The Death of Superman?!.........Superman Lives!!

The Death of Superman?!..........Superman Lives!!

On June 14th 2013 moviegoers prayers were answered with the release of the long awaited reboot to the Superman franchise in the form of Man of Steel........or were they?! Upon its release the movie immediately invoked polarizing opinions: You either loved it or hated it!!
Rotten Tomatoes awarded the movie a 60% approval rating and many moviegoers cursed the movie for killing an iconic image.  After taking in all the criticisms and support of the movie, I want to examine why the movie was hated, and point out why this is probably the truest representation of Superman on screen.

Superman the Dark Knight?

Once it was announced that Christopher Nolan (Memento, Inception, Batman Trilogy) would be involved in rebooting this franchise, the masses groaned "oh no.....they're gonna make Superman dark like Batman!" If that was your first thought, then you are completely missing the point of his involvement.  While Superman is not "dark" in tone "dark" things do happen in his world.  The old Superman movies offered a very simplistic view of the world.  The bad guys wore black and the good guys wore white.  Nolan's plan wasn't to make Superman some tormented vigilante with daddy issues, but rather to add a bit more emotional depth to the character. The problem with the Donner/Reeves version was that while Superman was beloved, he lacked any emotional intricacies that could be relatable for the audience. He was more like a doting father shaking his finger in disapproval at he human race. That movie was made at a time when moviegoers were less savvy and alot more innocent. What makes a hero compelling is watching him grow into the role, as opposed to stepping right into his role fully formed.  If you just found out that were not from this planet, and have all this responsibility thrust on you, I tend to think that you would have some questions & reservations about your destiny.  In the classic scene where Superman firsts appears in the Donner film, he is met with applause, cheers and wonderment.  Yeah, cuz us humans wouldn't be weirded out by someone who can fly, lift a helicopter and see thru shit!.....we are on board!!(note the sarcasm). In Nolan's version, as would be in the real world, Kal El is met with suspicion and dismissal as the human race is not sure what to make of him at first and even more interesting is that Kal doesn't really trust humanity either. This offers a rich perspective in telling what is essentially a first contact story, since Superman is an alien above all else. Nolan's input to the mythos was not to try to make Superman real per Se, but present real consequences & reactions to a being living in our world. The problem being with the general audiences perception of Superman, is that it is one that has not existed since the late 70's.  The character is as much the boy scout as he is the hothead, a balanced and nuanced interpretation that adds to lore. The character has grown and developed as a not only a hero but as a man. He makes mistakes, second guesses himself, gets upset and has biases. This was written as today's Superman and is much more closer to the comics version. If anything one could argue that Richard Donner Superman movies are much more of a bastardization of the character.


Demolition Man......

For anyone that has watched the movie, you will notice that there was a fair amount of destruction from Smallville to Kansas that would do Michael Bay proud! And in the midst of the chaos some moviegoers were asking "Where is Superman!?!?". A rhetorical query, mostly addressing what they felt was a lack of him flying around and saving everyone, in the manner that we are accustomed.  Some have gone so far as to actually accuse Superman as being the one that causes the destruction.  Granted....I will give you the silo and 7-Eleven damage when he first attacks Zod, but come on, how would you react if someone attacked your mother and tossed a pick up truck on the coffee table?! But to keep things in perspective of an origin story, this is not the "perfect" Superman from Chris Reeves legend.....but rather a guy who has been Superman for all of 2mins, going up against beings just as powerful as him AND better trained. So there is an off chance that he will get his ass handed to him a bit.  Makes it kind of hard to try to protect every innocent caught in the battle. "Well in Avengers, we saw them save some people  while they were fighting!" That's all well and good.....but there were 7 of them, and its only one of Superman......no matter how "super" you think he is supposed to be. But to his credit, he does manage to make a few saves when he can get a chance to breathe. Superman wasn't just wantonly throwing or going thru buildings.......he was being kicked, punched and thrown thru them. The bulk of the destruction that Metropolis experienced was wrought by the World Engine initiated by Zod.  In the larger scheme of things, it's a big city....so 10 or so blocks of urban warfare is barely a scar!
"Well Chris Reeves would've taken the fight away from the city by leading the villains away."
Yeah.....like he did in Superman II, and left the people to get blown around and further terrorized by Zod and his crew. Only in this version of Superman, Zod and his crew don't just use their super breath to blow around cars and toupees, but instead start ripping off heads and dropping cars on pedestrians.  This is the birth of a hero, and we are watching him go thru his growing pains while trying to do the right thing. One scene that comes to mind is the scene in Batman Begins, another Nolan origin story, where you have Batman confront the Scarecrow for the first time, goes in there half cocked and gets sprayed with fear gas, then lit on fire......that's a rookie mistake, at a human level, but a rookie mistake nonetheless.  When the next movie comes out, I'm confident that we will see a Superman that has learned a thing or two from his past experiences and will make the proper adjustments.

