Showing from June 14: Man of Steel ****

Stars: Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Russell Crow, Lawrence Fishburne.
Director: Zack Snyder.
Rated: PG-13
Showing: Speciality Theatre. Call 292-2135 or 295-2751 for details.
Runtime: 143 minutes
Action, adventure, fantasy

To the oft-asked question of whether or not the world is really starving for yet another superhero origin story, Man of Steel simply responds by serving up what could be as much spectacle and action — minute-by-minute, frame-by-frame — as any movie anyone could think of. Zack Snyder’s huge, backstory-heavy extravaganza is a rehab job that perhaps didn’t cry out to be done but proves so overwhelmingly insistent in its size and strength that it’s hard not to give in.

With Christopher Nolan’s mammoth Batman trilogy having wrapped up last year, the quick return of the other great DC comic hero was inevitable, even if the last attempt, Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns (2006), only lasted one lap. Nolan’s involvement here as a producer and co-story writer with David S. Goyer, his collaborator on all three Batman films, will encourage fans to look closely for his fingerprints, and a first impression might suggest his hand in deepening the hero’s roots to such a serious extent and insisting upon using Hans Zimmer to compose the score.

Visually and rhythmically, however, Snyder has gone his own way, summoning up memories of Dune in the sculpted architectural look of Krypton, echoing Jesus by underlining the sacrifice Clark Kent is called upon to make for the good of mankind, and simply by hardly letting five minutes go by without inventing some new excuse for a staggering action scene — any one of which undoubtedly cost more than the combined budgets of all of this year’s Sundance competition lineup.

Even the inevitably expository first 18 minutes on Krypton are spiked with an amazing amount of visual stimulation. As Jor-El (Russell Crowe) lays it all out about the planet’s road to ruin, its failed intergalactic colonization efforts and his discovery of a planet to which he can send his little son, we’re witness to both large-scale calamity and the intimate treachery of the rebellious General Zod (a ferocious Michael Shannon), whose murderous campaign gets him packed off to the deep space equivalent of Siberia.

Snyder doesn’t miss a beat once the tale spins down to Earth. Scarcely has Kal-El emerged from his projectile after a long flight when he rescues workers from a burning oil rig. The youngster later sees his classmates in disturbing X-ray vision and, not long after the renamed Clark Kent asks his adoptive mother (Diane Lane), “What’s wrong with me, Mom?”.

When Clark saves the day yet again by lifting a school bus out of the water after it’s gone off a bridge, his adoptive father (Kevin Costner) realizes it’s time for a heart-to-heart. “You’re the answer to whether we’re alone in the universe,” he confides upon showing Clark the old pod that brought him to Earth.

At the same time, ace Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane (Amy Adams) gets on to a story about a foreign object that’s been buried in ice for 20,000 years, while Jor-El abruptly rematerializes to present him with his long-awaited suit and cape so he can begin his entertainingly staged flying lessons.

Becomingly modest in the character’s low-key early scenes and gradually reveling in his power, Cavill has a pleasing presence that makes him easy to accept, as Kal-El accepts the extraordinary fate that has been prescribed for him.