This is a bit of a correction to my earlier piece about Zack Snyder. Not that I think I was inaccurate in anything I said there, but I do think it was a bit unfair of me to put all the problems with Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (pronounced buvvis-doge, I think?) on the shoulders of the director. The auteur theory of film criticism is a deeply flawed one, after all. And in addition to…
For me, ain’t never been an fandom fight quite like that over Man of Steel; I’m honestly kinda nostalgic for it, as much as my first act with a time machine would be erasing the damn thing. I remember someone saying the problem with that movie wasn’t even that Superman and Zod were throwing each other through buildings, as spectacularly dumb as that looked; it was that Superman was not then immediately flying around the buildings, repairing I-Beams with his eyes, scooping up people left and right, and most importantly, looking like he gave a shit about anything other than punching Michael Shannon. Even in BvS, when he saves people, his eyes are dead, and their reaction to him is less grace than prostration; it’s genuinely upsetting.
What both director and writer are missing is that it’s not enough for people to love Superman; Superman has to love, and want to be loved.
I think what so many people missed about Man of Steel is that it was literally the first time Superman dons the suit. He doesn’t have the “world made of cardboard” mentality that he carries in his later years where he does anything in his power to take the fight away from the general populace. His fight with Zod went the way it did because it was setting up the repercussions Superman would receive in Batman v Superman:Dawn of Justice: the public’s hate and admiration, Batman/Bruce Wayne’s anger over so many of his employees becoming casualties because of the fight,and the US government holding Superman personally responsible over his actions. He is still very much a young superhero,having only been officially Superman for what I believe to be 2 years max as opposed to the Batman who in this universe is already an aged and experienced veteran of crime-fighting and knows how to properly handle situations.
Batman’s role in the movie was to be the person who stands up to this God-like creature and put him in check. And he does,and Superman learns. When he fights Doomsday,they fight on Stryker Island, a place of little to no populace so that they could contain Doomsday destructiveness and Superman’s powers. What Zack Synder is trying to do is set up a single cohesive cinematic universe,and BatmanvSuperman wasn’t just a Superhero Title fight, it was a movie that, above all else, sets the stage for whats to come with The Flash,Cyborg,Wonder Woman,and Aquaman. I’ll admit,the pacing was a bit quick but all the quick and small scenes were shot for a reason(Bruce Wayne’s dreams where he see’s the beast in his mothers crypt,Batman living in a dystopian like world where Superman is in charge*FLASHPOINT STORYLINE*,and The Flash running back in the time stream into his consciousness saying he was right and that it’s up Batman to find them and assemble them).
Superman throughout both films is constantly fighting with himself over what he wants to do: Help these people or leave them be because they only ever criticize him,even when he saves lives. But like his mother said, “He doesn’t owe the world a damn thing”.And in the end,he finally is loved and respected,but it took his “death” to make people realize he was on their side the entire time, trying to do the right thing even though the public was split on whether to love or hate him.
But Clark does save people earlier in Man of Steel, on the bus and on the oil rig. Only when he dons the suit does this connection to individuals rescued go away. Like I said, even when he saves people in BvS, it’s presented as a burden for him, and there’s no emotional link to those he’s saving.
Why is this? Because Goyer and Snyder think saving individuals is just a larval stage for what matters to them about Superman: being “like a god” to us puny mortals. As soon as that line was played straight, I knew what kind of movie I was in for. Same with the worst Jesus imagery ever: crucifix pose in space srsly
That’s why “you don’t owe this world a damn thing” misses the point. As Attewell notes, it’s Earth that took him in and taught him right and wrong. Being hated by the crowd is Spider-Man’s schtick; it does not work with Superman’s story at all.
That they set the big BvS fight in an unpopulated area shows they missed the point entirely. That just removed any possible engagement, rendering the showdown nothing but Titans smashing into one another. Sound and fury, signifying nothing.
And again as Attewell notes, having Superman kill to learn killing is wrong isn’t a powerful deconstruction. It’s a dumb, unpleasant shortcut. It doesn’t establish the character, it changes him, and much for the worse.
Also, I call huge BS on the “little to no populace” thing. Snyder and Goyer can have people say over and over again that no one’s living in downtown after 5pm, that doesn’t make it true. Are there fewer people in NYC’s Financial District (to make a direct comparison) after business hours? Sure. Are there zero? HELL NO. The Financial District has restaurants, bars, apartments, etc. because it’s a real neighborhood in a real city and not a set of building blocks to be knocked down for make-believe.
What Snyder and Goyer showed with that move is that they want to have it both ways – they want to do their urban destruction porn, but they don’t want to deal with the consequences of that urban destruction, and they get hugely defensive when people critique or analyze what they’re doing.
RFTIT Tumblr Backup 