Two years on and still, almost inexplicably, the debate over Man of Steel‘s controversial finale rages on. Though it may filter into next year’s Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice as part of the film’s prologue sequence, the scene continues to divide fans in a way marmite could only dream.
Now, the latest opinion to be tossed into the pot comes via Kick-Ass scribe Mark Millar, who recently spoke to GamesRadar about the traumatizing effect the third act had on him as a viewer and respected comic book writer.
Weighing on the “edginess” that has become such a prominent feature of the superhero movie scene, Millar believes that Man of Steel‘s finale was ultimately too violent.
You see, I love cartoonish ultra-violence as much as the next Glaswegian (see this year’s Kingsman: the Secret Service where Colin Firth takes down 100 fundamentalists in a Southern Baptist church), but at the same time I also feel we need a little balance. In amongst all these very dark, angst-ridden and sometimes very serious superhero movies that have made Hollywood a lot of money over the last fifteen years I’m sensing a need for a little hope too, a little LESS super-cool bad-assery. This really hit me hardest, I think, when I was watching Henry Cavill’s turn as Superman in Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel a couple of years back.
In particular, the scene which sees The Last Son of Krypton snap General Zod’s neck irked Millar the most because for him, it didn’t gel with the purity of Superman as a character, despite the fact that it fitted into the context of Zack Snyder’s 2013 feature.
Summer 2013 as I sat there on Father’s Day and saw Superman beating the bad guy by twisting his neck so hard he broke it and murdered him I really wondered if we’d come to the end of that particular road. Now I got the logic of that scene and it absolutely made sense within the context of the movie as the villain had taken down half of Metropolis and killed hundreds of thousands of people. But even so. This was Superman. This was like seeing Sylvester the Cat finally getting his hands on Speedy Gonzales. Elmer Fudd blowing away Bugs Bunny. I loved Superman as a kid not because of his edginess or his potential for a fatal solution, but because he could do anything he wanted and still chose to be nice.
Another opinion added to the ongoing dialogue surrounding Man of Steel‘s climx, but do you agree with Millar’s comments? Last we reported on the film’s sequel, Mad Max: Fury Road director George Miller had opted to pass on a chance to take the reins, though that hasn’t stopped us speculating about our favorite filmmakers would could possibly be instated at the helm.
