The DCEU Discussion – Part III: Man of Steel
- Luke Evans
- Jan 7, 2021
- 26 min read
Updated: Feb 1, 2021
To start with, something I said at the start of Part II:
I am actually a big Superman fan. While I lean toward Marvel for ongoing series reading, I have loved Superman since the first days I picked up a comic. My first comics were black and white ‘70s and ‘80s Superman and Batman comics.
I do love these characters so much. When I can, I will put up my articles on the Importance of Comics and you’ll see how much Superman means to me in there. So what comes next in these series on the DCEU, is said with love from the heart and soul of a life-long fan…
-Pic: Empireonline.com
Vid: - Superman 75th Anniversary Animated Short - I love this tribute to the various incarnations of the Man of Steel over the years.
Warning: SPOILER heavy article to follow!!!
BACKGROUND: My Thoughts on the Worlds That Came Before:
I actually liked this movie and was so keen for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice to follow it.
It was the last DCEU film I had high hopes for. I learned to reduce my expectations significantly after that.
Anyway, Man of Steel draws a lot of hate. I’m not on that bus. I loved it. I did, however, find some things very troubling as a Superman fan and that made it hard for me.
BUT overall, I loved it. I was so grateful that, for the first time, they had treated the cinematic Superman with respect and seriousness. If I had any objection to the ‘70s and ‘80s films, it was that they did not take the subject matter seriously enough. Lex Luthor was played for laughs - almost all of the time. What did I say in Part II? "He was a cheesy maniacal villain who had ridiculous plans and bumbling sidekicks and we never really got to see a good motivation for what he did". Yep. I couldn't agree with myself more on that one...
And, as I admitted in Part II, I might need to rewatch them too, to be fair…
Anyway - I liked the '70s and '80s films as a kid, but I find them corny as an adult. There were aspects I liked, but they just don’t hold up for me.
Some examples from the old movies:
* Superman I - Reversing the spin of the Earth to turn back time?? Whaaaaaaat?
* Superman I - Blowing the San Andreas Faultline to separate the West Coast of the US from the mainland to in some sort of maniacal real estate plan?
* Superman Returns (2006) - Building an island continent of Kryptonite where the USA used to be?
- Vid: Superman Returns - Wrong!
***
For heaps of other vids on Lex Luthor and the problems I have with THAT character, please see:
The DCEU Discussion – Part II: Lex Luthor.
I initially had it as a part of this article and the next one, but it was too big and in the way, so I gave it its own piece.
***
Okay... that's my thoughts on the various portrayals of the Man of Steel that came before now, onward to:
The DCEU Man of Steel Film:
-Pic: CNET.com
The film opens with a strong reinterpretation of the last day of Krypton, setting up why and how Jor-El and Lara sent the baby Superman (Kal-El) to Earth and how General Zod tried to take over the government in a failed coup before the end came. He and Jor-El were colleagues who disagreed on how to approach the problem of Krypton’s destruction, which occurs due to their over-use of the natural resources of the world, not due to the implosion of their red sun, as in other versions. It's a good take on it. Zod kills Jor-El but his coup is foiled and he is sealed in a pod with some of his lieutenants before the planet blows up. The pods containing the renegades and another ship carrying baby Kal-El both escape the planet’s destruction. The rebel pods were all put on board a larger vessel that houses a Phantom Zone Drive and this vessel in turn appears to be sent into the sort of empty dimension they call the Phantom Zone.
All awesome.
We cut to a Kal-El in primary school, living as Clark Kent, and through a series of scenes the young Clark, a teenage version and an adult Clark discover and use their powers, using them where they can to save people while remaining anonymous.
And we have reached the first of my issues with this film.
In the comics and most other media, Superman is usually the pure-hearted All-American hero. He has arguably one of the better moral compasses in DC’s canon. In the Man of Steel film, he wasn’t taught the same morality by his foster-father, Jonathan Kent, as he was in the comics. Originally, the wholesome ideals of the Kents and their teachings were the reasons for Clark turning out to be so pure-hearted himself – he was taught to value human life and to preserve it at all costs. He was taught to keep his powers hidden, to protect his identity, but not to let others suffer for it.
