So, about that Man of Steel Ending...

WARNING: The Following Blog-Post has MAJOR SPOILERS FOR MAN OF STEEL - duh!

So as you may have noticed you're one of the three total people who read this epic blog of awesome crap, I did not write a Top 5 Things I HATE about Man of Steel. This is for two, almost opposing reasons and a third, which I'll explain now. I felt like I couldn't narrow it down to just five reasons, I really hated this movie, but at the same time those dozens (yes, dozens, I counted) of reasons, all circled back to the same point. This movie lacked hope, fun, enjoyment and inspiration - which can be fine and all but it's not what the character is supposed to represent, no arguments about adaptation here, the movie even says so. But even The Dark Knight was more hopefully and inspirational than the movie about a man who has a symbol for hope sprayed across his chest. The third and final reason was that simply, I just hated the movie so much that trying to write about what I hated about it was not bringing me any joy either, I just felt so drained and let down by a movie that so badly misrepresented the character, who has literally been an inspiration and guiding light in my life in the way that he is supposed to be in the movies. To paraphrase General Zod in Man of Steel; my soul, that is what this movie has taken from me.

A tad over dramatic? Yep, but that's me. I speak almost exclusively in hyperbole. But this movie did really emotionally affect me. And truth be told many people point out the ending of Man of Steel as a low point, how Superman is forced to kill General Zod, and then worse, the destruction and death and his neck snapping is just thrown under the rug at the end because apparently they couldn't spare five more minutes of run-time to show a city in recovery or Superman feeling guilty. This ending has been debated to death and I'm not going to even begin to say how much I hated it (though it's not my only issue with the movie); and how much of an absolute betrayal of the character it was. Superman does not kill - end of story. Has he done it before? Yes, it was bad writing then it is bad writing now. But that is also not the point. I never considered the ending of Superman II as a kill either, just a severe beating (even if it's a deleted scene, it clearly shows the creators intention). But at least Superman II had earned it up until that point Man of Steel had not. One day I will probably do a "What I Would Have Changed" about Man of Steel, but I'm just not there yet, in order to do that, I should probably watch the movie in it's entirety again. 

And here is where I do this. All the problems can be summed up in the ending, the lack of hope, inspiration, the lack of joy, all there. Many of my other problems too, a lack of character depth, a lack of growth or story arc, a lack of real meaning to the story other than mindless destruction. It's all there. Superman is young and inexperienced, but he learns nothing and the audience is taught nothing either. The flashbacks serve no reason but to disjoint the story, and Jonathan Kent just comes off like an asshole frankly. Protective of his son, but still a douchebag. So what do the flashbacks have to do with the ending? Bearing in mind hindsight is 20:20 or X-Ray vision in this case, and I do not purport to be a better writer than Goyer, Snyder or Nolan - they're totally out of my league. But picture this:

The Final Battle: Superman vs. Zod is raging all around Metropolis. They go up into space now are plumetting, as in the movie, Superman gets the upper hand and is forcing Zod down to the ground. A few hundred feet before they hit the station, Superman draws his fist back and in a blast of rage and anger and SLAMS it into Zod's face. Zod crashes into the station leaving a crater where he hit. Superman on the other hand gracefully glides in. Zod begins to rise to his feet, he's clearly dazed and beaten, there's even blood on his nose and swelling around his face from bruises forming. Before Zod can even react, Superman BLASTS HIM with his heat vision pinning him further into the crater. We see the rage and madness of an angry God in Superman, he teeth gritted his flared eyes glowing. 

He's pounding Zod with a continual beam of heat. Zod screaming in pain. Superman lets his heat vision go, he jump up and POUNDS DOWN onto Zod. The crater in the hall gets even bigger. Superman wants to kill Zod, it's obvious, people are terrified of the fight. Zod looks helpless now and Superman just starts PUNCHING HIM over and over and over and over with rage in his eyes. Now, Lois walks in, she see him, shes horrified and screams out his name "Clark!". Clark Kent realises who he is again and where he is, he looks down at Zod, now beaten to a bloody pulp, face messed up, Superman's knuckles covered in blood.
 CUT TO:

Except instead of this scene as in the movie continuing on, it starts at "Clark... you have to keep this side of yourself a secret..." "What was I supposed to do? Just let them die?" "Maybe..."

Momentarily cuts back to Superman looking down at his beaten opponent. The piano music showing the vulnerable, emotional side of Superman begins playing. It cuts back to Jonathan Kent now sitting on the car with his son.

