I just recently re-watched the movie Man of Steel in light of Batman VS Superman coming out. I’ve been a fan of Superman and other heroes both DC and Marvel ever since I was a little kid. What I want to do is address the big ISSUES people have with this movie and maybe bring a new perspective now that we have a new movie in the same universe coming out.
Now lets talk about some of the Big and Small issues most people have with this movie.
There are spoilers for anyone who has not seen this movie yet.
1. The Dark Tone of the movie.
This is my first and shortest argument in the fact that most of Superman’s previous movies felt to light and never felt like there was really anything at risk most of the time. The tone also meshes well with the new Batman Vs Superman movie coming to us soon. I don’t see anything wrong with taking a darker side of these comic book heroes. No one said there was a law that said every Super Hero Movie had to be silly and lighthearted.
Honestly it just makes sense to have a Hero with a symbol of Hope on his chest to give people hope in a world that is dealing with some serious and dark times.
2. Jonathan Kent's Death
This was destined to be criticized no mater what. In the comics Jonathan usually dies due to a Heart Attack for the impact that it’s the one thing Superman can not stop. However, in this more real world DCU I liked the switch up with him being killed by the Tornado for this reason. FYI I do think it was silly for Jonathan to go back for the dog when Clark was on his way to do it and would have been much faster even without using super powers. Anyway, the reason I liked it because that moment was in 1997 and truthfully I agree that our race at that time would have started flying nukes for no reason with that kind of fear. Do I think now in 2016 we would still be ready for a We Are Not Alone type truth, no, but I feel we have grown a lot since then and I mean Zod didn’t really give Clark a choice. But the moment still kind of held Superman to make a choice to not save his father. He had the power to do it, but he trusted his father and made the choice that mankind wasn’t ready, in a way still making him helpless.
3. Where'd the Superman Suit come from? (this might only be me that thought this)
I thought this was weird at first until I realized that Kyprtonian technology is ridiculous. Examples: The codex being transformed into Kal-El’s cells and that black Crystal being made in like 3 seconds. It makes sense that when Clark inserted the black S Crystal that had Jor-El’s shadow in it he could have easily scanned Clark and had the suit made for him in minutes while they were talking since the ship clearly was still functioning.
4. The Destruciton of Metropolis.
This is very short and sweet to me. What do you think would happen when two Super Powered beings fight. Let’s look at the old school Superman Cartoon which I loved as a kid. Superman would punch a guy through a building through about 5 support beams. Not only would the building have on one it but all that would happen is some rubble would fall off and almost hit 1 of 3 people on a busy city street and superman would save them and then finally the bad guy would get back up. Superman can not save every one people it is just beyond imagination to think it’s possible. And yes I love Marvel and I feel the Destruction of Avengers the movie would have been way worse then it was portrayed. People destruction is real in these comic book universes, VERY VERY REAL.
Now this mass destruction works for this new DCU giving both Batman and Lex Luther something to be SCARED of and to get people to fear as well. If superman took down Zod and his people with like $100 in property damage and 2 people died they wouldn't have anything to drive fear into people that Superman could be a danger.
5. Superman Kills..... the Zod neck snap.
I was okay with action Snyder took with Superman and Zod in this big moment. Not only do we see Superman being well Superman on his first day of work but Zod undoubtedly made it clear that he will not stop trying to destroy Earth. Whilst Zod is declaring his never ending goad to destroy all of Earth and the people of Earth he is slowly getting ready to incinerate with his eyes a couple of humans as Superman tries to stop this. In that moment after all the current destruction and the immediate threat he chose to end this for good and snapped his neck. Many people say why couldn't he have flown in the hair with Zod or knocked him out. I don’t know, I’m not a superhero neither is anyone else but my guess is that they were so evenly matched which I liked, and there was a very immediate threat in that moment with Zod and his Head Vision heading towards the bystanders.
This ultimately does bring us to my Real World point and real decisions. No one is born with an innate code of though shall not kill. I feel this moment where Superman has to kill his last fellow Kryptonian will give him the pain and experience that will drive his Comic Book ideal of never killing the enemy. What better way to engrave that into the Man of Steel himself then to have him know what it feels like to take a life and to know how horrible it is, along with how fragile life can be.
And for all those that say Superman has never killed before look below and you’ll find only a few of the many times Superman has killed in both Comics and Movies.
Comic: Superman Kills Imperiex and Brainiac (Action Comics vol. 1 #782, 2001)
Comic: Superman Kills Doomsday (Superman vol. 2 #75, 1993)
Comic: Superman Kills Zod & the Phantom Zone Criminals (Superman vol. 2 #22, 1988)
Movie: Superman 2, Superman throws Zod and his Pals in a bottomless pit in the Fortress Of Solitude without their super powers. Does anyone really think they would live through that yet know one had any issues because no one saw them die. Out of sight out of mind.
CONCLUSION
Now I'm not saying anyone is wrong, honestly I just want more people to enjoy this movie like I did. And now with a new DCU coming and knowing some new ways to look at some of the choices made in this movie maybe more people will see the good in this that I did.
P.S.
PLEASEEEE do not have the Robin that is dead in Batman VS Superman be Dick Grayson, all I wanna see is Nightwing finally in this new DCU. If we don't get a Nightwing now on the big screen I don't think we ever will.
Sources: http://www.manofsteel.com/index.html?gallery
http://www.newsarama.com/19848-world-s-deadliest-10-times-batman-and-superman-have-killed-their-enemies.html