Man of Steel’s Jonathan Kent did not teach his son these morals. In fact, he taught Clark to keep his identity secret even if it might mean that others were not saved – including Jonathan himself. Later in the film, Jonathan sacrifices himself to keep Clark’s secret – which was totally unnecessary, since Clark could’ve saved him without anyone seeing him or knowing who he was. Jonathan died for nothing. Clark, at the start of the film, is helping others, but he’s not above taking some petty revenge on bullies either when he trashes a truckie’s rig for challenging him and throwing a beer in Clark’s face after Clark came to a young waitress’ defense. And jumping right ahead, in the film’s conclusion, Clark kills his nemesis, General Zod, when he couldn’t find another way to stop him from hurting people. I understood why they did this, but I feel like they could’ve and should've found another way. He's Superman and he didn't seem to expend all options first.
I do like that this was a darker, more serious take on Superman. It’s what I always wanted – someone to take the character seriously. But I never wanted them to lose sight of why he is special in the first place.
Anyway, back to the right spot: the teenage Clark is seen by his schoolmates to save them when their bus goes into a river. Somehow, I guess they kept the story hush-hush, but one of the parents confronts the Kents about why he can do what he can do. This exchange between Jonathan and Clark follows:
Clark: I just wanted to help. Jonathan: I know you did, but we talked about this. Right? Right? We talked about this. You have… Clark, you have to keep this side of yourself a secret. C: What was I supposed to do? Let them die? J: Maybe. There’s more at stake here then just our lives, Clark, or the lives of those around us. When the world… when the world finds out what you can do its gonna change everything. Our… Our beliefs. Our notions of what… what it means to be human. Everything. You saw how Pete’s Mum reacted, right? She was scared, Clark. C: Why? J: People are afraid of what they don’t understand. C: Is she right? Did God do this to me? Tell me! Jonathan takes him to see his spaceship for the first time. J: We found you in this. We were sure the government was gonna show up on our doorstep, but no one ever came. He shows Clark the Kryptonian key. J: This was in the chamber with you. We took it to a metallurgist over at Kansas State. He said whatever it was made from didn’t even exist on the Periodic Table. That’s another way of saying that it’s not from this world, Clark. And neither are you. You are the answer, son. You’re the answer to “are we alone in the universe?” C: I don’t wanna be! J: And I don’t blame you, son. It’d be a huge burden for anyone to bear. But you’re not just anyone, Clark, and I have to believe that you were… that you were sent here for a reason. All these changes that you’re going through, one day… One day you’re gonna think of them as a blessing. And when that day comes, you’re gonna have to make a choice. A choice of whether to stand proud in front of the human race or not. C: Can’t I just keep pretending that I’m your son? J: You are my son! But somewhere out there you… you have another father too, who gave you another name… and he sent you here for a reason, Clark. And even if it takes you the rest of your life, you’ll owe it to yourself to find out what that reason is.
What the hell is that?!?!
It seems to be mostly geared towards the possibility that one day he might discover why his real father sent him to Earth and – guess what – he does!! Plus Jonathan seems to think that the world discovering the existence of Clark would be a complete world changer... But would it really? So much so that he had to hide who he was more than any other version of Clark has ever had to hide?
In time, the adult Clark finds that the military has discovered the location of an old Kryptonian scout ship that had crash-landed on Earth 18,000 years ago during a Kryptonian period of expansion. Clark uses the key from his own rocket ship to access the scout ship’s controls and – thank God – the interface didn’t change in 18,000 years! The key still works. The scout ship is reactivated and the key brings a simulacrum of Jor-El back to “life” to educate Clark on who he really is, why he was sent and what he can do – just as Jonathan predicted!
What luck…
Jor-El tells Clark about his past and his people, about Krypton and their demise.