"I don't have all the answers, son. I know you can't just let people die... I know it's hard with all your power and ability. I know you can't just stay on the sidelines forever, Clark. You might be this world's greatest hero one day... One day you'll have to make a decision for what kind of man you want to be Clark. I've tried my best to raise you right, to be a good man and do the right thing. And I trust that when the time comes for you to step out into the light, you'll do the right thing - and save them."

Remembering his father's words, and Jor-El his birth father's words from earlier, "You can save them, Kal, you can save them all." Superman stops. Zod slumps down. He's beaten and out cold. Lois runs up to to him and they embrace.

"I thought you were going to kill him..." Superman shakes his head, confirmed in his decision not to kill him. There's been enough death for one day, and he won't be responsible for any more. From now on he will do his best to save them all. He does not kill, he learns not to kill, no matter how much he wanted to. He has become a Superman. 

So what does this do for the movie? Well it establishes Superman as Superman, not just the alien who came and let everyone die, or punched shit up. It establishes him as Superman, the man who will do his best to save everyone to always find another way. The easy way out is to kill, the hard way is to be the example. The hard way is to be, Superman to shoulder that responsibility. He can now be an inspiration to people, they have seen him not kill, they have seen him save the world.

Following scenes in my mind include Superman literally stepping out into the light and hundreds of Metropolis citizens seeing the man who saved them, who stopped the evil General Zod and did not kill him, setting an example. He flies off with people cheering him and watching him in awe.

Zod now in a Kryptonian prison chamber de-powered by a Kryptonian atmosphere is sent back to the Phantom Zone using the same technology, but not vowing to Superman that he will return and kill everyone he loves that Zod should have killed him (as that is what Zod wanted, he wanted Superman to kill and Zod would have won, as in the movie). Superman accepts this responsibility for protecting Earth. He accepts it knowing it will not be easy, but that if he is to be the inspiration to humanity, he need to be a paragon of human kindness, compassion, forgiveness - y'know all that stuff in the Bible and what not that the film oh-so subtly presented to us with symbolic imagery.



Metropolis is on the mend, people debate about it, the death toll was high but limited. Superman saved those he could. Now we have a hopeful ending, one that says "bad things happen" but we can rebuilt, we can overcome and now we have a true hero for truth, justice, all that stuff. 

And that is the story arc Clark has, he is as powerful as a God but he knows he needs to be an inspiration and a symbol of hope. His story up until now the one we saw in the movie, has not been an easy one but it has let him to become: Superman.

Top 5 Things I Love About Man Of Steel

As those of you who follow me on Twitter will be aware. I was not a fan of Man of Steel, in fact I was screaming betrayal at the top of my lungs and proceeded to get very drunk straight afterwards... and drunk-buy video games from Gamestop too. However, in an effort to try and come to terms with an adaptation of Superman that I really, really wanted to enjoy but felt it missed the mark, quite dramatically so with the ending, I am going to do two lists, this week is the Top 5 Things I Love About Man of Steel. This is because there are very good parts to the film, but next week will be the Top 5 Things I Hate About Man of Steel.

Obviously SPOILERS AHEAD FOR MAN OF STEEL, so don't read any further if you haven't seen it yet.

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Okay? We good. Let's begin with something easy...


1. THE SOUNDTRACK

Starting with something easy, The Soundtrack to Man of Steel is excellent. Hans Zimmer brings the epic quality he had in his work on The Dark Knight trilogy to this movie and perhaps does an even better job. With Batman the soundtrack was as epic and great but at times a little repetitive. Now if there's anything about Superman I can say that I really enjoy, it's that despite all these powers Superman in general is one of the more subtle and harder to understand. As I've said before, he's not someone to be related to, but looked up to - to aspire to be like. This soundtrack truly captures this feeling, of a man alone, with the weight of the world on his shoulders but rising above all that, above the petty wars of humanity but never to a height we can't reach ourselves. The soundtrack feels very human at times, like for example in "What Will You Do When You're Not Saving The World" a track remixed for the trailer. When the piano parts play and we get this really soft melody that grows, adds drums, adds strings and grows triumphant until we truly get the feeling that this is the rise of the hero, not just any man, but a Superman as he bursts onto the scene for an adventure. The theme for Zod is bombastic and dangerous but never feels campy. As with the main theme there will always be inevitable comparisons to John Williams's amazing work on the original movie. Zod's theme in that was perhaps a bit better and more terrifying but also more fitting for a Zod that felt more evil than "programmed this way" as the Zod in this movie is.

