A Pre-review from a terrified fan of SUPERMAN! (MAJOR SPOILER HEREIN)

A Pre-review from a terrified fan of SUPERMAN! (MAJOR SPOILER HEREIN)

My wonderful girlfriend got me 7:00PM tickets to Man of Steel...and I'm nervous as Heck. I allowed myself one major spoiler. It frightens me...

Editorial Opinion
By jjk2814 - Jun 12, 2013 10:06 PM EST
Filed Under: Man of Steel



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."

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GoldenMan
GoldenMan - 6/12/2013, 11:20 PM
I think the issue isn't the fact that Superman kills Zod, but that it's in that manner in broad daylight and that it is plainly shown on camera. Snapping someone's neck is a far more brutal way of killing someone than any of the other methods available to Snyder, or obviously even just letting Zod live.
jjk2814
jjk2814 - 6/12/2013, 11:24 PM
It's weird...I didn't know it to that detail but thats exactly how I imagined it...
jjk2814
jjk2814 - 6/12/2013, 11:27 PM
I guess thats what worries me is that it is dealt with in such a blase, inconsiderate way...

But again, I reserve judgement.
Emjeed
Emjeed - 6/13/2013, 7:26 AM
You gotta watch it. Supes didn't wanna do it but Zod started trying to kill innocent people. The phantom zone projector is not there at this point and as Zod says "I die or they do" or something to that effect. Even Faora's line from the trailer gives a hint to this. "You will not win. For every human you save, we will kill a million more" . That scene with Zod is very emotional and you feel it. Superman starts crying right after and lets out a loud scream. Henry does it in such a way you realize the man was forced to do it. At least its not as brutal as the comic they got that story from where superman exposed kryptonite to zod AND his cronies till they died a prolonged and painful death. In fact. Thats actually from the MAN OF STEEL ran of comics by John Byrne
fortycals
fortycals - 6/13/2013, 12:00 PM
This is why once I was a little older, I drifted away from the "boyscout" heroes. I now understand that sometimes there is no other way to be a hero than to sacrifice your own morals for the sake of saving innocents. Being a hero has always been about sacrifice. It always bothered me why batman doesn't kill the joker. He throws him in the revovling door that is arkham just so he can escape and kill again. At what point is the blood of innocents on the heroes hands. Yes, killing should always be a last resort, but when is putting your morals and beliefs above innocent lives heroic. If you have the power to stop true evil, and you don't , how is that heroic? I still like the idea, of doing all that is in your power to find another way, but when there isn't another way, and you know it, its a selfish move not to kill.
LegendaryOutlaw
LegendaryOutlaw - 6/13/2013, 2:01 PM
To me killing Zod was just gonna be obvious. I'd like to see that he isn't killed and can someday return but I knew it wouldn't happen.
Jaywing
Jaywing - 6/13/2013, 7:01 PM
It's a very powerful element in the film. I promise you it works. Here is my thing... They spend the whole movie beating the shit out of each other, military firing everything they have at zod, thousands of people dying in metropolis, a whole city crumbling.... Obviously the military/supermans goal in all of this isn't just to horse around. It is to eliminate the threat. There is nothing Kal-el could've done. It actually was very refreshing to see a superhero finally come to their senses and destroy the enemy once and for all.
jjk2814
jjk2814 - 6/13/2013, 10:39 PM
I had a small deal of faith that it would be dealt with an amount of weight and respect for the moment and...

Thank God my faith was rewarded. As Jaywing and Emjeed and others have said, it was earned.

I don't entirely agree with it but I understand its narrative place.
xavierserranoa
xavierserranoa - 6/14/2013, 1:00 AM
from what im reading this movie apparently attends to a whole new generation of readers. that is the only part i didnt liked superman and batman have never killed not even when batman snapped jokers head joker finished the job. The true superman has more humanity than this he even proves it in all star superman by making people beleive that sinking to that level makes you the same as the villain.
Emjeed
Emjeed - 6/14/2013, 4:40 AM
dude.. go back and read John Byrnes 80s run.. SUPERMAN KILLED ZOD and his cronies by exposing them Kryptonite till they died. Even more brutal than what he did in the film. So stop acting like this is something new. In fact I'm glad they didn't use the comic version. Cos that was murder right there. He begged Zod to stop.. and he wouldn't. He tried to over power him but Zod was determined to kill the innocent by standers. As a military man I get it. It's like when we go to BMT they ask us what would you do if a little boy is forced to put on a bomb and is put in a public place to kill a million people? In the first week our naive minds always says we will try to save the boy. They ask the same question one week before graduation. And that naivity will be gone by then. Cos in the real world the bad guys don't give a shit about your morals. you either take the shot or hundreds of people die. And that's what this movie accomplishes with that small scene. It tell you not everything is black and white. And sometimes for the greater good, there is a necessary evil
jjk2814
jjk2814 - 6/15/2013, 1:48 AM
Hey, Emjeed, I specifically commented saying I had come to terms with the concept and execution of the moment.

My problem though is that despite any amount of precedence in the comics there had been a over-arching cultural understanding that Superman same as Batman.

Now within even the Nolan arc there are people who would say Bruce killed Harvey but I would say that was unintentional.

The point is, John Byrnes run on Superman did not take hold on the cultural understanding of what makes Superman Superman.

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