He gives Clark a version of the super-suit as he speaks and Clark puts it on and tests his powers out with some jumping, gliding, and eventually flying as the speech below concludes:
Jor-El: You’re as much a child of Earth now as you are of Krypton. You can embody the best of both worlds. A dream your mother and I dedicated our lives to preserve. The people of Earth are different from us, it’s true. But ultimately, I believe that’s a good thing. They won’t necessarily make the same mistakes we did. Not if you guide them, Kal. Not if you give them hope. That’s what this symbol means. The symbol of the House of El means “hope”. Embodied within that hope is the fundamental belief in the potential of every person to be a force for good. That’s what you can bring them… …Earth’s sun is younger and brighter than Krypton’s was. Your cells have drunk in its radiation, strengthening your muscles, your skin, your senses. Earth’s gravity is weaker, yet its atmosphere more nourishing. You’ve grown stronger here than I ever could have imagined. The only way to know how strong is to keep testing your limits... … You will give the people of Earth an ideal to strive towards. They’ll race behind you. They will stumble. They will fall. But in time, they with join you in the sun, Kal. In time, you will help them accomplish wonders.
I guess between them, they achieve what Jonathan and Martha Kent achieved by themselves in the comics and in Smallville – they teach him to be a symbol for hope. Mostly, though, in this version, it’s Jor-El that prompts him to be a gift for the world, while Jonathan gets him to hide until he's ready, sometimes at the expense of others’ lives, including his own.
Another change in this version is that Lois Lane is on to him from the start. They don’t establish the fake reporter persona of Clark until the end of the film. Lois meets him while she is investigating what the military had found buried in the ice (the scout ship) and she is there when Clark himself finds the scout ship. He rescues her from the ship’s security drone and she is injured. She sees him use his heat vision and super-strength. She doesn’t know who he is though and so – for the first time in the history of the character that I can remember seeing – Lois Lane, the world-class reporter actually works out who he is by DOING HER JOB which she has always supposedly been very good at… and she investigates him. She quickly finds other stories of mysterious rescues, which lead her back to Smallville and Martha Kent.
I’ll stop for a sec to say that this movie is when the teenager still living inside me died… Since I first saw her alongside Christopher Lambert in Knight Moves in 1992, Diane Lane has been one of the actresses I have thought were stunning… and now she’s Ma Kent… Moving on…
Actually, it’s as good a time as any to stop and say I do love the cast. They are all brilliant. I’m not a massive fan of Amy Adams’ Lois Lane, but she did very well at finally giving us a believable version of this supposedly smart character who just never worked this out before. I loved Henry Cavill as Superman, Lawrence Fishbourne as Perry White, Russell Crowe as Jor-El, Ayelet Zurer as Lara… I love Kevin Kostner, so his acting was great – but what they gave him to do was not. And… I guess… Diane Lane was a... pretty good... Ma Kent, too… Sigh…
Anyway, back to the story: Lois goes back to work and tries to get the story printed. Perry White, Editor of the Daily Planet, refuses. She gets someone else to put it up online instead, behind Perry's back. Lois finds Clark’s Mum and waits for him to come to her, which he does. As part of their discussion, she asks why Clark hides who he is and he says:
Clark: My father believed that if the world found out who I really was, they’d reject me out of fear.
That’s not the Jonathan Kent I love. Smallville’s version played by John Schneider is my favourite version.
Yep... Now that's a Jonathan Kent!!
He taught his Clark what it was to be a good person and that as a powerful person, he had a responsibility to help those that he could. Not this movie's version...
Sigh... Back into it:
We flash back to Clark having a “You’re not my real dad!” argument with Jonathan, saying that he feels like he could do more to help people and Jonathan asking if farming and feeding people wasn’t something that Clark considered to be “helping people”. Their argument is cut short when a tornado suddenly hits right in front of them! Jonathan guides a lot of people to safety and then in what is probably the most ridiculous death scene in DCEU films (and that is saying something... I have seen Suicide Squad...), they realise that the family dog is still in the car. Clark offers to go back. Jonathan says no, telling Clark to get his Mum to safety… and Jonathan goes back for the dog himself.