In the end the soundtrack had to change, even if Williams's soundtrack is my favourite of all time, Zimmer's is nothing to be scoffed at and helps establish this movie as truly it's own. This says Superman but it also says Clark Kent, it says Smallville, it says Metropolis and it says Krypton. It really says it all while being so subtle and doing something inherently of it's own that it doesn't even require comparisons to Williams's work because they're both very fitting for their versions of Superman. I've seen for example versions of the Man of Steel trailer with the Williams music, it works and shows you the tremendous power that score has but the Zimmer score is a better fit for the story they're trying to tell, one with less mystery to Krypton and more of a journey for Clark Kent to become Superman.


2. SUPERMAN VS. ZOD

While I didn't like the way the fight ends and the overt destruction porn element of it all. This fight sequence is absolutely fantastic, really hard hitting, edge of your seat kind of stuff. This is the kind of fight that Superman II wishes it had. While I do enjoy watching that it feels a little dated. This fight is even better than the last 45 minutes of The Avengers for me with the Battle of Metropolis feeling more focused and far more personal for Superman as he fights his nemesis than The Avengers fighting in the Battle of New York against a bunch of nameless faceless forces before Hulk shows off just how much of a "puny God" Loki really is. They're using their powers to their fullest, punching, flying slamming at full speed, picking up objects and hitting each other, melting said objects with heat vision; you really feel like this is a battle for the ages, two titans clashing in the skies above a city as Superman and Zod duke it out for the fate of the world, finally capturing what a superhero fight sequence this epic should look like in live action like it's never been done before outside of comics and animation.


3. AESTHETICS - COSTUME, KRYPTON & MORE

Rather like with the soundtrack, while I really enjoyed the way Donner made Krypton look and the fact that to this day I still don't think Christopher Reeve in his blue skin tight spandex and red underpants looks even remotely silly, he pulls it off; this movie excels in the production design from the costume to Krypton everything looks fantastic and the visual aesthetic of the movie is gorgeous. It's a beautiful movie and really shows off everything that a realistic, but still comic book based movie should look like. I'd liken this to the 1989 Batman's aesthetic. While I never disliked The Dark Knight's style, I always felt it was a little too... plain and real. In Batman Begins it looked very nice seeing the scummy underworld but as the movies progressed they became less stylised and more "crime drama realism" which while it showed the effect Batman had on his city it also showed Gotham as just any other city, there was nothing unique about it. The Tim Burton movies had this overt cold gothic feel to Gotham City that made the city feel like it was a character of it's own. The same can be said for how Metropolis looks and feels, how Krypton looks and feels and how Superman looks in that chain-mail esque suit of his. It's real, it feels tangible but still stylised beautifully. Look at Zod's Kryptonian battle armour in this clip here, it looks functional yet stylised it looks awesome and epic, comic book, yet real, it feels fantastic.


4. THE CASTING & CHARACTERS

Henry Cavill nails it. No-one can ever replace Christopher Reeve in the red and blue suit but Cavill does his own thing and looks the part. He looks like Superman through and through and he plays the role fantastically. And he's not the only one from Amy Adams as a much smarter and more interested adaptation of Lois Lane,  who like pulitzer prize winning journalist that she is, figures out who Superman is long before anyone else does, a realistic and dramatically different take to the norm but very believable. Especially the way she's played by Adams. Michael Shannon screams and rages a lot, he's Zod alright, that over the top character once made famous by Stamp, sadly never saying "kneel" not even once, but every bit the over the top aggressive mad man. But this one is very believable and somewhat empathetic. He's a product of the broken Kryptonian Caste system and Shannon portrays him as such, he sees nothing wrong with what he's doing as it is what he was born to do, literally as that's how people are made on Krypton, not via natural birth as Kal-El is conceived at the start of the movie but as perfect members of society, told how they will act, why they will act this way and their entire lives planned out into utter stagnation from there on out. Perry White played by Lawrence Fishburne feels like the character, he's tough, he's funny and he isn't taking any shit from Lois because he knows better. The casting is great, and while I was overall disappointed with this movie as you'll find out next week, the cast and their portrayals in general, especially Cavill as Superman make me want to see what they'll do in a sequel.


