5) Man Of Steel
I am not going to sit here and tell you that I didn’t like the Man of Steel, because I did. Well, actually, to say I liked it is a bit too generous. I should say that I found it entertaining. But you know what I didn’t like about it? The way it portrayed its titular hero. I know DC films all want to be gritty reboots on some level or another, and I can respect how that may bring in a wider audience, but there is a difference between a gritty reboot and the raping of a character.
I am sorry, I know I have said it before, but Superman should NOT snap someone’s neck in an origin story. Keep in mind, if they had chosen to save this for a build up in a future Man of Steel film, it totally could have kicked ass. The idea that being on Earth had fucked Superman up a bit and maybe darkened him and made him a bit cynical and jaded after years of doing a thankless job, might have worked. It would be like the Superman Unbound DC animated film, only way more intense. That could have worked in a future film in this reboot series.
But to have Superman break someone’s neck in his first ever battle, in a reboot no less, was just an awful idea. Also, he is Superman, so it seemed odd to me that Zod’s head would not have done a complete 360, or even snapped off. They made it seem like just a regular dude putting a great deal of effort into breaking a neck.
It also leaves us wondering what would stop him from doing it again? He has already gone down the darkest road a “hero” can go down, and it was only the first movie in the reboot series. Where does that leave us?
Man of Steel may have been an entertaining summer movie in the sense that you got what you paid for, but it did not feel like a proper re-introduction to Superman to me.
I also don’t understand the following…..DC gives a gritty movie reboot to, of all characters, Superman. Meanwhile, Marvel gets one of their grittiest characters (Wolverine) and they water him down into a lame caricature of himself. I have a crazy idea here. How about we treat Superman like some sort of cheesy, all American hero, and we make Wolverine the badass dude who is wrecking cities and snapping necks? Seems like these two companies have their ideas all mixed up.
Also, I cannot help but to feel like I can hear Zack Snyder standing behind me, whispering, “Wait until you see what I do next with Batman.”
*Shivers*