Why not send your invulnerable and super-powered son back into harm's way and take your wife the last few remaining steps to safety yourself???
That's a bloody good question...
Since he never asked it, Jonathan gets injured and stuck in the twister. Clark goes to save him and Jonathan holds up a hand to stop him.
And he dies.
What the actual hell?
Coming back to the present, Clark tells Lois:
Clark: I let my father die, because he was convinced that I had to wait. That the world was not ready.
Whaaaaaaaaat????
While not even remotely close to the stupidest thing I have seen in a Superman movie, I just can’t get my mind around... Why?
Wwwwhhhhhhhhyyyy?
Sigh….
So... When Lois gets back to work and tells Perry she is letting go of the story about her alien saviour, Perry already knows that she has had someone else drop it online and he's angry. It gets her suspended, but Perry is happy that she had decided to let it go anyway, not knowing that she had actually found Clark and his family. Lois asks why he's happy and he says:
Perry: Can you imagine how people on this planet would react if they knew there was someone like this out there?
Yes, I can, Perry... and I think we could handle it... Most people wouldn't believe it anyway. Hell, some of us don't even think the world is round... well, round-ish...
Anyway, apparently, Perry has the same opinion as Jonathan Kent (and obviously the creators of the film) that people knowing about a superhuman alien on Earth would bring everything undone...
Clark goes to visit his Mum and they have a little chat about him finding out about his parents and his people. They discuss what her fear was when he was younger. Martha tells us an important snippet of info – when he was a baby he had trouble breathing. That will come up later.
Clark thought his Mum’s fear was that the truth about him would come out. She said, no, she was worried the world would take him away from her.
She was probably right. After all, she found the kid in a field and didn't tell anybody. Crazy, crazy lady...
Peaceful farm time is over, though, because Zod arrives and puts out a worldwide demand that the people of the Earth give Kal-El to him within 24 hrs or there will be consequences.
Clark goes off to think about everything in a church and we have a flashback to the teenaged Clark resisting retaliation against a bully. Jonathan asked him if he’s all right and when Clark tells him he wanted to hit the bully so bad, Jonathan says:
Jonathan: I know you did. I mean, part of me even wanted you to, but then what? Make you feel any better? You just have to decide what kind of man you want to grow up to be, Clark, because whoever that man is, good character or bad, he’s… he’s gonna change the world.
There's the difference between Smallville's Pa Kent and the Man of Steel's Pa Kent right there - Smallville's version of Jonathan knows he has raised a kid to be a good man. Man of Steel's Jonathan is giving the kid the choice to be good or bad... and that's some pretty shitty parenting, right there. Had he made sure the kid would be good, we'd probably be a lot more comfortable with the DCEU in the present... and he'd still be alive, to boot... Raising a morally ambiguous indestructible superhuman is not a good idea, Jonathan... Lucky it turned out okay.
Jumping back to the plot... er... again... In the present, Clark talks to the young priest in the Church about deciding whether to trust Zod or the people of Earth. He’s not sure whether he can trust either. The priest looks at Clark in a sort of religious wonder, but he listens and when Clark goes to leave, he says:
Priest: Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith first. The trust part comes later.
Taking this advice to heart, Clark puts on his super-suit and turns himself in to the army. (I love the super-suit, by the way. It’s cool and looks good on him!)
-Pic: DC.Fandom.com
The army hands Clark over to Zod after a brief opportunity for Lois to chat to him. The Kryptonian rebel Faora comes to retrieve him and take him and Lois to Zod. Zod politely greets him and then it becomes clear that the atmosphere of the ship is difficult for Clark to breathe. Clark passes out and sees Zod in a sort of dream world, where they are both wearing the black Kryptonian versions of their family suits (Superman's is the same in design in the real world, except it's coloured. The Kryptonians seem to wear the same stuff but only in dark colours). Zod tells him that they were sentenced to the Phantom Zone in the pods on a vessel. When the planet blew up, they were released. They used the Phantom Zone Drive to make their ship work and went to old Kryptonian outposts, salvaging what they could, until Clark activated the scout ship and it sent a beacon out to them.