5. YOU THINK YOU CAN THREATEN MY MOTHER?

This single scene made the list because it's incredible. But more than that it shows who Superman really is, he's not the Man of Steel, he's not Kal-El of Krypton, he's Clark Kent, he was raised by Jonathan and Martha Kent on Earth in Kansas, as the line goes at the end of the movie "I've lived here for 30 years, I'm from Kansas, General, I'm about as American as it gets." Like the scene later in the movie where Jonathan sees his son with the cape as a child, and that gorgeous piano music plays, signifying that Jonathan knows who Clark really is, who is he desitined to be, the protector of Earth and his son. This scene shows how Clark truly cares about the people of Earth and how he isn't going to take any shit from Zod or anyone else from Krypton. The moment Zod threatens Martha, Superman slams into him drags him through a cornfield and slams his fist into him over and over again, it's an awesome scene and really shows Clark's protectiveness of his family and that no-one not the military not even Zod would dare lay a finger on Martha for fear of unleashing all hell... that all too human side of Superman that will protect his own and will do the same for the whole Earth, maybe he's not there quite yet but he's doing what he can. It's a badass moment and easily my favourite scene in the film when it's followed up by Clark talking about how his parents taught him how to harness his powers properly, remembering that great scene in the school where his X-Ray vision and super-hearing kicks in and the young Clark realises the gravity of his existence on Earth. Martha helps her son to make the world small, make his mission small, one person at a time and in this moment this person is her. He saves her and punishes Zod severely.


So those are my top 5 things I loved about this movie... next week, I unleash my inner General Zod and rant about why overall I was disappointed in this.

The Man of (Dark & Edgy) Steel

Allow me to just point out I'm a huge Superman fan, despite my constant proclaims that "I'm Batman"... which I should add is not just a claim but fact, I am the knight... I am... not the point... anyway... Superman is and always has been my favourite hero, super or otherwise. I grew up watching the Christopher Reeve movies to the point that I'd credit the morals instilled in me by Superman to be partially responsible for what I'd say is often a high moral standard I set for myself. I watched the animated series as a kid and later Justice League when I was an adult, I watched Lois & Clark and I watched all ten seasons of Smallville.

People have often said the problem with Superman is that he's too powerful, so he's not relateable. I've never had that problem, not because I can fly or shoot fireballs from my eyes but because I don't relate to him, that's never been the point; I look up to him. Fictional character or no, Superman represents three things, Truth, Justice and the American Way. I'm a Greek-Cypriot born and raised in Britain so the whole "American Way" thing might sound stupid. But what that saying means it believe in freedom, liberty, choice, love and respect for each other. It doesn't mean "whoever can grab the most money they can" or "every man for himself", it doesn't mean "God is great" and it doesn't mean "our way or the highway" as the term American way has come to be twisted to be looked at. The "American Way" just simply represents the human way of life, the ideal that human beings are slowly working toward, something that's been around since before America, before Britain and even before my ancestors in Greece were creating the first democratic government.

So, what does this have to do with the upcoming blockbuster produced by Christopher Nolan, written by David S. Goyer and directed by Zack Snyder, "Man of Steel"?

Man of Steel is being produced and touted as a "Dark Superman". Now therein lies the problem, Superman as a character is not dark. What he represents is not "dark". The Dark Knight was a great film, and because it was "dark and edgy" it seems like everybody wants to jump on the "dark and edgy" bandwagon since it's success. As though making a film darker is the key to success, well sure for Batman that's part of the success, because Batman is a character who operates during the night, wears black, has a tragic back story of the death of his parents right in front of his face and deals with the constant idea of did he create half is own rogues gallery himself? Hell, he's even nicknamed "The DARK Knight". He is a dark character, he's also quite literally powerless, to the point that many debate if he's even a real superhero. (He is, but that's for another discussion all together).

Superman, is not dark. He wears the three primary colours brightly on his body, doesn't wear a mask and shows himself off to the world as a symbol to be looked up to. He proclaims that he stands for "Truth, Justice and the American Way" not "Crushing the criminal scum" like Batman does. Does this make Batman an evil character, no, of course not. But let's say for a minute you gave that eight year old year old Bruce Wayne the Super powers of Superman... He would have ripped Joe Chills arms off and beaten him to death with them before incinerating the body with heat vision and probably a few innocent bystanders by accident too. Batman despite his dark persona is only human and spent twenty odd years mastering to control his rage and aggression to the point that he had to swear to himself that in his vengeful crusade he would "never kill". Batman is a vengeful character, an aggressive dark knight who channels that aggression into crime fighting so that he can try and prevent others from ever having to endure what he did as a child.