SUPERMAN DOES NOT KILL!!!

Yeah baby.....now the grand finale! The most controversial act of the movie bar none.....(spoiler alert, but if you haven't seen the movie by now, shame or your azz!!) In the climatic battle with Zod, Superman is faced with a very hard decision and has to snap Zod's neck in order to save a family caught in the path of his newly acquired heat vision. In the 3 times, yes 3 times, that I saw the movie.....the audience clapped and supported the decision, but I have heard of others where the crowd fell silent and was not too happy with this final solution. Which raised the debate: Superman does not kill!.....or does he?! Let's play devil's advocate for a second and lets say those that didn't agree with the execution of Zod was right....Superman doesn't kill. But I offer you this to ponder, where does that perception come from? Is it accurate? Is it a figment of our own nostalgia? To take it a step further, if they are right in there belief that Superman doesn't kill, where does he develop that has his stance? I offer that the repercussions of this scene may in fact set him up to accept the philosophy of never taking a life, however to see the circumstances that will lead him to adopt that personal belief is far more interesting as opposed to having it birthed in a vaccum.  Did he have to kill Zod?....the answer will be "yes" in my opinion. Really step back and focus on the situation at hand........as mentioned in the previous portion he is facing a much better trained fighter who is just as strong as he is, and who is also gaining mastery of his power as the fight goes on.  Had that fight gone on any longer, trust and believe Zod would have eventually bested and killed Kal, then gone on to destroy the earth with his bare hands. 

Exhibit A:  Okay, I'm done catering to the bleeding hearts and their pristine vision of Superman who want to say what he does and doesn't do, while forgetting his fairly recent past. While Superman is not a killer per se, and does not take it lightly....he has and will do so as a absolute last resort. He has done it a few times in the comics, most notably in Superman Action Comics #845, he is forced to use Kryptonite on a Zod and his henchmen from a parallel universe where they had already destroyed the earth and had every intention of repeating the same genocide in this universe. 

Exhibit B: Contrary to popular belief Doomsday did not technically kill Superman.  To be accurate Superman killed Doomsday.  Although the misconception is that Doomsday beat him to death. it was actually Superman who laid the death blow in that battle. While Superman did die from his injuries, ultimately his last blow put Doomsday down for good. 

Exhibit C: But how soon the Superman purists forget,.......not only did Chris Reeves kill Zod in Superman II, he absolutely had no reason to do so! Let me take you back a bit, during the climax of the movie Superman is forced to enter the chamber to take his powers away, by Zod. However, Supes switches things on the Kryptonians and instead strips their powers while he is safe in the chamber, to which he kindly steps out, breaks Zod's now mortal hand and then tosses his azz into a pit in the North Pole....with a smile on his face at that! 

 

 

I don't know about you, but unless that lil' hot onesie number that Zod had on was made of UnderArmour gortex, that's 1st degree murder for Kal -El! Then to top it off, Lois turns around and knocks the chick into the pit as well, with Superman's smiling approval. Granted the deaths may have been a bit on the whimsical side of things, but nonetheless that's double homicide on a galactic level.  At least in Man of Steel he showed an immediate sense of remorse for what he HAD to do.  Oh and while we are on the subject, let's not forget when Superman (with his powers back) went back to the truck stop and purposely picked a fight with the trucker that beat his azz while he didn't have his powers. Yeah Clark.....great lesson for the kids! I'm not really begrudging the plot points,....just being objective about people bias'.

All in all, this wasn't an exercise to change everyone's minds on what Superman means to them, or their opinion about the movie, but rather to clear up many of the misconceptions that are often tied to people's opinions. Ultimately I believe that this movie has set up the natural evolution to the cinema interpretation of Superman to be more accurate to the legend of Superman as opposed to living up to one actor's portrayal of the character.  I like the direction they are going in right now, and honestly felt myself feeling sense of joy about the character that I thought was long gone.  Superman Lives..............