Zod tells Clark that his father stole a registry of all of the genetic templates of Kryptonians yet to be born called the Codex and hid it on Clark’s capsule. We saw this at the start… I skipped that bit. Zod wants to terraform the Earth and use the Kryptonian Codex and birthing chambers on their ships to bring back the Kryptonian race on Earth. When it becomes apparent that Zod and Joe'El weren't friends, Clark asks him if he killed his father and Zod admits that he did.
Clark had given Lois the control key from his ship and while she was being held by Zod’s goons, she puts it into Zod's ship. The simulacrum of Jor-El appears and helps Lois escape, teaching her how to manipulate the Kryptonian tech to send the rebels back to the Phantom Zone. Clark saves Lois (predictably) and while that’s happening, Zod and the Kryptonian rebels go to the Kent farm for the original shuttle. They threaten Martha and find the shuttle, but the Codex isn’t in there. Clark swoops in and smashes Zod for threatening his mother. In the scuffle, Zod’s helmet breaks and he suddenly gets all of the stimulus from Earth all at once as his super-senses kick it. Clark tells him that his parents taught him how to focus and how to see and hear only what he wanted to. He says that without learning to do that, the powers are too much and hurt. Before Clark can press his advantage, Faora and another giant Kryptonian - who is a possible reference to Non in Superman II, I believe - come to attack him. Zod, Faora and Non are the only three Kryptonian rebels in that movie and Non is huge.
Back in Man of Steel, though: the military intervenes in the fight, attacking all of the Kryptonians. They still see Clark as a threat. In the fight, I like that Clark can’t compete with the rebels. He is not a trained fighter and is used to pulling his punches while he has lived on Earth and so, while he holds his own, they take him down pretty quickly, both one-on-one and together.
An actor that I haven’t mentioned so far is Christopher Meloni as Colonel Nathan Hardy, who we find out is callsigned as “Guardian”, which is a reference to a few great DC characters. Meloni is as good as he always is throughout the film. He is initially not a fan of Lois' as she investigates the scout ship project, but when Zod asks for Kal-El and Lois to be surrendered to him, Guardian refuses to let one of their own go. Lois is the one who says it's okay. While distrusting Clark at first he, along with his team of troops, is the one to realise Clark is on humanity’s side in the battle. Faora goes to kill Colonel Hardy and he stands his ground, preparing to engage the super-human in a final knife-fight. She tells Hardy:
Faora: "A good death is its own reward”. As Faora and Hardy each go to attack when Clark swoops in and saves him.
The CGI is pretty heavy through all this and while there is a seamless transition from live-action to CGI, the CGI itself isn’t flawless. Still, you expect a bit of that in a film where we are dealing with people doing things that people can’t actually do!! I think it holds up enough that it's not an issue in this film - I do think they're a bit heavy on it in the other DCEU films. Batman's movements are CGI a lot of times in the next film and that doesn't always work for me.
Anyway, back in the fight, Faora’s helmet is broken and like Zod, she experiences the stimulus from the world around her painfully with her super-senses. Faora is wounded when the military bombs them. The big rebel grabs her and retreats from the battlefield. This leaves Clark with the soldiers, all of whom start by pointing their guns at him. One by one they lower their weapons, when they see he's not a threat. Guardian is the last one to the scene and even though most of the men have lowered their weapons he has a moment of self-realisation out loud:
Guardian: This man is not our enemy
He gets points for arriving at the party, even if he's late... It’s a melodramatic moment, but still cool.
Zod and co return to their ship, where their scientist, Jax-Ur, tells them he has found the Codex. Jor-El had taken the Codex and bonded the DNA information of all Kryptonians to the baby Kal-El’s cells. So Clark is the living Codex. They realise that they don’t need to have Clark alive to extract the DNA from him and so Zod commands the rebels to release the Kryptonian terraforming World Engine, which they had salvaged from one of the abandoned Kryptonian outposts. Putting their ship in Metropolis and the terraforming World Engine on the opposite side of the world in the Indian Ocean, they connect through the Earth’s core and begin increasing the mass of the Earth and changing the composition of the atmosphere – turning the Earth into a New Krypton.
