Thanks to the "Honest Review" by Demas1025 I confirmed my greatest fear about The Man of Steel. As stated in the teaser, I will be seeing the movie at 7:00PM tomorrow. My journey up to this point has been this...
The first two trailers did NOTHING to give me hope. I feared all we were going to have was a "Superman Begins" approach to the greatest hero that ever lived in the shared fictional universe we have taken such great stock in. The trailers seemed needlessly pretentious and that irked me. I believe that after the abominable "Batman and Robin" the Batman film series needed to take drastic measures to repair its image. The trailers for MOS did nothing but frighten me to the concept that Warners Brothers had decided that there was only ONE way to portray a beloved cultural icon on film. I feared they believed Superman needed be approached in the near-exact way Nolan had dealt with the Caped Crusader. Then....
Then...the third trailer hit...
Hans Zimmer score worked! Despite all my doubt in the modern era of film scoring(outside of Michael Giachinno's works) Hans Zimmer's score seemed to excite and capture the essence of Superman.
We had our first glimpses of Krypton and amazing moments of Zod's resolve. As well as our first glimpse of Superman/Clark dealing with his duel identity in a new and interesting way.
I was sold.
I waited weeks, avoiding spoilers, and then two nights before the day I'd see the film there was just one thing I needed to know...
AND HERES WHERE I STATE THE SPOILER...
I know that Superman kills Zod....and I have tried with an open mind and heart prepare myself for that development. I hope the film earns the right to have Superman do such a thing. I understand that this is Clarks first trial as Superman and he is vulnerable to such tragic mistakes. He doesn't yet understand the better option. I get that. However, what worries me is that people will accept that Superman kills and ask no further questions, never delve further into his character and then just accept that Superman is a killer and that trend will continue...
I fear that if the people will accept that Superman can kill when he see's appropriate that the ideals of truth, justice, and The American Way will truly die on a cultural level that will go down in history as a significant change in one of our culture's last great imaginary heroes.
The one positive I see coming out of this even if its as bad as I imagine is that it creates a true conflict between Clark and Bruce when we finally see them on screen together. I would love a moment in which Bruce rips off his cowl and faces Superman as a human and states that he has made a solemn vow to never lower himself to the level of his adversaries and killed for the sake of eliminating a problem.
i know that people will comment that I'm taking this too seriously, that I'm being melodramatic, or that I'm judging the movie prematurely so let me reiterate this point...
I am excited as all hell to see it tomorrow. I'm listening to the score as I write this. I have a poster already prominently displayed in my home. After the third trailer, as I said, I was sold. I believe this movie may actually and appropriately change my view of the Man Of Steel. Gosh, I hope so. I guess I'll leave it at that. You can expect a follow-up to this tomorrow. If not, then you can surmise that I was too disheartened to write about it.
I hope The Man Of Steel is "swell."