Bruce Wayne constantly feels guilty for his inactions of the day of the death of his parents, he swears a vengeful crusade and as we've seen for example in "Batman Begins". He even attempts to shoot Joe Chill until someone else takes away that chance. He then swears that killing is not the option, he won't learn to kill, he'll learn to kick some major ass sure, but never to kill. He does believe in justice, the same way Superman does. But it took him ten of those twenty years to realise this and once again later in that movie, Bruce is given the choice by Liam Neeson's Henri Ducard/Ra's Al Ghul to kill a murderer and exact "justice". He denies this chance and burns the mountain-top fortress to the ground. His dark and tragic past is a part of who he is, he wears black, he's a dark character. But that's all part of The Batman; that's who he is.

But Petros, Superman has a tragic back story too, his parents died when a whole planet blew up... True. But baby Kal-El first of all doesn't even remember them. Hell, in some versions he wasn't even born yet when he was sent to Earth (don't ask it's kinda icky). In most versions, Superman doesn't even learn he's from another planet until he's in his teenage years, hell there was a whole ten year television series about the journey from Clark Kent the boy who knew nothing about his ancestry to becoming Superman in Smallville. Superman was raised a human, he never refers to himself as Kal-El, he is Clark Kent, born and raised by Jonathan and Martha Kent, two farmers living in Smallville, Kansas. He was instilled by good-natured if a little naiive foster parents, to be truthful, respectful and to respect the human way. He grew up with those ideals, those ideals of being a good person, and he became a shining beacon of light known as "Superman". No-where is this better illustrated than at the end of John Byrne's 1985 Comic book series that rebooted the character (correctly), the probably at this point ironically named "Man of Steel". As seen on the right here...

"It was Krypton that made me Superman, but it is the Earth that makes me human!!"

That is Superman's declarative statement, that despite all his powers, he thinks of himself as one of us. And even though he has been raised as a human being he is not one of us. But he does represent that human ideal to look up to. He's got some tragedy in his life but it doesn't consume him, it's not what drives him to be a hero. In fact Superman isn't just a superhero, he's THE superhero, the original; he's the man that stands out first, who stands up as a beacon of hope that big S on his chest is as much as symbol of hope as the Batman-Signal in the sky. But the Bat-Signal is a symbol of fear and dread, a warning to criminals that the Dark Knight is out on patrol; and you'd better play nice or he's gonna get you. There's no Superman symbol to make criminals afraid because he's not a symbol of fear, he's as symbol of hope. He flies into the sky and makes people look up at him and say "everything is going to be alright" and "when I grow up I wanna be just like him".

Superman is not Dark, leave that to Batman. And y'know what, even Bats himself says that he's glad Superman is as goody-two-shoes as he is. To Superman it doesn't even occur to him that he is a God, he sees himself as one of us, as stated before. To quote Batman himself...


"It is a remarkable dichotomy. In many ways, Clark is the most human of us all. Then... he shoots fire from the skies, and it is difficult not to think of him as a god. And how fortunate we all are that it does not occur to him..."

He is good and decent, and he doesn't lose control. He'll fight, he'll kick ass and he controls his abilities to much that you'd better not get on his bad side or he could lose control and then you'll see what happens...

...Yeah that was pretty awesome. But it wasn't Dark Superman. It was good Superman pushed to the edge and only beating Darkseid to a pulp because he knew that Darkseid could take it. He doesn't kill, he still stands for all he normally stands for. This is the Superman we all know, this is what Superman represents. To turn Superman "dark" for the sake of it flies in the face of the character. You make Superman dark and he's not Superman any more, go and do a new original character. Can his stories be dark, sure but is the character dark, absolutely not.

This all being said, will Man of Steel suck as it seems I am predicting. Maybe, maybe not, maybe the "dark superman" thing is just a way to get people into the theatres. Everything I've been shown indicates that are making the Big Blue Boy Scout the Big Midnight-Blue Boy Scout. I more than anyone will be happy if it's a great film, believe me and I am not going into the film intending to hate it but I just hope it does not fly in the face of what Superman is. It'd be like making James Bond an American (has been done once by the way... ugh) he's British, that's who the character is, it flies in the face of who Bond is, what he represents. Superman is good natured, he's a good person, he's not dark or else the character makes no sense for starters and wouldn't even be Superman any more. He's truth, justice and the american way, not truth, justice and VENGNEAAANCCEEE!!!

Point is: Superman is not dark, don't make him so as that's not who the character is; that's someone else.

Anyway... rant over...