It’s a solid premise. No problems from me… except that it wouldn’t work, of course!! Anyway…
One of the soldiers calls through to say that Colonel Hardy is coming in with “Superman in tow”. The General says, “Superman?” and the soldier on the phone says, “The alien, sir. That’s what they’re calling him. Superman.”
And so he becomes.
The newly branded Superman goes to stop the world engine, while Zod goes to the scout ship that Clark found earlier in the movie and uses a new command key to take control of the ship and its birthing chambers. Zod begins to master the noise and extra stimulus from his powers but it still hurts him. He confronts the simulacrum of Jor-El who is still active in the scout ship. Jor-El tries to convince Zod to stop. Zod purges the Jor-El program from the Scout ship’s computers, effectively killing Jor-El again.
Meanwhile Clark destroys the World Engine, taking heavy damage in the process. There’s a brief scene with Clark reaching out into the sunlight, presumably quickly recharging his cells. Lois, Guardian and Dr. Hamilton (played by the always amazing Richard Schiff) prep Clark’s spaceship to destroy the Phantom Zone Ship. The idea is that Joe-El told Lois that Clark’s spaceship that brought him to Earth is powered by a Phantom Drive that warps space. Jor-El told her that if they activate the Phantom Drive and crash it into the rebels’ own Phantom Drive, it will destroy the ship.
Zod flies the scout ship to intercept Guardian’s plane before it reaches the rebels ship. Superman arrives on the scene and crashes into the scout ship. Zod tells him that if he destroys the scout ship and the birthing chamber, he will destroy Krypton. Superman replies:
Superman: Krypton had its chance!
... and he damages the ship, causing it to crash – in a way that would have killed heaps of humans in buildings and on the ground. This is something we'll get to later.
Faora boards Guardian’s plane and starts taking people out. Lois and Hamilton activate Clark’s spaceship’s Phantom Drive using his original command key (I’m not sure how she still has that). Guardian points the plane at the alien ship and tells Faora her own words:
Guardian: A good death is its own reward.
He crashes the plane into the rebels’ ship. In the initial blast when the two Phantom Drives start to connect, Lois is thrown out the open back of the plane – of course.
Everyone else dies.
Clark catches Lois.
I want to stop for a brief sec for two points. The first is - Clark is always catching Lois in these movies. I don't know how he can single her scream out from all the other screams in the world, but no matter where she falls, he is suddenly there to catch her. Other times, using that incredible super-speed would help him and he doesn't do it, but whenever she's thrown off or out of something, he will be there - No matter how far apart they are when it happens. And it generally involves other people dying before he gets there to save just her. It actually factors into Batman v Superman as a plot point, so I'm glad they did address it in some way... Moving on...
Point 2: My daughter came in during that scene. She’s a huge comics fan, watches the cartoons and the Arrowverse shows, but hasn’t seen the start of the DCEU, mostly because I said it was crap... I may have been too harsh. No, it was also because she was too young when she started watching the MCU movies and these were darker toned and more inherently violent... plus I didn't like BvS and forgot about this one. Anyway... Before Faora attacked, she asked me if anyone on the plane dies. I said, "No – because that’s Lois Lane”. It turns out I was wrong… I forgot what happened next! BUT my daughter said, “Uh, she doesn’t look like Lois Lane to me.”
I said, “That’s it!” I wrote down earlier that I didn’t really like Amy Adams’ Lois and I couldn’t think of why exactly… and that’s it… she just never “looks like Lois Lane”… She’s just not what we come to expect from a “Lois”. It sounds silly, but she just isn’t what I expect from Lois Lane. (In fact, she’s smarter, since she is the only version who works out who he is straight away!). Perhaps it's the Margot Kidder effect. Many versions since hers seem to be based on her looks to a degree.
