Oh, I can hear the tiny scurrying feet of all the internet fanboys running to their keyboards to call me a pussy for this, but understand that this scene did not disturb me as in “it upset me.” No, anyone who reads any of my writing would know better than to assume that. What disturbed me so much about this moment at the end of Man of Steel was just how fucking NOT Superman it was.
Oh, we are getting a “gritty” Superman now? I understand that’s all the rage, fine. But let me put it in a way that more of you will understand. How would you feel if, when we get to the end of a new Batman movie, it ended with Batman pulling out a gun and blowing away the Joker? Only an idiot would think that is cool. It goes against everything that character stands for. Batman can not shoot the Joker. Anyone else can, but not Batman. Same thing goes for Superman. What disturbed me is just how cool Zack Snyder tried to make it, and just how much that missed the mark with what the character is supposed to be about.
I can understand WHY, in theory, Superman broke Zod’s neck at the end of the Man of Steel, but all he was going to do was melt one family. Three people. Three random people. That was all it took for Supes to break his own rules and become one of the monsters himself. So now in every other Man of Steel movie, when he is losing a fight, you don’t think that is going to pop into our heads? Give me a fucking break, there were about a million other things Superman could have done up to that point. Also, why did he wait that long? Why did he let half of Metrpolis get ruined and THEN do it? If that was a direction he knew he could go, why not just go there right away and save MORE lives? I love Michael Shannon, and think he is one of the best actors alive right now, but Man of Steel missed on many cylinders.
Again, it didn’t disturb me because it was disturbing. It disturbed me because it IMMEDIATELY went against everything we knew and liked about the character, and it immediately rendered any drama or excitement from the series. Cool, he can snap necks now. The last Superman reboot had Supes go through the whole movie without throwing one punch. The new reboot has him cracking necks. Why the fuck can’t they just find a director who kind of understands that Superman lives in the middle of those two extremes?
Anyways, now is when you all inevitably tell me how”wrong” the list is and what I “forgot.” Remember though, if I “missed” a particular scene, it is probably because I didn’t see the movie. So rather than tell me I suck, tell me what disturbing scenes I may have missed. Maybe that way we can get a nice back-and-forth going.