Army weapon’s designer John Henry Irons (Shaquille O’Neal) quits the military when his evil-for-no-reason co-worker, Nathaniel Burke (Judd Nelson), changes the settings on one of his guns, causing his assistant, Sparky (Annabeth Gish) to be paralyzed. Back in the city, he sees his weapons in the hands of criminals, so with the help of Sparky and Uncle Joe (Richard Roundtree), he builds a super-suit so he can fight crime.
It’s Shaq’s non-acting vs Judd Nelson’s overacting in a battle to determine who can create the most unpleasant on-screen performance. It’s a draw. It’s hard to blame Shaquille O’Neal who comes off as an amiable, oaf. This one is all on the execs at WB who thought that skill on a basketball court translated to the screen. It doesn’t.
Not that Shaq, or Nelson, are helped by the sappy, juvenile script. It doesn’t get simpler than this. Steel is completely good in all way. His enemies are completely evil. And teens are stupid and need direction. This is exactly what superhero and comic book films needed not to be. The camp is high but the wit is low. Don’t expect much from the action or FX either.
Jettisoning Steel’s origin story from the Death of Superman comics was fine. No one needs to be reminded of that comic book. But someone needed to come up with something to replace it with.
At least the film isn’t whiny.