I don't care... that's what I'm looking for.
-Pic: Made from Gizmodo.com and the last pic from TVInsider.com - I know which two stand out from the crowd as not fitting in to me - It's Amy Adams from Man of Steel and Kate Bosworth from Superman Returns and of that pair, Amy more so than Kate.
Anyway, back to the movie. The two Phantom Drives start pulling everything Kryptonian into themselves. Lois is not affected but Clark is, as the ship tries to suck him into the Phantom Zone. All the occupants of the rebel ship get sucked in there, presumably arriving separately to the ship which is being torn apart and into the portal. I assume that means they are dead.
Clark and Lois settle down into the destroyed section of Metropolis, which is huge. Something superhero movies normally neglect to show is the impact of these massive battles on the population. In this battle, you see people die as collateral damage. This isn’t one of those magical scenes where there is wholesale destruction and no fatalities. People die on the street, in cars, in buildings. There is a lot of death.
In a brief moment of peace, Superman and Lois kiss. She jokes that she has heard that relationships are all downhill after the first kiss. He replies that he’s pretty sure that’s only if you’re kissing a human. She kisses him again. Haha… It’s one of only a few jokes in the whole movie!
Zod appears on the battlefield. He looks defeated. He tells Clark they could have built a new Krypton, but Clark chose the humans over his own people. He says that he exists to protect Krypton’s people and everything he has ever done has been because of this. It kind of puts him into perspective – he is from a soldier class, bred for that purpose only, and since Clark has taken his people away, he has taken his soul away from him as well.
What follows is another massive CGI fight through the city. The battle causes a lot of destruction and would definitely have resulted in fatalities, as buildings are destroyed as they try to beat each other. Through the fight, Zod discovers his heat vision and goes from clawing up the sides of buildings to actually mastering his powers of flight – quicker than Clark did earlier in the movie.
Zod: I was bred to be a warrior, Kal. Trained my entire life to master my senses. Where did you train – on a farm?
The fight takes them into space, where they crash through a satellite and trade punches all the way back to the Earth. They crash back into a train station reminiscent of the Grand Central Terminal in New York. Clark gets Zod in a headlock. Zod starts using his heat vision to try to kill some bystanders, telling Clark he will never stop. Clark begs him to no avail. Left with little choice and with the heat vision inches from the bystanders, Clark uses his super-strength to snap Zod’s neck. He screams out with agony at the decision that he felt forced to make.
Now… I think I’m okay with it. There was little he could do at that point. Perhaps he could have flipped him away or powered them out of there. They could've shown more of a struggle for Clark to hold him or to not be able to move him... But… Zod was a bad dude who was not going to stop. This is in fitting with the tone of the movie and the DCEU (which only got darker from here) and the decision was treated as a hard one that Superman commits reluctantly. Zod was the superior fighter and they both had immense strength. It is believable that Clark could not move him at that point and that with a second to spare before people were killed, he made the only call he could. I’m on board. It’s okay. I wish they had've made it clearer that this was literally the only thing he could've done in the moment... but it's okay.
When I was younger, I dreamed that someone would take a Superman movie seriously. Well… they did… My God, they did. Barely a joke in the whole movie.
Wish granted.
And you know what. I don’t care. It’s what I wanted. It’s why I never liked other Superman movies much. I liked this movie.
Unfortunately, the series went downhill fast from here, at least for the next two films.
There are a couple of ending sequences after the battle. Firstly, Superman tries to convince the General (who’s been a bit unsure about him from the start) to convince the Powers That Be that Superman is here to help and needs to be allowed to operate under his own terms.
And how does Superman go about doing this convincing?
Firstly by smashing the General’s 12-million-dollar surveillance drone that was spying on him into the ground… Hmm… Somewhat counter-productive, perhaps?
Nope.
The General seems onboard anyway. A young female captain smiles at how Superman has talked to the General. When he questions her about why she’s smiling, she answers with, “I just think he’s kinda hot.” What… is that joke two for the movie?? Rushing them in now!!
