only for it to backfire and cause Irons’ partner; Susan Sparks, to get paralyzed after getting crushed by a large slab of concrete. Irons addresses to the court of Burke’s actions, which causes the latter to be dismissed from the military. Because it was his weapons that put his friend in danger, he chooses to resign. Burke however doesn’t stop his intent to sell his weapons to criminal gangs and recruit arcade manager Big Willy Daniels to make it so. One night in the midst of a ride along, Irons sees firsthand a robbery full of criminals wielding Burke’s modified guns, but they all escape before he can interrogate any of them nor do they budge when he chases them down their hideout. With Colonel David refusing to believe what he saw, he brings Sparks with him to a junkyard hideout. With the assist of neighborhood acquaintance Uncle Joe, they assemble a laboratory to forge their own armory in the fight against crime. Five nights after officiating his titular vigilante persona and evading the police, he would try foiling another robbery. Despite saving another officer from the debris of a destroyed helicopter, he’d still be chased away and later framed by Burke for said robbery, arrested at the home of his grandmother. He is able to get released sooner due to Sparks forging a pardon via fax. This gives the protagonist a chance to interrupt an online weapons auction Burke has planned in the area. Just as he makes his way, Sparky gets captured by Burke’s thugs, resulting in Steel getting captured as well. Steel however uses his capture as an advantage to trick Burke to use his signature hammer against him, only for him to regain an advantage to defend himself alongside Sparky. As this leads to an intense shoutout, Burke would reveal to have his younger cousin Martin and holds him at gunpoint until Uncle Joe shoots him free. When Burke tries using a laser against him, it backfires as it deflects and strikes him. When later telling Colonel David, Irons and Sparky reject future help from him. As John’s grandma officially opens a new restaurant, who speaks highly of Steel, the film ends with Sparky revealing to modified her wheelchair to help her walk.


THOUGHTS


You know I always respect Warner Bros. trying every now and then to adapt various superheroes of DC Comics to compete with what Marvel drops yearly in the 21st century. Doing it in the 90s though was a bigger gamble because technology still had a long way to go to get it right. The pressure was on for writer/director Kenneth Johnson to introduce a character and sever its ties from Superman in order to stand out. That doesn’t exactly work in my eyes because John Henry Irons does not become Steel had he not been saved by Superman just once, apart from this film’s accuracy in him being a weapons designer. Giving him a ‘Man of Steel’ tattoo does make it halfways and that’s not pleasing really. I got nothing against basketball superstar Shaquille O’Neal because his starpower does emphasize the ideal superhero theme that anyone can put their intellect to good use such as confronting systemic justice, but it doesn’t feel natural at all and that’s worse than his costume design that is more distracting than the chopped up editing. I can still say he has good chemistry with Annabeth Gish as the tech savvy & loyal Sparky, but that never feels enough for me to enjoy everything else. What can be worse is the fact I can’t buy into Judd Nelson as the greedy antagonist of Burke. I’m so used to his heartthrob era of the 80s that I can’t imagine him being a villain. Putting that aside, there are so many things going on storywise that don’t make much sense. From the beginning, testing out the weapons with soldiers still in a tank is just as bad as Burke recklessly using it that leads to Sparky’s paralysis, let alone bringing a US Senator to watch what’s apparently the first test. It was even so fucked up for a nurse to nod ‘no’ when Sparky started assuming she was gonna walk again before later finding out. That is the worst way to tell John expecting her to not turn around. It’s also reckless for Burke to kill the assistant in daytime via elevator explosion rather than something nonchalant at night. Hell, the colonel should’ve asked John way at the beginning if he had a secure line before he started giving details on the weapons he saw. And if John was gonna take Sparky with her, he did not need to open the windows so aggressively to prove his point that she has a lot to live for. It’s also dumb for the auction’s address to be told at the last minute if Burke wants buyers to get there in time. Lastly, it’s so dumb that the thugs chose to take Sparky with her wheelchair. I get that they don’t know her chair is armed, but it’s pointless of them to do if they’re the bad guys. That’s just dumber than forcing her to walk again. To wrap up, Steel is one of the weaker superhero movies for not embracing its roots the way most adaptations balance out. If you are a true fan of the character, skip this and stick with his other appearances in Reign of the Supermen and CW’s Superman & Lois.