(To be fair, there are a couple of light moments early on… but still… this is a dark, serious movie).
Next, Clark Kent goes home and shares a moment with Mum, wishing Pa Kent was there to see him. We get one more young Clark montage where Jonathan watches him playing super-hero as a kid… wearing a red cape attached to a white t-shirt...
Now… I have a problem with this. In the real world, why do children wear red capes to play heroes?
Because… of Superman!!! So, why is that kid wearing a red cape??? There is no Superman for him!! He becomes Superman… sigh… anyway, that’s the least of this movie’s problems, so I’ll let it slide…
Ma Kent asks him what he’ll do when he’s not saving the world and he replies:
Clark: I gotta to find a job where I can keep my ear to the ground… Where people won’t look twice when I want to go somewhere dangerous and start asking questions…
And so, he becomes a new reporter at the Daily Planet, in a montage of incognito scenes while he’s talking. We see glimpses of him in his adult Clark Kent guise for the first time, in snippets from behind or angled so we don’t fully see it. We see a shoulder and a tie in the breeze. He parks a bicycle outside a building and walks in. The Daily Planet globe is inside the lobby on the floor as he walks past it. He puts his fake glasses on as an elevator door closes.
Perry White introduces Clark to Steve Lombard and Lois Lane. Lois, of course, recognises him – because glasses are a stupid disguise when you know someone already – but she fakes not knowing him and welcomes him to “The Planet”. Ha. There’s joke three.
BUT why don’t any of the others recognise him? He was right in front of them in the final battle!!!
Sigh… maybe they didn’t get a clear look at him… Not yet, but they will later. Superman is a public figure. If he was like Batman, never stopping for TV interviews, then okay it would work, but it doesn’t for Superman. If Clark Kent and Superman were two very different characters, which the '70s-'80s Superman films and the 2006 Superman Returns film worked hard to make you believe, then okay… I’m not buying tickets here though. He still looks like himself in both roles.
And these people are supposed to be good reporters…
Anyway… that’s it. Lois welcomes him to The Planet and he says “I’m glad to be here, Lois.” They smile and we go to credits.
-Pic: From Empireonline.com
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Okay.
I think I’ve covered nearly everything. I had very mixed feelings about this movie as I watched it. Overall, I did love it. I loved most of the performances and, overall, I loved the story. It’s just the things I’ve mentioned along the way. I did not like the characterisation of Jonathan Kent or his stupid self-sacrifice that made no sense. I think the characters of Clark AND Superman were weakened in their resolve by being taught moral ambiguity by his father – something most other versions don’t have. I didn’t completely buy into Amy Adams as Lois, but I did like her, and I liked her involvement in the character-arcs – hers and Clarks. I just didn’t think she was what I would look for in a Lois Lane. Moving on.
The dark tone of the film and the following DCEU films really do set them apart from the Marvel films they are in competition with. The Marvel films have a lot of dark stuff in them, but each movie is a different genre – not the same kind of joyless darkness. Every movie has a lot of humour in it. Every main character is involved in some humorous scenes. Check me on that – I think I’m right.
Now, I want these comic characters and their movies to be taken seriously and made seriously – but that doesn’t mean it has to all be doom and gloom. I think that’s one of the key differences between the two shared universes, at the end of the day. It's also the difference between the DCEU and the Arrowverse or the other DC properties out there.
Anyway, all that being said, I did love it and I went to the theatres for the next movie, so keen!! I was a fan of the Superman/Batman comics. I have loved the dynamic between the two characters since I first looked at them together in the 1980s. And I loved Man of Steel (conditional love, but still love).
I walked into that next theatre with joy in my heart and hope in my soul…
… and was crushed by what came next…
Join me for The DCEU Discussion – Part IV - Episode 1: Twisted Plotlines in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
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Previous posts for this series:
NOTE: The pictures and videos used here have been sourced from different internet sites, always linked to under the picture. In the case of comic panels, the original issue numbers and creators are listed, as well as the company that owns them. All rights remain with the original creators and have been used here for entertainment and educational purposes only.
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